I have decided that I need to go back to blogging to relieve some of the stress of living in a world of a diabetic. I continue to learn.... first of all I want to say that I"m excited about all the news that is coming from Dr. Faustman. I continue to support her work fully and have ceased to support the ADA and the JDRF. I truly beleive that Dr. Faustman's heart is in the right place. Lee Iacocca Foundation continues to support her research and work. Just the fact that she struggles with funding for her work.. tells me right there.. she is on to something that maybe "those in it for the money" are not!

Anyway.. enough of that band wagon. I need to vent about A1C's... after a rough month with Hannah... I'll try to keep this short. After 6 years of never having a problem with Hannah.. on March 17th.. her sister woke at 6am to find her having a seizure in her bed. Racing down the steps to get me.. I had been up for about 10 minutes and was doing laundry.. my husband called 911 as I pulled Hannah up and tried to get some juice under her tongue. I then tried table sugar. Michala handed me her glucogen (not knowing she didn't mix it.. my fault for not showing my family how to use the thing)... jammed that into her thigh. Her eyes popped open. (found out later that the table sugar must have did the trick). After the rescue unit left, Hannah developed a severe head ache and started vomiting (from the extreme changes in her bs levels). Ended up taking her to ER to calm both her head and stomach. To make a long story short.. for the next two-three weeks.. we struggled with a drop in her insulin need. We were constantly making changes in her pump and her bolus numbers. You would think a 14 year old, if going thru puberty (if she is) would require more insulin. No one seems to know what is going on with her.

Hannah is not like your typical 14 year old. She is totally "in tune" to her own care and takes very good care of herself. She has learned everything from Day 1 what I have. She has heard what I have.. I don't hide anything from her.. I make the dr's talk to her and I teach her everything I understand and know. Hannah has been totally in control of her diabetes and her care for about 6-8 months. Her blood work and a1c's have been wonderful.

I was asked the other day by my family dr. (not an endo..) what my goal was with Hannah (after sharing our seizure story with him). I said to have her maintain steady bs so she isn't having big swings in them .. so she stays healthy. He asked me point blank.."but what are you sacrificing maintaining that "great" A1C?".How many lows is she having trying to keep tight control? I honestly couldn't tell him. He then asked me what would be so bad about having a target range of lets say 120-160 instead of 70-120? As long as you are still meeting your same goal? No swings. I'm like looking at him dumbfounded. That makes a lot of sense!!! Less stress, same results... screw the "6" a1c!

Works for me!!! More to write... Hannah went on an outdoor education trip (first time since diagnosed... overnight some where with no one checking her bs).... but her.

I do want to give Hannah all the credit here for that A1C!!   To say I was completely blown away when we got the news was an understatement. The hospital had neglected to send the blood work results to the office and I didn't have a clue. I thought the nurse prac. was going to flip her lid!! She was so excited. She kept high fiving Hannah and told her that she just had two teenagers before her with an A1C over 10. She wanted to know what the differance was. I told her that Hannah is "in charge". She probably doesn't have the stress of me bitching at her all the time that it was time to change her set and I don't have the stress of trying to figure out how to work it around my schedule. In fact, I have no idea what Hannah's schedule with her set changing is half the time. She documents her bs and sets the pump for any changes every three days. It is just totally awesome. I never in my wildest imagination would think that it would be that low. She has neer been below 7.2 since she was diagnosed 5 years ago. I'm really proud of her.

How did the trip go that I blogged about earlier? Not to well... I am worried about Hannah's ability to take charge of remembering to eat snacks thru out the day when she is with her friends and doing "activity". She again had night time lows that we dealt with . But hopefully in a year... and she'll be more mature. Heck, she must have something down to get that A1C!

So for now... things are going okay.

Hannah has had a pretty great summer. Since camp, she has really taken on her independence and is changing her own sets and even adjusting her pump with her bs every three days!!! I'm so proud of her to have taken on all this responsibility. It has taken quite a bit of pressure of our our relationship and my life. I'm really interested in her upcoming bloodwork results because her bs seem to have been a lot better over the past months since she took on that responsibility.

As school has started however, so have the issues. Hannah has an upcoming "Outdoor education trip" (three days, two nights). They went on this last year to Minnesota. Hannah and I had major problems with low bs in the evenings after "heavy activity" during the day. One night her bs was 60 "after" a juice box. She preceded to have a piece of fudge and another juice box with no insulin and I even shut her pump off. When I checked her in the middle of night she was just 159. We have since learned that she needs to be ingesting 15-30 grams of carbs per hour during heavy activity.

