Children with Diabetes and Halloween

So our first Halloween with this disease is approaching. Isabelle started getting really excited about Halloween last year so this year she has been counting down the days. I don't know if it really is the candy or just being out after dark with Mom and Dad all dressed up in a costume, but she is excited.

All of that candy gives us another problem. How do I get rid of all of that candy without huge fits and without adding another 5 or 10 lbs to my butt and hips? Thomas can only take so much candy to the office. I was surfing around in the d-world and I found the d-bloggers on d-life. I found a link to a newspaper article about a department store in Pennsylvania (I think) that takes candy from children with diabetes and gives them a free toy in exchange. How cool is that!!!!! http://www.republicanherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18934521&BRD=2626&PAG=461&dept_id=532624&rfi=6

Now I ask you...why can't every department store in this wonderful land of ours do this? How much money can it really cost them? I can only imagine the good press they would get out of this. Does anyone who reads this blog know of any other places that do this? I am working on writing Toys-R-Us, K-Bee Toys, Wal-Mart, Target, and K-Mart about starting this kind of campaign. Even if it is only a $5.00 toy wouldn't that be great? I haven't had any time to research this on the web to see if there are more programs out there, but I hope to get that done in the next few days. Maybe next Halloween will be different for a lot of boys and girls with d.

Yet another Izzyism

Izzy came into my room the other day when she was supposed to be napping. She had one arm pulled into her shirt and she said, "Mommy...My arm is gone!!! Help me find it!!!"

I almost laughed myself silly. Hehehehe.

Feeling a little out of control

Lately things have been so crazy. I know...half of my posts say that. I'm trying to get better about posting the good things instead of just using this blog to gripe. But it seems to me that as Izzy's bs's get crazy I get crazy. I just constantly feel like everything is out of control. The house is crazy...I can't seem to get it straighten out. Izzy's behaviour has been nuts lately, but then again I know I would be really mean if my bs's were that nuts. Alex has even gotten into the act. He has suddenly hit the beginning of the terrible twos. He is pulling everything out of drawers, the pantry, laundry baskets...pretty much anywhere he can get his hands. He is also moving the rugs that are in the kitchen all over the place not to mention throwing things over the railings from the second floor.

Lovely.

Wonder if I'll be bald

by the time my kids are off on their own? LOL! Isabelle's numbers have been extremely crazy lately. They have been seriously out of control for over two weeks now. I keep faxing the endo and we keep trying new things. They work for like a minute and then BLAM!!!! Crazy again. It makes me feel like pulling out my hair.

I looked back over her stats for the last week and we have numbers ranging from 24 (yeah...you read that right...24!!!!) to 450. I am completely exhausted trying to figure out what is going on. I know that she has a cold and has had one for a little over a week. I sent her to school today because she has been feeling better and got a call around 11:00 saying that they tested her because she was acting weird and she was 301. I went and got her and called the peds on the way. I got her an appointment for the afternoon and when we went in they said that yeah they can tell that she has a cold but it doesn't look that bad. But, her numbers should not be that crazy just from a little cold so we have to put her on meds in the hopes of getting her better quickly and getting her blood sugars back in control. So, here we go again. I do have to say that it has been around a month since we have had to make a visit to the peds. Yeah for me.

The timing is really off for this illness. Izzy has an endo appointment for this Friday. Since her numbers have been so crazy the last couple of weeks I bet her A1C is going to be way worse then the last time. Maybe it won't be so bad.

Oh yeah... the 24. Yesterday she went to school. I went in as usual at lunch time and she was in the 200's ( can't remember exactly and am too lazy as I write this to get up and look at the log) so I did a correction for the high and gave her the right amount of insulin for the lunch. After we came home we layed down for a nap and Izzy woke me up saying that she felt low. I checked her and my heart lept into my throat as it does every time I hear the monitor do that special low beep. I looked at it and almost fell over. It did come up fairly easily though. A half hour later she was at 180. I just have to feel for her though...I can not imagine how I would feel if I were the one that had to deal with that change in blood sugars.

She has been really crazy behaviour wise lately. She has been defiant and mean and of course I am the one that she takes it out on most of the time because I am the one that is around her the most. She is usually pretty good at school...or at least that is the story that I get from her teachers. But when she gets home...man! She is talking back and yelling and pushing her little brother. I don't know what to do with her. I am sort of pulled in two about how much to discipline her. I know that she has to learn how to control her emotions and her temper no matter what her blood sugar is, but I also think that it has got to be really hard to do that when you are going from 24 to 300 in a little over and hour. Right now I am just trying to keep her in check without freaking out too much until she is a little more in control.

Small Successes

Sometimes you really do have to start small. As most of you that read this blog with any regularity know, Isabelle has not been sleeping. Like for months. Which means I haven't been sleeping because who better to be your middle of the night buddy then your mommy? Well, we have been trying lots of things to get her to sleep. She keeps saying that she is scared so we have been talking a lot about why she is scared and how to be brave and that God is always watching over us and keeping us safe. Last night she only got up once!!! And she went right back to sleep after I tucked her back in. It was really great.

I think I actually logged 6 hours straight without being woken up. It has done wonders for my mood. Who knows...I might actually turn back into the mommy who doesn't yell about everything. ;)

Crazy house

I haven't been on much lately. Thanks have been crazy here.

