Insulin pump!!!

So we waited 6 months.... 6 months of 5 injections of insulin a day. Now we are down to 1 stick every 3 days. The insulin pump has been awesome! It definitely has its perks. We are still learning so much about it but so far we are doing great. Hannah has had it a week and already knows how to use it independently. The site changes have been a little challenging but each time gets a little better. I think Hannah feels a little more in control as well. She has something that SHE can use to help control her diabetes. She has taken the reins and we are so excited for her! The down side though is more supplies. Type 1 diabetes is not a cheap disease. Im sure if you were to add up the cost over 20 years and it has to be in the millions. More reason to support the JDRF and help them find a cure!!!!!

Hannah on the first day of getting her insulin pump

9/5/2014

First day of school!

So, the first day of second grade has come and gone. I was glad I had to work part of the day yesterday. If I hadn't, my nerves would have been shot. Overall, everything went great. Blood sugars stayed in range and she ended the day with a thumbs up. I was pleased. The nervousness I felt, however, I think was normal. Putting your trust completely in a stranger to make sure she knows when Hannah needs to see  the nurse is a lot of responsibility. I had to relinquish a lot of control but in the end it was okay and my baby came home safe. Here are a few pics from her first day

Trusting in others....a new school year

I dread the beginning of school every year but this year I have been more overwhelmed then usual.When Hannah was diagnosed back in February, we had amazing support from her 1st grade teacher. She got comfortable with Hannah and knew when there was something off with her. She was someone that I got very comfortable with as far as trusting her, but then again, she KNEW Hannah.  Fast forward to now... We are starting the school year with a new teacher, one who doesn't know Hannah's personality or when things may be "off." She isn't familiar with how we do things. Yes I know that she will learn and it will take time but I am putting my trust in a complete stranger that isn't familiar with my child or this disease. We had open house yesterday and I found myself to be very emotional. This year is very difficult for me and I have a lot of emotions going on. I know the school nurse will take great care of her, as always but I am very apprehensive. We met with her new teacher, the nurse and the principal to go over things. Its not the specific teacher that is the issue. I believe that any new teacher I would be feeling this fear, and I will relive this feeling every single new school year. I dread that. I am struggling with holding on but letting go just the right amount for Hannah. She is a very independent little girl but this is still new and we are learning. In the next 2 weeks Hannah will have a new class, new teacher, new schedule, and will transition from daily multiple injections to an insulin pump attached to her 24 hours a day. It will be a learning experience for us all. Please pray for us as we venture into new waters. I pray that I have the strength to make it through and trust in those caring for my precious gift.

end of summer

Sigh....... this is the part of summer i hate.. I hate sending Hannah back to school. I guess its bitter sweet. I absolutely LOVE my time with her home but we have absolutely no schedule, no routine, no consistency. Bedtime most evenings has been midnight and we sleep in until 10 or 11am. Its been lovely, but parts of me yearn for the routine that fall brings..... So much excitement brewing in our house as we await the arrival of Hannah's insulin pump. We are now down to just a few days and we should have it and the thought of no more injections is music to all our ears. We will be spending this last week of summer vacation prepping for the new school year and a little R&R at the beach. We will be ending summer with a bang!!!!

Summer fun!

So we are about halfway through summer vacation. School starts in just under a month... I hate sending Hannah back to school. We have so much fun and I love having her home, just spending quiet time with her.August is already upon us and there is a lot of excitement brewing in our house. in 10 days, we get to submit all our paperwork to the insurance company for Hannah's insulin pump! August 12 is the date and we are super thrilled! Hoping that the insurance company doesn't drag their feet on this. Reducing the amount of insulin injections Hannah gets daily will be a huge plus!
 We have done a lot of swimming this summer, visited with family, and had lots of play dates with friends. We have a month to get more fun in before the craziness begins, yet again. Heres to more summer fun!

End of the year

School is out for the summer. I officially have a 2nd grader!!! How did that happen? I think i missed it, but even though i didn't, it has arrived. Hannah is super excited summer vacation is here. We have lots of fun things planned. Relaxing, swimming, play dates with friends and a few short vacations and visits with family are planned. With the excitement of the end of the year also comes with some anxiety regarding changes for the next year. At the top of the list.. her new teacher for 2nd grade.. She has become trusting in her 1st grade teacher Mrs. Ford. She has been so wonderful and understanding with everything that has happened. I think its normal for Hannah(and us) to feel a bit nervous with new change. Will her new teacher understand her needs? Will she know the signs to look for? Will she care for Hannah the way we would? Her school nurse is still going to be there next year, which we are so grateful for. She has been an angel sent to us through all of this crazy change and we are so thankful we have her. Hannah will be going through so many changes just within the first few weeks of school. New year, new teacher, new schedule, new classroom rules, new friends, new INSULIN PUMP!!! new Continuous glucose monitor...... the list goes on. Somehow we will make it through this change as well just as we have in the past 5 months. Heres to a fun summer and making lots of new memories!!!!

