The week from Hell

Last week was a rough one. I should have known since I had 3 doctors appointments scheduled for the kids in one week.

Monday wasn't bad.

Tuesday started off good. Then when Izzy got home from school it was time to do a pod change. Usually these aren't too big of a deal. We are trying to convince her to wear the pod on her tummy or hip more often since those sites seem to work for a longer period then the arms that she favors. Today however she did not want to do a pod change. I got the pod started and was about to put it on her when she decided that she did not want to wear the pod anymore. Usually all I have to do when she doesn't want to put a new pod on is remind her that if she doesn't wear the pod she will have to go back to having 4-6 shots a day. Usually when I tell her this she relents and we put the pod on and go about our business. This time she said that she wanted the shots. I thought that if she had one shot that she would want to go back to the pod so I went ahead and gave her an injection since her blood sugar was on the high side. The little booger said "That didn't hurt at all. I want to do shots instead of putting on the pod." I was flabbergasted. I didn't know what to do.

First I called Omni Pod to find out how long I had with the active pod before it wouldn't work anymore. They said 59 minutes. Lovely. I had less then an hour to change her mind. I then called the endo because I had no idea how to decide how much Lantus to give her to cover her for the day. In my mind I was thinking that if we did the shots for a whole day and she had to go without eating whenever she wanted to like she used to then she would be willing to go back on the pod. It was after hours so it took a while for the doc to call me back. When she called me back I had to give her the info about Izzy's basal rates which were in the PDM. I couldn't look at them unless I acted as if I were putting the pod on and inserting it. So I had to blow another pod. Lovely. While I was on the phone with the doctor my hubby walked in. After her figured out what was going on he told Isabelle that she was going to put the pod on because we were not going back to shots. So, she changed her mind and let me put her new pod on. Great. I was emotionally spent for the night.

Just the thought of having to go back to shots and figuring out insulin to carb ratios by hand and writing everything down every second it was happening just made my head explode. I'm so glad we didn't have to do that.

Wednesday morning both kids had dental appointments at 8:00am. Lovely. We were there on time. I still don't know how. I also don't know how it took them almost 2 hours to get us out of the office. That night Alex threw up in the bathtub after I already had everyone bathed and shampooed. Great. I spent the night scrubbing the bathroom.

Thursday Alex didn't want to go to school. I took him anyway. I really thought that the aforementioned bathtub incident was because he had accidentally sucked down too much water and threw up after coughing too hard. It wasn't until Friday that I realized he was really sick.

Thursday afternoon Izzy had her 5 year old check up. She is doing really well. The doctor was very pleased with her growth for the year. The only thing that sucked is that her appointment was at 3:45. We got there early. 3:20. I don't think I have ever been that early to a kids doctors appointment. We left the office at around 5:30. Yes, that's right. Over two hours sitting in the doctors office. Never again. I knew I always took morning appointments for a reason. We left the doctors office and I realized that we had a little less then an hour before we had to leave to go to our class at the church. So somehow I had to get home, feed to children, bathe two children, pack snacks for two children, feed me and Thomas, and leave the house by 6:30 so that we wouldn't be late. Hello McDonald's! We barely made it. Hectic, hectic, hectic. By the time we got home that night around 9:45 everyone fell in to bed.

Friday. My birthday. I woke up around 4AM feeling horrible. Not long after that I was in the bathroom with the stomach flu. The whole nine yards. What a way to spend my birthday. I couldn't even get Izzy to school. I knew I wouldn't make it there and back without needing a bathroom. So I spent the day at home, alternating between the bathroom and the couch and letting the kids do whatever they wanted as long as it didn't mean climbing on Mommy or really coming anywhere near me. They were actually angels. I can't believe how good they were.

Saturday I spent most of the day resting and trying to recuperate. By Sunday I was feeling a lot better then I was on Friday, but I am still really worn out and tired. Monday morning Thomas woke up with it. Lovely. Wish me luck that Izzy doesn't get it. Alex still has diarrhea from it.

Some nights...

Pod changes really suck. Started off with the pod change and Izzy was at a really nice 135. We changed the pod, bolused to get a little bit of insulin going and went off outside to play.

About and hour or so later we came in to get some dinner. I checked her blood sugar and she was around 230. Not bad for a pod change night. There have been many times that she has ended up in the 400's on pod change night. I was feeling pretty good about the night. Usually Isabelle ends up staying up late on pod change nights because her numbers are so high and it takes soooo long for them to come down. I guess that was my downfall.