Izzy has been doing pretty well lately diabetes wise. She is enjoying school and her new teachers and friends. Her blood sugars are doing pretty well too. Mostly in line with a couple of lows in the 60's and 70's so not too bad. Then all of a sudden she skyrocketed. Two nights in a row. Tuesday and Wednesday nights were not great. She then woke up Thursday and said that she didn't feel well. I asked her what was wrong and if she felt low. She said she wasn't low, she just didn't feel well. I was having a hard time waking up so I told her to hold on a minute while I woke up and she fell asleep. She never falls asleep like that so I knew something was wrong. When she woke up, she said she didn't feel like going to school.

We all had a really great morning. The kids played really well together after breakfast and then we had to go to the mall to get Alex's portraits done. That was lots of fun. Apparently my super friendly 18 month old little guy did not want to have his picture taken. But, with a good photographer we got some really great pictures all while Isabelle was playing all over the place and not acting like she was sick at all. I was thinking that I should have went ahead and sent her to school.

After portraits I took her in to the peds and she has a sinus infection. Lovely.

Before I could even get her prescription filled poor Alex was whining in the back seat so I thought I should just take him home and put him down for his nap. We didn't get Izzy's prescription filled because by the time Alex woke up from his nap it was about 5:00 and it was raining so we just stayed home.

Later that night Alex started crying and just didn't stop. He cred for about 2 hours and then finally fell asleep until about 5:00am. He woke up screaming again. I went back in and he had a really runny, poopy diaper. I changed him and the poor kid was asleep before I even got finished.

I knew sometime in the middle of the night that I was going to have to take him to the doctors. So off to the peds we go. We saw the same dr as the day before. She was surprised to see us. Alex has an ear infection. We stopped at the grocery store where we get our prescriptions filled and I got some groceries while we waited for our prescriptions. Alex was miserable before we were even done. I took the kids home and gave Alex his meds plus some Tylenol and some ear drops for pain and put him to bed. He was out immediately. But, only for about 40 minutes. Then he woke up and screamed for over 2 hours.

I noticed about and hour and a half into the screaming that he had a rash all over his legs and arms so I grab the medication leaflet and of course rash is on the list of side effects/allergic reactions. I called the peds and they wanted us to come back in at the end of the day. Shortly after Alex threw up and of course he wouldn't take anything to drink. He finally fell asleep and I had to wake him up about 15 minutes later to get in the car and go to the peds. By that time his rash was completely gone. They took a look at him, but because they couldn't see the rash they couldn't tell if it was an allergic reaction or not. The dr told me to go ahead and give him his next dose in the morning and if he had the same reaction then fill the new prescription that she gave me.

I have to say the whole time we were at home before going to the peds for the second time I was freaking out. Alex rarely ever cries. And for him to cry that long and that badly it was not good. If I had anyone to take care of Isabelle I probably would have just taken him to the emergency room. The poor kid was just miserable. I'm sure that I freaked Thomas out, he called as we were about to leave for the peds and I almost started crying on the phone with him. I hate being the Mom when you don't know what to do. It sucks. Izzy was freaking out too. She isn't used to hearing Alex cry and it is a little nerve wracking on a good day. At one point I laid him down on the couch so that I could talk to the doctors office and she walked over to him and said, "Quit crying!!!". I of course told her that he can't help it that he is very sick and is miserable. She then said "I'm freakin!" I had to ask her what she said. She repeated it and I had to laugh. I know that I had to have said that I was freaking out while I was on the phone with the doctors office. She hears everything.

The whole time we were at the peds Alex is just laying on me. That is not normal Alex behaviour. I brought him home and he was still whining and crying and just miserable. We gave him some Benedryl and some Motrin and he finally fell asleep. The poor kid slept until 7:15 this morning. I was so worried about him! I actually got up about 3 times last night and checked in on him.

Thomas and I talked about it and there was no way we were going to give him that medicine again. The ped thinks it might have been some sort of stomach virus that was causing all of the crying and the rash/hives so they wanted us to give it to him again to see if he had the same reaction. I just went this morning and filled the new prescription instead.

Alex woke up this morning acting really great. He has been a little clingy today, but he is drinking a lot (thank God!...all he had yesterday was like 1 cup of juice) and he had a little bit of an appetite. He had a pretty good day, but he did have a really hard time going to bed tonight. I think he just wanted Mommy to hold him and cuddle him and so did Izzy. It's hard to be in two places at once so it was a tough couple of hours trying to get them both to sleep. But, everyone is quiet now so I'm off to bed. Wish me luck...I am hoping that everyone sleeps through the night.

Sort of a re-cap. I think I broke my own record...three visits to the doctors in 2 days!!!! Geez.

Sentences

Sentences...they are so underrated.

Alex said his first sentence today!!! I was helping Izzy finish a visit to the potty and Alex walked in and said, "I want to go potty too." I looked up at him because I couldn't believe that I had heard what I heard. So I asked him, "What??" And he said again just as plain as day, "I want to go potty too." I almost fell over! I asked him "You want to go potty too?" and he shook his head yes. He sat on the potty and didn't do anything, but he was very proud of himself. :) So was Mommy. And I had to get Thomas to come in with the video camera and video the whole thing. He was too cute!!!

I can't believe that he is speaking so well at just 18 months! What can I say...both of my kids are talkers. Poor Thomas...he is surrounded. :)