Last day of 1st grade

Hannah and her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Ford

Great check up!

Yesterday was a great day at our routine endocrinology office. Hannah's A1C yet again went down. She was 16 to start in the hospital at diagnosis... 8.8 on march 31 and 6.4 yesterday! Love that number! We have a plan now to move forward with choosing an insulin pump for Hannah. July we will attend a pump class where we will sit down with the Nurse Practitioner and touch all the pumps, see them, see what they do, etc... we will then choose which one we think would work best for Hannah and then proceed with insurance. Our time frame for actually receiving it is mid August. Hannah is pretty excited! More to come later!

visit to the endocrinologist

Nurses week

There are certain people in our lives that make life just easier.... We are so thankful to have a school nurse at Hannah's school who puts our minds at ease and watches Hannah like a hawk. We have peace of mind each day that Hannah is not with us. Mrs. LaPolla calls us frequently and keeps us informed of anything abnormal that may be going on with Hannah. Without her, I would be a nervous wreck from 9am to 3:23pm monday through Friday. She is kind yet firm. She doesn't "baby" Hannah which has aided in Hannah's independence in taking some control in her diagnosis. Nurses week should be every week, but today in honor of the week, we salute Mrs. LaPolla for all she does and all she continues to do. We treated her to an entire container of chocolate covered strawberries and fresh pink roses that Hannah picked out just for her. A huge shout out to all the nurses, just for making a worried mom have a little peace of mind

Misconceptions

So in the past few months i have encountered a lot of people who have made comments to me about diabetes... After doing so much research and going off of what I know from this experience as well as my nursing experience, I have realized that our society is so consumed with type 2 diabetes diagnoses that type 1 falls under the radar. Most people I have spoken with assume its the same disease.. It is not the same. Not even close... So here are some misconceptions about type 1 diabetes that you may or may not have known.

1. Type 1 diabetics can't have sugar..... Actually they can. They just have to monitor their blood sugar closely. In Hannah's case, if her blood sugar is too high we just save the treat for a later time when it is more under control. Truth be told, type 1 diabetics can eat pretty much whatever they want. Either way, we give her enough insulin to cover the treat that she eats.

2. Type 1 diabetes is the same diabetes that your grandma has.... Wrong answer... They shouldn't even be called the same name.. Type 2 is caused by obesity, unhealthy lifestyle, diet. Type 1 diabetes is autoimmune, possibly holds a genetic factor , or it can be triggered by a virus that attacks the beta cells which produce insulin.The way you treat them is different. Hannah will never come off of insulin. It is her life line.

3. Taking insulin cures diabetes... Unfortunately, there is no cure for type 1 diabetes. Insulin keeps Hannah alive. We will fight everyday for a cure.

People mean well. Truly, I know they do but after awhile it does make me angry to a point. I have been trying to remind myself of this but it is something i need to work on. Numerous people have said "oh i have diabetes I know exactly how Hannah feels."  Truth be told , no they don't, unless they are a type 1 diabetic. I try to use these situations as a teaching tool, maybe that is the nurse in me.. A woman at Wegmans was talking to me about it. I had a package of small containers of ice creams that kids buy at school. They are maybe 1/2 cup and are about 12 carbs each, small enough to not really affect Hannah s blood sugar. The woman said to me "oh they don't have sugar in them?". Again, total misconception. Its an epidemic that our society is so populated with type 2 diabetics..I see it all the time with patients. Its very sad. A good portion of them don't care and don't take care of themselves.. Now that I am on the other side of the fence as a parent with type 1, I want to just shake people. Its a horrible disease to have. I would trade places with my child in a heartbeat just to take away her fear, anger and pain.

we can eat anywhere.....

I love when Hannah is on break from school. We do special things together and I realize how much I really miss her when she is at school. This morning we went to Mcdonalds for breakfast. This is an extremely rare treat for us. Even before diabetes, Hannah may have eaten there maybe 5 times in her entire life. As with everything, planning is involved. We researched the carb counts for everything. She had a fruit and yogurt parfait and a hash brown with chocolate milk.  With humalog in tow, we ventured off.