The night was moving along and I was about to move the kids upstairs to bath and then bed when Izzy wanted dessert. After negotiations we landed on a pop-tart. These usually suck because they really spike her bloodsugar, but since her numbers were so good...I gave it to her. About 3 bites into the darn thing I gave her the bolus to cover the pop-tart (37 grams of carbs for just one...not one package!!!!) and the pod starts alarming. Dag-um!!!! I wanted to grab the pop-tart and banish it to the garbage can, but I didn't. I quickly got a new pod started and put on, the old pod taken off and re-bolused her for the pop-tart.

After her bath and her story I checked her blood sugar while holding my breath. 208! Holy crap!!! That's great! It was just a little over an hour since her last bolus so not bad at all. Of course within an hour she was calling to me telling me that she was low, she was actually right around 150. Not too bad.

We really are going through a ton of pods lately though. It seems that at almost every pod change something happens and we have to start a second one. Thank God we got her prescription changed to 1 pod every 2 days instead of 1 every 3 days. Hopefully that will give us some wiggle room.

Bryan Adams Fever

For Christmas I got the best Christmas present ever from my hubby. Now, I have to say usually he is not that great at the gift giving thing as most men are. This time he hit it out of the park.

He got me two tickets to go see Bryan Adams in concert!!!!! I was very excited. I can't believe that he actually remembered me telling him that I wanted to go. And really I can't believe that we actually got to go without major drama. My friend, actually more like my sister, Lori came over and learned how to take care of Isabelle and kept them both. She actually had them both in bed when we got home. That is a huge accomplishment. :)

The concert was absolutely FABULOUS!!!! We were in the first row of the balcony so we had really great views, but I couldn't really see Bryan's face. The entire show was basically just him. He had another guy come and play piano on a few songs, but other then that it was Bryan, his guitar and his harmonica. It was the best concert that I have ever been to. I've been to two other Bryan Adams concerts (maybe three...my memory fails me) and a couple of other concerts thrown in. This was the most powerful concert I have ever seen. I sat there with my mouth hanging open almost all of the time. Bryan talked to the audience during the show and it really felt like we were hanging out with Bryan Adams. It was so AWESOME!!!!! I don't know what else to say about it other then if you get the chance, go and see the show. I found this on You Tube and can't quite get the video to embed. Maybe I'll get it worked out, but if I don't just follow the link to check out a video from this tour so that you can get a feel for it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJwXjNbbyME


Of course as soon as Isabelle found out that I was going somewhere fun that she was not getting to go she started begging to go. Since the concert every time we get in the car she demands that I put Bryan Adams on the stereo. She keeps saying that I am his number 1 fan and she is his number 2 fan. Too cute.

My Baby is 5!

I can 't believe it. On Christmas Eve my sweet little girl turned 5!!!!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Merry Christmas!

Yeah...I know. I'm late. What's new? Haha! I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday whatever you celebrate.

We had a really great Christmas. My Mom and Dad, my sister-in-law Teresa, my niece and nephew Garrett & Logan, my Father and Mother in-law and my little brother Jason were all here for Christmas morning. I am so blessed that my family and my in-law family all get along. My children get the benefit of sharing the holiday with both of their sets of grandparents with the exception of Thomas' mother who lives in Virginia.

It is wonderful.

I have lots to blog about...sorry I have been out of the loop so to speak for so long but I am hoping to catch up on my blog reading and writing. I have lots of ideas for blog posts and some things that I have been meaning to post about but just haven't gotten the chance to do it yet. What can I say...life has been very hectic. And it has been getting to me. Stay posted. Pretty soon things will be posted. :)

Princesses DO Wear Glasses!!!!!

and Patches too.

We visited the eye doctor in August and Isabelle's lazy eye has gotten stronger, but the other eye has gotten weaker. So now we have to patch. We are patching for 2 hours a day. When the doctor told us that she would have to wear a patch she got very excited. She wanted me to put her patch on right then. When we got home and I got the chance to put her patch on she realized quickly that she did NOT like it. It has been like pulling teeth every single day since then to get her to wear the patch. She has been doing better with her glasses though.




After our appointment last April I bought her new glasses because her prescription had become much stronger. I let her pick out her new glasses and of course she picked out a pink pair. They look adorable and she really likes them.





On another note...to all of the parents out there that found this blog looking for something to help their little princesses become more at ease with their glasses there is hope!





