Bliss!

Last Thursday, Emma started wearing a Continous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS) full time. We have done a couple of trials before but this is now OURS. The proceess to acquire it was actually pretty painless, which is surprising because most people find themselves in a months-long process with multiple insurance appeals - ours was approved in 4-5 business days.

So, we went into Children's Hospital last Thursday to get trained on it and insert our first sensor. The sensor sits right underneath the skin and attachs to a rather large radio transmitter. That transmitter sends readings of Emma's glucose readings every minute to a receiver that we can have up to about 20 feet away from her - which means we can receive these readings on the reciever on MY nightstand while she's sleeping at night.

It alarms us for highs and lows in the hopes that we can catch them sooner than we would with just a planned or unplanned finger stick.

Our goal is for Emma to be within her target blood sugar range as much as possible. What this picture is showing you is bliss. The grey bar across the screen represents her target blood sugar range. And the black line represents the readings that were taken all morning by the sensor on the CGMS. So, from 7am until noon, Emma stayed almost perfectly in range. And after breakfast is usually the most difficult time to control, so I'm thrilled with this.

I look forward to a lot fewer highs and a lot fewer lows as a result of the CGMS.

Oops, it just alarmed that she's going low - guess its time for a finger stick to make sure!

Brown-Stripe Belt

Michael is consistently working his way closer and closer to a Black belt in Tae Kwon Do. A couple of weeks ago, he earned his Brown Stripe belt. This is the 10th belt that he has earned in 18th months (White, White-stripe, Gold, Gold-stripe, Green, Green-Stripe, Blue, Blue-Stripe, Brown, Brown-Stripe) and he displays them all proudly on a belt rack he got for Christmas last year (which is now too small as his next belt will put him beyond the size of his rack)

There is one major level to earn in his belt progression with new material - Red Belt. At the Red Belt level, he learns a few new techniques, but mostly he goes through the process of relearning everything he learned at all the lower belt levels and must demonstrate all of these skills and techniques in order to earn a Black Belt. His Master Instructor thinks that he'll probably earn his Black Belt around October.

One thing Michael has to his advantage is that he has a great memory. He remembers lots of things so I think it won't be difficult for him to remember all of the forms that he has learned to get to this point. A form is a sequence of moves that are put together in different orders highlighting increased knowledge and skills as they move up belt levels. I think the biggest challenge will be remembering which ones are in which forms, since he's had so many, but I have no doubt that it will all come back to him quickly. I hope he earns his Red Belt before the early summer and then he can have the summer to do the 10-week focused training that they do for Black belt. The summer is a lot less busy for us and he'll be able to focus more on it.

Congratulations Michael!

Play Ball!

After having indoor workouts all winter, and a couple of chances to get on the baseball field in the past week or so, Michael's travel baseball team, the Loudoun South Eagles 8U team, played their first game today. Our opponent was a new team in the division this season, so we didn't know what to expect.


After going ahead in the first and second innings, our bats finally starting ringing with some hits and we had some very smart base running and we finally got ahead. In the end, we won the game with a score of 16-9.

















Michael did well today. There are more boys on the team this season, so more that the coach wants to rotate in and out of the field positions. Michael played 3 innings and sat 2 innings, but they bat all the way around so he got up to the plate 2 or 3 times.


Michael had two great hits - one blooper and one strong hit. Of course, he hit each of these with 2 strikes in the count - its almost like he needs pressure before he'll hit the ball!


And, he scored a run, as seen by his running to home!

Another funny video

After watching yesterday's "Danny Boy" video, I saw a couple of other really funny ones and wanted to share this one as well with you:

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This video, commemorating all that is Irish, was shared by a dear friend on Facebook today.


Warning: Do not be imbibing your Guinness whilst watching. This web site is not liable for any keyboard or computer monitor damage incurred as a result of watching this video while imbibing!

Two years

Two years ago this past Sat, March 14th, after a trip to the National Zoo with the kids in the morning and a very lethargic afternoon, I took Emma to the Emergency Room at 10pm at night where she was dignosed with a blood glucose reading of 585, large ketones and Type 1 diabetes.

She has had Type 1 diabetes for 24 months and 2 days. She was diagnosed at 25 months old. She has basically had diabetes for as many months as she didn't.

Two years later, things are pretty good for us. Yeah, we have to deal with this sucky disease (which feels even suckier on her anniversary), but she wears an insulin pump that makes her management so easy, she has her finger poked without even batting an eye and she's happy and healthy and has a great life. She goes to a fantastic in home preschool where the teacher has learned to check her and dose her for snack and lunch, which is certainly a God send for us - Emma LOVES her preschool.

I'm thankful for the advances of the past 100 years that have made it possible for her to still be here with us and to be flourishing and I look forward to the advances in the future that will hopefully mean a cure for her and all of those who live with this disease!

And this morning I got the call that insurance approved our request for the Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGMS) so that we can have more timely access to her glucose levels and hopefully fend off some of the highs and lows before they hit - more to come on that in the future!