Counting carbs for lunch

Mistakes will be made.....

So this morning started out as a normal morning.... Hannah woke up happy as can be, although not quite amused that the tooth fairy only left her $5.... say what?? I only got a quarter as a kid. I guess last week when the tooth fairy "forgot" to come, she had to make it up the following day with Target dollar store goodies... (note to self...no money only target dollar bin merchandise for future teeth lost)... so I go to the kitchen to start making her lunch for school and Martin makes her breakfast. I go to calculate her carbs and insulin needed for her correction factor and...... OMG we forgot to check her blood sugar before breakfast.. Great... Lesson learned.. we will not be perfect in this journey.We will make mistakes

A Day in the life of a type 1 diabetic

To get an idea of our daily schedule.... here it is (this is a "normal" day)

730 am-Hannah wakes up for school and we check her blood sugar
745 am-Hannah eats her breakfast after counting every gram of carbohydrates in her meal
8:00 am-Hannah gets her insulin dose
9:00 school starts

while at school she gets her blood sugar checked at 11:45am before lunch. Eats her lunch, then back to the nurses office to calculate her carbs and gets her insulin.
She gets her blood sugar checked every day before and after gym class and before dismissal at the end of the day

3:30pm- Blood sugar checked when she gets home from school. Hannah has a 15 Gram carbohydrate snack
5:00pm blood sugar checked
515 pm eats dinner, calculating carbs
545 Insulin yet again
730pm check blood sugar
745 pm 15 Gram carb snack before bed

830pm bedtime insulin injection

2am-blood sugar checked, often she is low so we are up for 2 hours some nights trying to get her blood sugar to come up.. lots of juice boxes and cheese sticks in our refridgerator


*one day last week i got a call from the school nurse, Hannah's blood sugar was 42. Very scary for me.. I thank God everyday she has the nurse she has at school. She takes excellent care of Hannah

Here is a picture of our medication/diabetes supplies drawer

The day reality hit

Its been 55 days since Hannah was diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes. February 12, 2014 was the day our world turned upside down (or so it seemed) and what we knew as "normal" was no longer that.  It was a very scary time seeing my beautiful precious child so sick and laying in a hospital bed. That is the last place any parent wants to see their child. I felt helpless and all I wanted to do was to take away her pain and fear. Since that day there have been a lot of ups and downs. A lot of friends and family have asked how Hannah is doing. Each time is a different answer. Some days are better than others, sometimes it is dependent on each hour. She has adjusted incredibly well, but she is only 7 and still has lots of moments where she is scared. Shes just a little girl who never asked for this. Quite honestly, it makes me angry that she developed this. As a nurse I know that there was nothing we could have done to prevent her getting diabetes. As a mom, I try to reason with myself as to how we could have prevented it. It just happened. Somehow she inherited a gene that gave her the disposition to get this. Regardless, it still makes me mad. I have moments when I am alone where i just cry. I cry because my baby has to endure pain at a minimum of 4 times a day in order to get her insulin... insulin that keeps her alive. Add finger sticks to that number and its a minimum of 10-15 times a day she has to get stuck. About a week ago, it was time for her bedtime injection. She just started to cry. I put down the insulin pen and just held her and we both cried together. She said to me "you just don't understand what its like to have 4 shots a day.". No, i do not know what its like. I think the hardest part of this whole thing is the emotional part. I have dealt with a lot of ignorance over the past few weeks regarding type 1 diabetes.. A lot of people think its type 2.. Its not.. She didn't get this from eating too much fat and sugar.. she didn't get this because she is overweight. Her little body just stopped making insulin. People say to me "oh she can eat sugar?" Yes she can eat sugar, in fact she can eat anything she ate before. I have just come to the understanding that I, and she, will be dealing with this ignorance for the rest of her life. We can't just leave the house like we used to. We have to carry a snack kit, emergency glucagon kit, Blood sugar meter and insulin. We have to time meals in accordance with her insulin. We can't just leave Hannah with anyone. I can't take her to a play date and leave her and she can't ride home with a friend after school. Most people do not know how to care for a child with type 1 diabetes.  With all that being said.... Today is a good day, so far. 3:00 may be a different story but in our house we take it one hour at a time. 

night in the E.D  2/12/2014 Blood sugar 492

Feeling much better 2/14/2014

Going home 2/14/2014

Back to school.smiling once again