A while back I was contacted by Pam Calvert. She is an author that has written a book called "Princess Peepers" and it is about a little princess that wears glasses. It was due out on September 1. I haven't gotten a chance to see the book yet. I should have gone over to Border's today to check it out. It seems to be on sale at Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and Amazon (according to my online search). I can't wait to get my hands on it and read it with Isabelle.



Pam was kind enough to allow me to post a link to her website and the website for the book. She also sent along some pictures from the book and of her own little princess reading it. Enjoy!!!


This first picture is of Pam (the author) and her little Princess!

First Day of School

She wasn't excited at all. Can you tell?

Isabelle started her first day of Pre-K on Monday. She is at a new school. It was a really hard decision for Thomas and I to make. We had to decide weather to send her back to our Church Pre-school program for a 4 day, half day program or to send her to a lottery funded 5 day all day pre-k. We decided to go with the lottery funded pre-k for a few different reasons.

When we were getting close to pre-k I started to get excited because where I am from all of the lottery funded pre-k programs are run through the school system. Or at least they were when my nephew went though the program about 9 years ago. To me that meant that there was a possibility of a school nurse being there and that made me feel a little more comfortable. As I started the process of researching the pre-k programs in our area I found out that they are all in day care centers. I couldn't believe it. After calling the 2 centers closest to our house I found out that one of them had experience with Type 1. My goal was to get her into that program. Long story short, she ended up on their waiting list. I was bummed. I went ahead and secured her a position in our church pre-school that she has been in since she was 2.

Then when the kids were at my Mom's at the end of May I was driving past a lottery funded pre-k program that had a sign out front that said that they were enrolling. Not to mention that just under that sign they were advertising that they were NAEYC Accredited. I went in and looked around and talked to the Director and the Owner and signed her up. That is where she is now.

I went in the week before school started to meet with her teacher and her assistant teacher and to train everyone on what they would need to do to take care of Isabelle. This is the first time I have had to 'train' anyone on how to give Isabelle insulin and how to use our pump.

The meeting went well, but I could sense some apprehension. But I had to keep remembering that ANYONE would feel apprehension when they were learning how to take care of a child with d. God knows I did. They asked me to come to school with her the first day so that I would be there to work everything out. I agreed to do that but also warned them that I might have to bring Alex with me as babysitters are few and far between. Oh yeah...the director made a comment during the meeting that she didn't think that licensing would allow them to give insulin. I said that they would have to. The one thing that makes the whole situation more difficult is that they feed the children while they are there. Two snacks and lunch.

The first day went pretty well. One of my mommy friends B. kept Alex for me for the entire day. Thank you B!!! That definitely made things easier. I went in with her and we got started. Isabelle liked her new friends. I went and met with the women who prepares the food. I took the menu (they actually gave it to me when I signed her up) and we went over it together. I figured out carb counts as closely as I could and copied it for everyone. I walked her teachers through checking her finger and giving her boluses that day. Everything seemed to be working out OK, but when we came in from playing outside before lunch they missed Isabelle saying that she was very tired and hungry. That is Izzy speak for I am LOW. I had told them this verbally and in writing at our meeting. I told them that they needed to go ahead and check her now instead of waiting the 10 minutes until lunch. They did and she was low. We treated her and everything was fine. It did bug me that they didn't notice her feeling tired and hungry.

After that first day I told Isabelle that she would have to make sure that if she felt bad at all that she needed to take one of her teachers by the hand and tell them that she was not feeling well so that they could check her finger. She said that she would, but who wants to give a 4 year old that kind of responsibility? One of the things that I hate the most about D is that it makes my little girl grow up more quickly in ways that I don't want her to.

The second day was really her first day without Mommy. It went great!!! Ms. R. and I have quickly developed a system of her calling me whenever she checks Isabelle. That way I can help her decided how much insulin to give her and she gets confirmation on what she is doing so that she doesn't mess anything up (her words not mine).

Izzy has been in school for 4 days now and it is going really great! The teachers have had to handle a couple of lows and they did really great. I feel much more relaxed then I have in I don't even remember how long. I have spent my days with Alex which I think has helped me feel more relaxed because I feel that he is finally getting some of the mommy time that he has not been able to have because of Izzy having D. When she was in the church pre-school she was only there 3 days a week and only there 4 hours out of the day. We had so many problems last year that we ended up spending a LOT of time at the school so he really didn't get much time with me. That has all changed.

Now that I am a bit more relaxed maybe I will be able to get back to blogging on a semi-regular basis.