Beautiful weather

After getting about 6" of snow on Monday, this week has ended with some beautiful weather. Yesterday's high got into the low to mid-70s with a lot of sun. Today was the low 70s with overcast, but still warm.

Its nice to have the cahnge in weather - I hope it lasts. Yesterday, Mike went with a bunch of parents from travel baseball and Little League baseball out to the main baseball field for the league to do some field maintenance to get ready for the season. Today a neighbor called to have Mike and Michael go play some baseball at the school down the street. Its nice to be able to have the kids outside more.

I just hope it will last. I'm still suffering from the loss of an hour last night!

Been busy

I haven't been posting much just because we've been busy. We're trying to trudge along in schoolwork although February is always a rough month. Never ask a homeschooler if they will homeschool next year during February - my answer probably would have been "send them now".

So much is up in the air in our county that I can't even think about what decision to make about next year. Our area of South Riding is potentially being sent to a different middle school due to overcrowding in our current one. I would be fine with that - taking an entire section of the neighborhood, instead of what they do now, which is just cherry picking the new people in the neighborhood and sending them to the other middle school.

There are also budget cuts that are affecting potential options for Samantha's high school algebra requirement. She's ready to take Algebra next year and needs to get the credit through the school system. She can 1) go part time just for that class, at which point I would be driving her to and from every other day (M/W/F one week and T/Th another)- not ideal; 2) go back full time and take it as part of her course selection; or 3) potentially learn it at home with me, then enroll in summer school the summer AFTER (Summer 2010) and take it AGAIN through the school system, take the SOL test through the school system and get the credit, and then start back to school full time in the fall of 2010 with a slate full of high-school credit courses.

All of this because Loudoun County won't transfer in a homeschool credit - even if the child "places out" of a course through a placement test.

And, then once Samantha starts in, its figuring out the right answer for Michael at the right time. And Emma has 1 more year of preschool before she's technically a Kindergartener, but I see little need to send her right away when I can teach her more in less time at home and still manage her diabetes a little longer myself until she can do more self-care.

So, there's a quick status of our schooling at the Stopper Academy

For need of toilet paper

They are finally calling for a decent snowstorm tonight - now that its March, of course! I have wanted a good 8"-12" snow storm all winter to no avail. Now we are supposed to get one tonight. I hope we do.

People in Washington, DC get a little crazy when the weather gets bad here. When it starts snowing, people start driving like complete idiots on the road - and I mean idiots. There is a DJ on the local radio station who as a joke comes on when the first flakes blow, yelling "The snow is coming. Abandon your vehicles where they are and walk to safety". Yes, people have been known to abandon their vehicles on the beltway because the snow made it difficult traveling. I don't get it.

But the funniest thing is the run on milk, bread, and yes, toilet paper at the first sign of snow. Like we are going to get snowed in for so long that the 24-roll pack isn't going to be enough.

We were already stocked up on milk, bread, and of course toilet paper, so we'll happily stay AWAY from the grocery store today and enjoy the snow coming down - when it actually STARTS coming down, that is.

I'm 4!

That's what Emma said when she came in our room this morning - "I'm Four!"

Four years ago after being on bedrest in the hospital and then back and forth to the hospital for daily tests, the Doctor decided that we'd ALL had enough; and at 37 weeks and 2 days into my pregnancy, it was finally time. We knew Emma was breech from all of the bio-physical profiles I had had done in the past few weeks, so they planned for a C-section. After getting the older kids settled for the evening, Mike came to the hospital and it wasn't long before Emma was born!

Welcome to the world Emma!


I'm 1 ............................................. and I'm 2!

Then Three............ and now I'm four!

Samantha's new room

I'm finally posting photos of Samantha's new room. Its not quite done yet - as we still need to rehang her trophy shelves and the watercolor pictures we have. We also have bright pink "sheer" type curtains to create a "partition" in her room.

The colors were chosen by her with my guidance, and I'm glad I convinced her to let us put the turquoise in the corner I see down the hall.

From the door looking in, and then down the wall with the door, looking to the left-hand corner:


From the left-hand corner, looking to the wall with the door and from behind the bed, looking to the bathroom door:


And then there's her closet. I love that its bright pink, even the ceiling, because it contrasts well with the white modular ELFA closet that we have:

6.9%

This was Emma's A1C at her quarterly Endocrinologist appointment today! That's a pretty good reading and equates to an average blood sugar readings of 145. I'm pretty happy with that, especially since it was down 0.2% since last quarter. The bad part of that is that a lot of this is because of the number of lows we've been experiencing. The good news is that we aren't experiencing as many as we were but we're still experiencing them, and Emma doesn't feel them any differently than other readings, so we don't catch them as quickly as we'd like. I'd be fine with a higher A1C if it meant fewer lows.

The other positive news is that her endocrinologist has agreed to approve a Continuous Glucose Monitor for us. This will enable us to see what her blood sugar is doing without sticking her finger as much. And hopefully we'll be able to start catching the lows before they get too low.

