Saturday, July 2, 2011

Oh the things you will learn..

Nablopomo - Day2

Oh the things you will learn when you have a child with Type 1 Diabetes. Things you never dreamed of knowing or wanting to know.  It can kinda be like swimming. The more you practice the better you get at it.  If you don't swim for a while you have to get back into the groove of things. But eventually it becomes second nature.  That is how Type 1 is.

I have learned a lot in the 2 years since Lovebug was diagnosed.  It took me 2 years to start to feel really comfortable with  Type 1 and feeling like I could really handle all the ups and downs that this disease throws at you.  Then of course, Princess was diagnosed and now I feel like I am starting from scratch all over again.

It's not because I don't know how to do this, it's because every child is different.  Lovebug's body reacts so much different to certain situations then Princess does. EVERYTHING makes Lovebug's blood sugar drop; excitement, stress, parties, crowds, getting upset, crying; I could go on and on here.  Then there is Princess, anything and everything makes her go high and keeps her there.  I used to think the lows were much more frustrating then the highs, but I am started to second guess that!  Staying high and not being able to get her back down into range is almost as frustrating!!

Carbs, carbs are a BIG one with the girls.  Lovebug's blood sugar will SKYROCKET with just a few carbs. We don't do the typical 15/15 fix for lows with her. We do the um 8-10/20 fix.  I can't give her 15 carbs, it will bump her blood sugar up 50 points or more if I do! The only time I can use juice is at night when she is sleeping and I that will even take her blood sugar high. I have learned to deal with it, it's just the way it is.  But with Princess 15 carbs raises her blood sugar 15 points.  She is pretty simple when it comes to that, but we haven't had to fix very many lows either.  This could change, you just never know with Type 1.

Yes, and then there are the differences between the pumps.  Which I am okay with because of how different the girls are. I find myself wishing that one pump had the other feature for the other kid.  Oh would a square bolus work GREAT on Lovebug, but Lovebug only has a Combo Bolus on her pump (like a dual wave on the Revel)  I have (though my tinkering)  figured out how to pull off a square bolus on the Ping. (I'll save that for another blog post) Having experience with two different pumps is really expanding my knowledge.  It's actually fascinating at times to see how the different pumps work and what each of them do.  Now, really I wish that I didn't know anything about the Revel, but I do. It is what it is.  It's one of those things that happens when you have two children with Type 1.

Needless to say, some of what I have learned from the past couple years is helpful but in a lot of ways it's not.  Type 1 just doesn't play fair!  I know life isn't fair, but seriously I really didn't need to throw Type 1 into the mix with it.

4 comments:

Lora said...

EVERYTHING causes Justin to go low too. I don't think I will ever get the logic of D. If there is such thing.

I can't wait to hear how you "sqared it up" with the Ping :)

Amy said...

Hindsight is wonderful, but D doesn't play by that rule so you can never look at what worked in the past to determine what to do to duplicate the results. So frustrating!!!!!

Add that to the fact you have 2 T1D kiddos and you might as well throw a dart blindfolded and hope to hit the target.

You amaze me, Heather, for what you DO ended figuring out!

Alexis Nicole said...

Great post! Amazing how different kids are.

Ok so I know what a combo is on the Ping and Extended on the spirit but what's a square?

Misty said...

It is really something to note. Kids are different. Things affect each one a little bit differently.

I so admire you for taking on a new pump. I can only imagine that it is hard enough to manage two different children, with different needs. And then to take on two different pumps...you ROCK! I think in a year you will be able to design the perfect pump with all the right features!! Hope someone will listen ;)

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