Type 1 diabetes

Good Morning Stephanie,

The path you are on, is one we all share… in some way or other. It is one, we would gladly relieve you of, if we were able. There is nothing more precious than the innocence and enegry of a child. The disease we share with you and her… is a horrible burden. One which YOU must remember is merely ONE SMALL PART… of who she is and what she will become. True she is a diabetic… but she is also a cutie-pie, a mathmatecian, someday a mommy person perhaps, and a thousand other things too all at the same time! Diabetes is an important part of who Maddie is, but surely it is not all.

This disease is like a sleepy dragon of fairytales read long ago. It is a dangerous beast, sleeping soundly… and when it awakens from its quiet slumber, it will seek ~flight~ from its cave and will try and destroy all that it is able like those storybook dragons… it has many methods. It must be respected at all costs. When we forget to respect it… “forget” this or that, it will “teach us” in a manner making Hiroshima look like a small flame.

Ominous isn’t it?

Remember to laugh at it as well. Forget this and diabetes can teach you dispair. There are lots of us here (Everybody wave) who have been and ARE where you are now. Take hope that, even though we are all strangers to you and in many ways to each other… as the phrase goes “… we have your back…”
We share the ~secret handshake~which makes us unique (holding up scarred fingertips from the daily tests). This makes us “blood” and closer to her in some ways than you, her mother. You will care for her, as her mother. In time, she will learn to care for herself… Between then and now, share with us your journey… and we’ll try and share our laughter and our arms.

Hold tight dear lady… and smile (Who knows it might become a habit <wg

Jeff (diagnosed pretty close to the age your daughter is now, a loooong time ago (: ?)

My 10 year old stepdaughter was diagonised 3 1/2 years ago. At the
time, she was living in PA with her mother. This past summer, she
came to Kansas to visit her dad, and her parents decided for her to
stay in with her dad and I. With the change in Dr’s, she has, since
August, learned to do her own shots, and started counting carbs.
The Dr in PA said she was too young at 7 1/2 to do that. I’ve
gotten her blood sugar down from the 400+ range to under 200 75-80%
of the time. Is there any way to get this completly under control,
or is her body too used to being out of control?
Vicky

Hi to all,
My 5 year old daughter was diagnosed on 10/28 with Juvenile
diabetes. I took her to the pediatrican that afternoon for a sore
throat, which I could have easily pushed off until after Halloween.
I mentioned how thirsty she had been lately, the next thing I knew
she was peeing in a cup, and we were on our way to the pediatric ICU
for DKA. We spent 5 days in the hospital.
She is handling it much better than I am at this point. She’s
starting to show some good numbers, and handles the “pokes” like a
champ. I hate it, I absolutely hate this disease. But I am so proud
of the way she’s handling it.
It is just Maddie and I. I’m a single working mom. I’m looking for
tons of information as I have new questions everyday, and not enough
answers. I’m looking for meal planning ideas (as five year olds tend
to be on the fussy side), information on lower cost supplies.
(more…)

Good Morning Kate,

I’m sorry you’re not into the spirit of ~my mischief~ but there’s only sooo much darkness one can take, no? I’m still playing with different types and kinds of rhymes that would fit perfectly into a Diabetic Dr. Seuss book : )… (STILL think its a good idea…). I know folks in this group can play well…

Steve thank you that was a good poem!!!! Pull the word MY out of line 5 and the rhyming is even better ; )

That’s the spirit…. come on folks… more, more!!!!

Jeff

I finished!!!! Yay. It was 3.5 miles. There were times when I thought
I was gonna stop but I didn’t I kept going! fter I finished they had
a free massage thing which you had to fill out this stress survey and
then you got the massage. I thought that would feel good but I was
wrong about that becasue it hurt. Probably b/c my back hurts all time
time from being rear ended last year. But I thought I see !!!

Hello Kate, Brian…

Glad I could share a giggle. They are too few and far between with this ugly beast as I think we’ll ALL agree. Gotta take em where you find em, right ; )?

Had/have a diabetic friend who ran her pump over with her CAR… she was frustrated with it and fed up plus wanted to test its indestructability (and the warranty). It worked just fine after… she was truly annoyed then.

Kate as for needle & vial, I’m pretty fast… as will be most people with this kind of experience level. Diabetic, decades and decades of time keeping the dragon in her ~nasty cave~. I have endless times injected among family, friends in a public place (needle & vial method) and they have never known… never realized I’d done it right under their nose… and they had just missed it! Done it (injected) in a dark car, done it on a train, in a plane… on a boat… (Jeff starting to think in Dr. Seuss rhymes)…

Anybody have a phrase that works which they’ve used their needles

Come on group… lets play,

Jeff

Hello Kate,

My pump experience was pretty short lived. However one of the funnier stories about my experience… it was doing it usual bleeping which is like every other time it did it was ~annoying~ to put it mildly. Consider that I was sleeping at the time, or attempting and it was severely irritating and damned unpleasant to say the least.

Ok, Jeff sleeping… the bells of Notre Dame going off (aka the pump) in the muiidle of the night. I must have been sleeping fairly deeply for once with this thing.. and the bleep, bleep, bleep was going off. In walks the kitty.

Normally a playful, mischevious creature… she hears the strange ~squeeky noise~ from under the covers… so comes to investigate. Finding the source, she hears ~further noise~ and movement under the covers, as I turned over. The beeping continues…

She sees movement under the covers now, and attacks the tubing from the pump which happens to be the LONG tubing c. 3′ +/- and proceeds to pounce on it and bite it like string once after she crawls-slinks under the covers.

Kitty, clear lengthy tubing… 3am… bleep, bleep, bleep…

She loves playing with the tubing soooo much that she attacks it seriously, and viciously.

The alarm continues going off as the tubing is severed because she ate through it by now. Once eaten, she sees more movement closer to my hip and proceeds to attack and remove the INFUSION set (think IV needle) which is taped to my body to prevent it coming out.
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Hello Barb.

<<I’m having a real hard time adjusting to the syringes.

Ok, what is giving you the worst time, do you think? There is no way around the fact, injecting onself is NOT a natural act! And testing is a different level of self abuse entirely. Both necessary perhaps but not any easier…

As for the pump, it is no better in any way than injections. It is an external device, and has its own unique sets of nightmarish problems. It requires identical considerations to injections. It requires 24-7 external attachment. There are pros to using one, but respectfully I fail to agree with most.

For a woman there are fashion issues. However you can attach the pump anyplace you want to. Connecting the pump to a belt, your bra, socks wherever it is convenient… all good/awkward. On a formal evening gown, or long dress… it can become difficult. I know of several tricks proported to work nicely though…

<<I would also like some ideas on diet,

It may be cliched but the word diet has all kinds of subtle stuff attached to it. You are making a choice. To eat or not to eat probably in a very different manner than you have before now. Before, you were unaware, and had no glaring consequences. Now you make a consious choice. What kind of program are you using? Exchanges or carb counting?

Jeff