There are 3 CGMSs on the market these days. We've piloted one before (the Minimed Guardian) but there are 2 others on the market that we haven't tried yet so I'm not sure which one I'd like to get. The Navigator was hyped as the most accurate of the three, with readings being only 7 minutes behind blood sugar readings. But the size of the transmitter worn on the body is pretty big and I'm not sure we want to do that yet. The third one - the Dexcom - is used by a lot of people happily and others hate it - I think you either love it or hate it and not much in between. So, I'm not sure what we'll choose between the three but I think we'll try the other two and then decide which one we want.

I'm not sure what kind of insurance battle we'll have. Some people get immediate approval for CGMSs. Others have to fight and appeal and others are just flat out refused. The endocrinologist thinks that having a good A1C (6.9% is pretty good) will make it tough for us, but weeks and weeks of documented low readings and zero awareness of lows should help. So, our amount of documentation will be very helpful.

It's just cold!

No other way to explain it - its just cold.

Its been warm-cold-warm-cold for a few weeks now. We got about 2" of snow last week, topped off with sleet and ice, which just made it dangerous and not fun. Mike took the kids up to Ski Liberty to go snow tubing, so at least they got to take advantage of the snow.

Samantha has a birthday party at the local pottery place - the girls all painted mugs and they were all cute.

Two days later, we started redecorating Samantha's room. We had a painter come in and repaint the walls and woodwork - they are now bright shades of teal and pink. I'm holding off on pictures waiting for some new bed lifts to lift her new bedframe off the floor. She has new bed linens from Pottery Barn Teen and soon we'll be hanging bright pink curtains across the middle of the room.

Mike and the kids of course were happy with the results of the Super Bowl. I had told them up front that they weren't staying up until the end, but then the game was close and I didn't have the heart to make them go to bed - so they got to see the exciting ending to the game!

I don't know why the first of the year always feels so busy - perhaps its because Christmas is barely over and I need to plan for Samantha's birthday and by the time I'm done with that, I need to plan for Emma's birthday, which is in about 2 weeks. For lack of a better idea, we'll be having her party at McDonalds where they can play in the play room and then have Happy Meals and cake! Sounds like a party to me!

Is it Spring yet?

Happy Birthday Samantha!

Today is Samantha's 12th birthday. Happy Birthday Samantha!

She was born at 1:48am, so her actual birthday has occurred. She was born on a Thursday, after we went to the hospital around 11pm on Wednesday night, in labor. Little did we know that Samantha was breech, having turned AFTER my weekly checkup the week before. I actually challenged the doctor when he told me and he brought in a sonogram machine to confirm it.

So they quickly prepared us for a c-section, a possibility we hadn't really prepared for, and rolled me into the operating room where Samantha was born.

Samantha was born at Fairfax Hospital, the busiest hospital in the area, and at 1:48am was already the 8th child born that day!

Happy Birthday Samantha!

My son, the engineer

We have remarked for a while that we think Michael is going to be an engineer when he grows up. When we ride rides at Disney World, he spends most of the ride looking at the mechanics of the ride. And he loves to build things.

He compalins a lot these days that he's bored, since its been basically too cold to play outside. My threats of finding some cleaning for him to do are usually met with his running off to find something to do.

The other day he found his box of math manipulatives and decided to build something. The result - the teddy bear movie theater, complete with large screen and stadium seating for all teddy bears. Click on the photos for better detail of the bears in the seats - they are color-matched so its tough to see!

Basketball

Michael is playing in a basketball league in our neighborhood this season. There are a lot of boys and girls that play. They start with 2nd graders having an "instructional" league and they go up through middle- and high-school ages and even host travel teams. Its nice because all of the practices and games are at one of the local elementary schools.

Michael's division is 3rd and 4th graders. Our team has a LOT of 3rd graders. You can really tell the difference in the size of some of the kids.

Michael is a strong defensive player. He's agressive and doesn't hesitate to get his hands into the face of another player or on the ball another player has.

And Mike helps out as assistant coach of the team this season!

Tea Party

Emma decided that she wanted to have a tea party today. So she got out her tea set and all of her food and worked on having a tea party. I came into the family room to see her surrounded by food - I guess that's just how it should be for a cook, huh?

For want of a Nor'easter!

We still haven't had any snow this season. Right now, our weather report calls for an "Alberta Clipper" on Thursday. Clipper is a very onomatopoetic word - its sounds fast. Albert Clippers are quick snow storms that drop a little snow and move on.

Not good enough.

I want a good ol Nor'easter. A storm coming up the coast, picking up steam and moisture, with a lot of cold air coming down from the North, colliding right over top of us and dropping a whole lot of snow.

Does the shape affect the taste?

So, my question of the day is this:

Does the shape of the chocolate affect the taste of it?

I ask because I have sitting beside me a couple of wrappers from Hershey's Miniatures Milk Chocolate and Hershey's Kisses. The Hershey's miniature is obviously in a rectangle shape. The Hershey's kisses are obviously "kiss" shaped (is there an official name for it?)

I think they taste different!

So, is it the shape that makes the difference?