So Hannah, is angry at me right now that I'm going on this educational trip. The adults going do not have a clue how to handle her issues that can occur. Hannah still hasn't quite taken on the independence of carb counting... she still "chooses" to rely on me for that. I'm not comfortable yet with the idea of letting Hannah spend evenings away from me where the miles between us are great. I wouldn't want her to experience a medical emergency and ruin the trip for herself and the adults on the trip. It would probably ruin her desire to ever want to go on another trip or the upcoming church mission trips. I want her to gain the confidence first.

So we purchased a fanny pak and Hannah is okay with carrying granola bars and snacks with her and eating them as the day goes... I told her I would go on the trip but "lay low" and not participate in the activities. I have discussed this with the two adults in charge. So we will see how this trip goes. The same two adults went last year and were not at all aware of what occurred with Hannah's bs. Since the trip issue has come up..Hannah is also starting to put more effort into her carb counting. We are quite aware that Hannah knows what carb value her food is... she just chooses to ask me. Believe me, it isn't worth the "crap" by not telling her.. I just keep telling her if she wants to really be independent, she needs to take care of that aspect too. She is so close.

So we will see how this week goes.

Summer is going by too quickly for my kids!! They have been very busy. Hannah survived her diabetes camp. I'm happy to report that this year went  a lot better than last year. On top of not being "given" shots (which she didn't need like last year-she is on a pump-there's a story there...), she came back quite independent. She has pretty much decided that changing her own set on her own time is a lot better than doing it on "mom's time". She has even mastered writing down her bs and making adjustments with just a few tidbits of advice now and then from mom. For a twelve year old... that is wonderful!!! I am so proud of her... and what is amazing to me is how much better her bs seem to be.. I don't know if there is a connection. I'm real interested to see her next A1C.

Sadly, at camp, she met up with a friend that she met two years ago at another camp. They were in the same cabin this year. Her friend is diabetic; suicidal; and has turned to the "gothic" dark, black lifestyle. Hannah was rather upset by all the things going on in her friends life and wanted me to help her. We decided we both needed to pray for her at this point. Little else can be done. From what Hannah knew... it sounded like her separated parents and steps were doing what they could. An awful lot... for a 12 year old to absorb. It was a good teaching/learning conversation about the "pain" people can have in their lives. Hannah has a big heart... that for which I'm thankful!!

I miss my time on the computer this summer but that at this point can't be helped. Appreciate being able to log on now and then and read people's blogs. Will be back.

Maybe I should go away for longer periods of time more often  Hannah seems to learn a lot when i'm gone. The other day I was gone to her brother's district track meet two hours away. I had rode with another couple. Hannah has been struggling with "off the wall" bs. lately. That day, her meter said, "HI" when she came home. Not exactly a great greeting Before calling me about it, she took care of it. I reminded her that she should always check it again when it says that. She did and then it was 256. I was beginning to think it was her meter that had issues. Then her insulin pump alarm came on and said the there was "motor failure". Now that was a new one!!  I told her to take the battery out for three minutes (set a timer) and then put the battery back in..because that seems to be the first thing that I'm often told to do when I call the Medtronic help line. But that didn't seem to help matters.

Her 15 year old sister was home too... so I asked her if she would help Hannah call the Medtronic pump help line with that one. There was absolutely nothing that I could do for her two hours away. After a small issue of getting the help line.. Medtronic help said they would talk to Hannah but not her sister because of the new "privacy laws" (Before people get too upset with that.. I did talk to the "Medtronic" people the next day and they said that there were ways to take care of situations like that... like having a list of people that can be allowed to speak for the patient or getting the parent on the phone and asking permission etc.) There are strict guidelines that they have to follow to avoid costly fines... that is what this world has come too...."sue happy!" The lady was great about it and would make sure  that wouldn't happen again.

Anyway, turns out that her connection cap from the tubing to the insulin tube was on crooked. So the motor couldn't push the insulin up. They got the situation taken care of.

I won't share what bs meter she is using right now... because my conversation with that company did not go well. Hannah's bs using that meter are so far apart when she tests a minute apart. It has to be the meter or the strips. But of course it "could be Hannah" checking her bs "WRONG" after 5 years of checking it anywhere from 8-10 times a day. That lady was pretty much torking me off to no end. I finally told her that it would be much simpler throwing the bs tester away then dealing with her. Her response was, "if that is how you feel". You would think for all the money that we sink into those strips that they would gladly send you another meter, "NO QUESTIONS ASKED".

Does anyone else ever have to deal with these issues?!!!!