Do you think there's an official study to be conducted? I'd be happy to be a taste tester!

Stop the Madness!

Ever since election day, all the talk in the DC area has been about Inauguration Day. How its going to be the biggest ever and all that. Fine, whatever. I don't have any interest.

But, as time has progressed towards Jan 20th, its gotten worse. We keep hearing of more and more road closures on that day. And yesterday they announced that ALL of the bridges from VA to DC would be closed that day. You are UNABLE to drive into DC from VA. Because of that, they are closing I-66 and I-395 to inbound traffic inside the beltway. Why, because they don't want to have to deal with exiting the cars BEFORE they get to the bridges.

So, everyone who actually has to work in the city on Jan 20th (remember, there are a bunch of parties, and balls, and hospitals, and hotels, and other things open on Jan 20th), or anyone who needs to travel anywhere within the 10 mile radius of the beltway has to find another way to get there. So, if I had to travel from my house to Arlington, I couldn't take I-66 and would have to take another way in - with a million of my closest friends also diverted with these ludicrous closures.

Someone who needs to travel from my area into the city actually has to take the beltway over the river into MD and then come into the city - along with a million of their closest friends all having to suffer through the same ridiculous closures.

And keep in mind that they are already saying that Metro is going to have more than hour long delays due to the increased volume.

Most people calling into the local news radio station thought these were ridiculous, except the one man who was celebrating the fact that his boss gave him the day off because there was really no way for him to get to work.

This is all just utterly ridiculous.

Democracy vs. Republic

Many people believe that we live in a Democracy. We don't - we live in a Republic.

I'm OK with that. I actually think a Republic is better than a Democracy. While I think that our Representatives need to spend a little more time voting on the wishes of their constituents, I still think its better than the ACTUAL people weighing in and voting on every issue.

Evidently our school board doesn't feel the same way.

Drawing school boundaries is never an easy process. There are always going to be people unhappy with the decision. There are ALWAYS going to be people that think its OK for everyone except THEIR child!

This past fall, our area of Loudoun County lost its plan for the next, much-needed middle school. Things were going well and they were waylaid by a small group of people from a single neighborhood who didn't want it in their backyard. And then other supposedly well-meaning people who thought proposing alternatives would be a PRODUCTIVE step in this process. Anyway, the Board of Supervisors voted against approving our next middle school.

It's desperately needed. The current middle school is already overcrowded and the current solution is to take any NEW residents in our district and bus them to the next one. That's a HORRIBLE solution for the new people, but definitely appeases the "Not My Child" constituency.

So, the schools have decided to redraw the district lines to stop the "cherry picking" of kids that's happening now. And their process seems quite ludicrous. They aren't drawing up multiple proposals of how to redraw the districts and asking for input - they are just asking for input. Blank slate, here's a map, give your input.

Who decided that letting the selfish, all-about-me neighbors propose our school boundaries is a good idea? The school administration definitely has a set of objectives that have to be met with any plan (transportation, class size, demographic, etc) but I'm trying to figure out how they think that going into a community that is so completely divided by the ugliness of our previous school fight is going to result in reasonable suggestions.

Personally, they would never consider my idea. They should take the newest elementary school in our area and turn it into a 6th grade school (or maybe a 5th and 6th grade school) and get the 6th graders out of the middle school. It would require no new infrastructure and the transporation impacts would be limited because it would keep the kids in the neighborhood. But I'll propose it just like all the other crazies that are going to propose plans that only benefit their kids and their friends.

And why do I care about any of this? While I homeschool now, my children will be going to public high school (unless we win the lottery to send them to private school) because our county doesn't accept homeschool class credits towards high school graduation requirements. These boundaries start to affect me next year as I'll be enrolling Samantha in Algebra through the school system so that she can have the math credit, and right now I don't know what middle school she'll be attending.

Where is winter?

So far this winter, we've had a couple of bouts of cold, and other bouts of precipitation, but not at the same time.

The couple of times its been cold enough, we've had a little bit of ice or sleet.

I'd like a good, old-fashioned snow storm.

I don't even like to really play outside in it so much anymore. But I do like the look of it, and the coziness of the ground and trees covered in snow.

Just a little please.

I'm tired of being tired

I posted that this morning on the Children With Diabetes message board and it rings true.

Until about mid-November, we had pretty good numbers for Emma. A few random lows and highs but we treated them and moved on. And then November struck. And for no reason, her numbers have been going crazy.

She's been running high during the day. To the point that we are questioning her insulin, her pump sites, her tubing, her rates, everything. Corrections with insulin don't always work but sometimes they work too well.

But then there are the lows. We don't like lows. A single low is more dangerous than an entire day of running high. And for the past few days, Emma's been getting them overnight. And its not a single low that we give her juice and she's back to normal. Its a low, followed by juice and more low. Followed by more juice and another low. For the past two nights, it been from midnight to about 4am and then she goes high and wakes up in the 200s.

I finally got the 200 tamed this morning but we are getting tired of getting up all night. We are both going to bed later because we are testing a lot around 10pm to midnight. And then we are having to set alarms - every hour - to catch the lows. I gave Emma a huge drink of juice overnight (2-3x what she needed) with the expectation that she would finally be in range and set my alarm for 90 minutes - no luck.

So tonight I will change all of her overnight rates, expect her to go high in response and then we'll fight this rubber-band swinging of highs and lows again!

New Year - Lesson Planning

Well, I finally, after 2 weeks of staring at the books, sat down tonight and put together the lesson plans for the week. All of the kids assignments have been checked and ready for them to move on. I even have the history reading written down on their individual assignment sheets instead of just pulling it out of my Instructor Guide when we sit down.

Now if I could just find the book Samantha is supposed to be reading.

I actually expect that I'll find it either in Samantha or Michael's room. Its a mystery book about Rome, so there's a good chance that Michael has already pulled it to read.

I have a great activity book that is a companion to our main history books. It includes some suggested additional reading for each chapter. So, I sat down tonight to run queries on the library web site to see which of the books they have. Only to find they are doing catalog maintenance. This is, unfortunately, not the first time I've run into this. I don't know why they think 9pm is a good time to do maintenance - I'm sure I'm not the only one searching for books online at that time.

I also picked some Science activities to do this week - this is still my subject that challenges me but I've gotten some new magnets and copper wire and we're gonna play with magnets this week!

So, I'm hoping we get back into the new year with a great school day tomorrow. Back to getting up early and getting Emma fed, lunch packed and off to preschool, and then lessons with the other two!

Hey Hey! Wait a Minute Mr Postman!

Many argue the tradition of the "annual Christmas card" is going by the wayside. Certainly, the proportion of "photo cards" to "non-photo cards" has changed over the year - with more than 75% of my cards this year being photo cards. I love to see the photos of everyone's kids and how they've grown, especially since this is probably the only time I have seen them since LAST Christmas.

I have a spreadsheet where I keep all my addresses (my electronic address book) and I pull it out each year to address my Christmas cards. Its the only place I have any addresses, so in the unlikely event I receive a "Change of Address" card (which hasn't happened in years), I make the change there.

A sad part of Christmas is the slow trickle of returned Christmas cards each year with a "Return to Sender" sticker from the post office. Most of these are a "No Longer Forwarding" sticker which means they moved well over a year ago.

How hard is it for someone to pull out their Christmas card list when they move and send a quick note that their address has changed. The sad part? I think every one that I received this year was family! I had already removed 2 family members whose addresses aren't current and now I have at least 3 more to add to the list. I guess I'll be spending a part of this new year communicating with other family members trying to fill in the blanks and get my info current.

So my Public Service Announcement for the day: If you move, at least let your family (and yes, that includes aunts and cousins and anyone you get a Christmas card from each year) know your new address

Merry Christmas

We just returned from church and had a rare moment to take a family photo before eating some dinner and trying to tuck the kids off to bed!

Merry Christmas!

Ready for Christmas

I think we might almost be ready for Christmas. I think Mike is dipping the last of the Oreo balls. I have wrapped every present that is going to be wrapped (Santa doesn't wrap presents at our house). The tree is up and finally decorated (last night).

We are headed to church for Christmas Eve service tonight and then dinner will be hors d'oeuvres and hopefully getting the kids in bed around 9pm.

And despite the fact that they haven't been able to drag themselves out of bed before 7:30 in about a week, I can guarantee you they'll be up at 6am! Last year we put up baby gates to block their ability to go or look downstairs until we are ready. I think I got rid of all of those, so we'll need to figure something else out.

For the first time in a really long time, we'll be staying home for the entire Christmas Day. We won't head to Roanoke until Dec 26th and stay for a couple of days. Return home and turn around for Williamsport for a couple more days. Mike's parents offered to come down, but Christmas is the only time we guarantee we can get up there and see Mike's grandmother, who is really up in years now, so we'll head up to see her. We'll return on New Years Day for a couple of days of relaxation before school and sports and dance starts again!

Busy Christmas Season

Its been a busy Christmas season. Perhaps because I didn't really get a chance to "start" preparing until about the 12th of December. Really cuts the time short.

We've also been busy with other activities. A few highlights.

On December 12th, Mike had his company Christmas party at the nearby Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum. It was pretty neat to have the party laid out around the airplanes and space shuttle.











On December 14, Emma's preschool put on its Christmas program. They sang three songs and did a little skit. It was very cute and Emma had a good time. She really likes to sing and do all the motions with the songs.

We found a great preschool for Emma. Its an "in-home" preschool run by the pastor's wife at our church. There are only 8 kids there and she has been very willing to take on Emma's diabetes care, doses her for snack and lunch and calls me for any high or low readings. The moms have also been supportive, collecting carb information for any food at parties so that I can dose her properly. Its really a great preschool and we're very fortunate to have found it.




On December 19th, we finally took the kids to see Santa Claus. We got up and moving early because I didn't want a line at the mall, and I inevitably pick a day with a line. Well, we arrived at 8:45 and there was no line. We walked right up and saw Santa. The kids all told him what they want for Christmas, and that they behaved and did everything they are supposed to do. I didn't hear the entire conversation but I think something involved Emma brushing her teeth! I always like to take the chance to take some photos of the kids with the decorations around Santa too, because the mall does such a good job with them.



And finally, on December 19th, Michael earned his Brown belt in Tae Kwon Do. He has really progressed this year and it was nice to cap off the year with a belt graduation. He only has 3 belt levels left to Black - Brown Stripe, Red, and then Black. I would expect that on this pace that maybe by the end of 2009, Michael will have earned his Black Belt.











We have dinner tonight with some old friends from AMS that we haven't seen in years - after a reconnection on Facebook. I'm pretty excited to see them again!

So, its been a busy few weeks leading up to Christmas. The wrapping has started but is nowhere near finished. Two gifts still yet to arrive - expected on Christmas Eve, no less. I'm excited for the gifts I got the kids this year that I WANT them to have, and I'm sure they're excited about the gifts that THEY want. I also know they are enjoying the reduced school schedule we've been running the past couple of weeks.

She is just TOO smart!

I'm sitting here laughing in amazement at Emma.

She has a bunch of paper off the paper roll from her easel. She's trying to roll it nicely but of course its trying to roll on its own. She was getting quite frustrated at the paper for rolling up from both ends while she was trying to roll it nicely.

So, she went and got a small box of books to put on one end of the paper to keep it from rolling up until she could roll from the other end herself.

I'm not sure the 11-year-old would have figured that out!

Home and lots to post

I have been a bit under the weather since we got back from Disney, so I haven't updated.

We had a great trip. Always sad to leave and wanting to know when we will go back.

Emma said on the last day "I had fun being here". I think that sums it up.

Cheney stayed at the vet for this trip - we usually leave him at home and have someone come in but he usually goes on a hunger strike. I hoped by putting him in the vet that he would have more attention and eat. They called me 2 days in that he wasn't eating and they were going to have to force feed him.

When I went to pick him up, all of his food was gone and I was shocked. They said they actually let him roam around the front treatment area and he then started eating fine.

Did I forget to tell them that he thinks he's a dog in a cat suit. He does. He needs the attention like a dog. And that's nothing compared to now that we're home - he won't leave my side. If I'm on the couch, he's on the couch. If I'm in the bed, he's right beside me - literally. At least he's happy to see us!

More on our trip later. We did a couple of different things that we enjoyed on this trip - always trying something a little new and different.

In less than 2 days, we will be at Disney

While its dreary and cold and wet here, I can imagine what it will be like in TWO days when we are at Disney World!

Here's the weather report for our trip. Not too bad with only one day with any real chance of rain (30%) and my birthday is looking good (Dec 7):

Mon, Dec 8:
Sunny
High of 77
Low of 55
0% chance of rain

Sun, Dec 7:
Mostly Sunny
High of 76
Low of 51
10% chance of rain

Sat, Dec 6:
Partly Cloudy
High of 71
Low of 51
10% chance of rain

Fri, Dec 5:
Few Showers
High of 71
Low of 50
30% chance of rain

Thursday, Dec 4:
Partly Cloudy
High of 75
Low of 52
10% chance of rain

Wednesday, Dec 3:
Mostly Sunny
High of 72
Low of 52
10% chance of rain.

Tuesday, Dec 2:
Mostly Sunny
High of 65
Low of 40
10% chance of rain

Mom, don't forget to mail Morgan's birthday card if you haven't!

Weather report is looking better!

Well, all of the rain forecast on YESTERDAY's weather report is gone from today's. I think that's an indication of how volitile the weather can be. We've been when its freezing cold, and shorts weather, and lots of rain, and none. All of these weather reports within the same couple of weeks of the year.

So, here's where we are today:

Sun, Dec 7:
Mostly Sunny
High of 75
Low of 53
0% chance of rain

Sat, Dec 6:
Mostly Cloudy
High of 73
Low of 54
10% chance of rain

Fri, Dec 5:
Partly Cloudy
High of 77
Low of 54
0% chance of rain

Thursday, Dec 4:
Partly Cloudy
High of 75
Low of 55
10% chance of rain

Wednesday, Dec 3:
Sunny
High of 67
Low of 51
0% chance of rain.

Tuesday, Dec 2:
Partly Cloudy
High of 64
Low of 40
0% chance of rain

The trip seems to be starting off with a little cooler weather and then getting warmer during the week, which just means we need 2-3 seasons worth of clothes, as well as medium-weight jackets in addition to some shorts. Makes for some fun packing - NOT!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope you are enjoying a safe and happy holiday.

Today's weather forecast has a little bit of rain during our trip. But since I've see so many changes, and we are still a week out, I have confidence that it will get better (and I have shipped the ponchos down, just to be safe)

Sat, Dec 6:
Showers
High of 73
Low of 55
40% chance of rain

Fri, Dec 5:
Partly Cloudy
High of 75
Low of 54
10% chance of rain

Thursday, Dec 4:
Showers
High of 75
Low of 54
60% chance of rain

Wednesday, Dec 3:
Sunny
High of 67
Low of 51
0% chance of rain.

Tuesday, Dec 2:
Partly Cloudy
High of 64
Low of 41
0% chance of rain

Getting closer

Today, I'm getting ready for Thanksgiving and our house and shipping a box down to Disney World with items we don't want to have to pack in our suitcases (such as ponchos, juice boxes, etc)

Weather report for today:

Friday, Dec 5:
Mostly Sunny
High of 72
Low of 52
10% chance of rain.

Thursday, Dec 4:
Mostly Sunny
High of 74
Low of 52
10% chance of rain.

Wednesday, Dec 3:
Sunny
High of 71
Low of 53
0% chance of rain.

Tuesday, Dec 2:
Partly Cloudy
High of 67
Low of 49
0% chance of rain

Still looking like great weather

Weather is still looking great for our trip. Starting to have to think about getting packed - especially since I want to ship a box down in advance!

We leave one week from today!

Tuesday, Dec 2:
Partly Cloudy (yesterday it said Mostly Sunny - I STILL don't know the difference)
High of 72
Low of 52
0% chance of rain

Wednesday, Dec 3:
Sunny
High of 74
Low of 55
0% chance of rain.

Thursday, Dec 4:
Mostly Cloudy
High of 77
Low of 50
10% chance of rain.

New Pump!

We got Emma's new insulin pump today. Its an upgrade to our original pump (Animas 2020) called the One Touch Ping! It is a meter and a pump integrated.

For us, we wanted the ability to control the pump remotely. This means we don't have to pull it out of her pouch in order to dose her, or see what her insulin status is - its all on the meter. This will be especially valuable overnight, when we sometimes have to turn her over and dig out the pump to dose her.

For Emma, she wanted pink!

(Sorry the picture is grainy, out of focus, and not very good of Emma but she isn't cooperating for photos these days)

Bet you didn't know you were reading the blog of an amateur meteorologist, huh?

Tuesday, Dec 2:
Mostly Sunny
High of 72
Low of 53
0% chance of rain

Wednesday, Dec 3:
Mostly Cloudy
High of 75
Low of 56
10% chance of rain.

Gosh, if it gets much hotter, mom is actually going to say its TOO HOT! :)

So far, weather for our trip to visit our favorite rodent in Florida is looking promising!

Sunny, high of 73, low of 54, 0% chance of rain

That's the weather report for Dec 2 - the day that we arrive at Disney World. Sounds pretty good to me.

Only 10 days left. I've had trouble getting excited about the upcoming trip. I think its maybe because I'm afraid that its going to be crowded - due to the fact I couldn't get rooms at the resort I wanted nor a couple of meal reservations that I wanted. But I'm finally starting to get excited

We go when we do (beginning of December) because its supposed to be one of the least crowded times, the weather is still great, and we LOVE to see the Christmas decorations. I hope all of those still prove true this trip!

I've done my part to stimulate the economy!

I went shopping for Christmas presents today.

I have to tell you, I'm surprised at how expensive and BIG everything is. You can't just get a "small set of Tinkertoys", it has to be the "Super Size themed with colors" Tinkertoys - and price tag to go along with it.

And the electronics are all just expensive. Since kids are "engaged" with electronics earlier in their lives, its more years of electronics we have to deal with.

I even did my part to help the credit markets - I got a new credit card. Approved on the spot. I got a ToysRUs credit card that got me 10% off my purchases today (which I can say was NOT insignificant) and 6 months, no interest to pay. Since we are well disciplined in paying bills and don't pay interest or penalties on any of our credit cards, this is a safe approach for us to take and it spreads out our Christmas payments until June!

Have you done your part?

Good diabetes news!

Emma had her quarterly checkup yesterday. For many people, this is the only contact they have with their endocrinologist practice. For me, that is not the case (not withstanding the fact that I saw our nurse and Dr. at the JDRF Gala on Saturday). I email the nurse pretty often when we have trends that I can't figure out and need another set of eyes. She's really good at not just telling me what we should change, but WHY so that I can try and understand and make the change myself in the future.

The good news is that all of our discipline pays off - our A1C is 7.0%. We are all pretty happy with that for a couple of reasons. In general, its a great number for a 3-year-old. It equates to an average 170 blood glucose reading over the past 3 months. We've been seeing some lows that I don't like but the doctor is convinced that we aren't missing them, or our A1C would be lower. The other reason we are happy is because its down a smidgen from our previous one (7.1%). Every little bit helps. We've been working on her rates a lot and I was worried it would be a lot higher, so we're happy.

Everything else looks great and I always like going to these appointments!!

And, because I hadn't shared before - here is a photo of Mike and me from the JDRF Gala in DC this past Saturday:

JDRF Gala

A short post now. A longer one later.

Last night we attended the Gala for our JDRF Chapter. After a last minute change in location due to the G20 summit, the event landed at the Mellon Auditorium on Constitution Ave.

I bought a new formal and borrowed some great jewelry from a friend. It was a great cocktail hour and silent auction, followed by dinner and a live auction.

Our Endocrinologist (Dr. Cogan) and our Nurse (Celia Henderson) were both there, so it was nice to chat "outside of the office".

The MC of the event was Amy Robach from NBC. Much to Mike's chagrin, I went up and introduced myself. She used to be on the board of the chapter and has a family connection to Type 1 diabetes. When I mentioned that I lived in Loudoun County, she immediately connected it to the recent election as she was sent here to cover this "swing county" in the "Swing state" of Virginia.

Very tired today from being up late at the party and then late checking Emma.

A typical day

In honor of World Diabetes Day, I thought I'd post what a typical day for a Type 1 diabetic (or parent of a Type 1 diabetic) is like. Of course, the irony is that there isn't a typical day - there are so many variables and factors that go into a diabetic's blood sugar, that normal doesn't happen, but here we go:

Morning
7:00am - Emma gets up. We check her blood sugar first thing. Recently she has either been waking up in range (70-150) or low. If she's low, we have to give her juice before she eats
7:30am - Emma eats breakfast. Every meal she has needs to have a protein in addition to carbs. Protein slows down the absorption of carbs and paces it better with the action of the insulin. She is given insulin through her pump for her breakfast.
9:30am - Check Emma's blood sugar. Her morning numbers have been a little crazy so we have to do a 2-hour post-meal check. These days, she is in the low end of range at this time, which means more testing. If she's below 100, we give her 2 ounces of juice because the insulin is still working in her body and she'll go even lower if we don't.
11:00am - Check Emma's blood sugar. If she's below 80, we give her between 1 and 2 ounces of juice

Afternoon
12:00pm - Check Emma's blood sugar and feed her lunch. These days she has started arguing with me about what she wants to eat. So, I can't give her insulin before she eats, because there's no guarantee she will eat it. So, she eats (or doesn't eat) and then we give her insulin based on what she ate.
12:30pm - Emma goes to take a nap - sometimes she goes right to sleep and sometimes she's awake for a long time.
3:00pm - Check Emma's blood sugar. Whether she's awake or not, we need to check her reading. There is just no telling whether she's going to be low, high, or in between, so we need to check. The good news is that we only have 4-5 combinations of food that she eats for lunch, so we are pretty confident in the carb counts that we are using.
5:00pm - Check Emma's blood sugar. This is a crazy time of day for Emma. During sports seasons, we are often heading out to baseball or soccer so she's running around a lot, which makes her readings drop. If we are at home, she's a lot calmer, so her readings will go up. Obviously, its not steady so we need to check.

Evening and Overnight
6:30pm - Check Emma's blood sugar for dinner. Dinner time varies a lot based on what activities the kids have and what time Mike is getting home from work. Dinner also introduces the most variability in carb counts as we have more variety for dinner than any other meal. Its often a meal with a higher fat content too, which affects Emma's blood sugars.
8:00pm - Bedtime for Emma.
8:30 - 9:00pm - Check Emma's blood sugar. Based on what we ate, how confident we are in the carb counts that we did, and what Emma's reading was before dinner, we check her between 2 and 2 1/2 hours after dinner. She's often not been in her room for long, so she's often not asleep or just going to sleep. But we have to disturb her to check her and sometimes give her juice if she's low.
10:00pm, 11:00pm, midnight, 2am, 3am, 4am - any of those times overnight, we have to check Emma's blood sugar. Each night we have to make a decision based on what she ate, what her 8:30pm reading was, what else is going on, whether she went right to sleep, etc. There are many variables that factor into the decision each night.

Each time we check Emma and she is low (below 80), we have to give her juice. Usually that means a re-check in 30-60 minutes to make sure she really DID go back up. If she's high enough that we need to give her a correction with insulin, we have to check her in 2 hours to make sure she came down, and didn't come down too low.

The other variable is the unknown. Since Emma cannot tell when she's high or low, we have to try to read the symptoms. If she's fussy or cranky, we have to test to see if she's low or high. But, lets not forget that she's 3. She can be fussy or cranky because she's 3, or because she's low or high. We hate that we have to test because we don't know.

Every 3-4 days, we have to change the location of her pump site. After a period of time, the tissues of your body become saturated with insulin and you need a new site. We rotate from time to time between her rump and her belly. Over the past 2 1/2 months we have found that her insulin needs are a lot lower when her site is on her belly. Which means we've had to adjust all of her insulin doses to accommodate. Which means more testing. We have also found that after we change her site, her body is so excited to have fresh insulin in a fresh site that it goes nuts and she drops low - really low. So, we are often fighting low readings for 6-12 hours after a site change - luckily its only every 3-4 days.

So as you see, you tend to be "time driven" when you have Type 1 diabetes. Its always about when the next time is to test, when you ate last, how much insulin is still working in your body, whether the fat in your food is going to make you spike later, whether a new site is going to make you go low, whether the exercise you did in the afternoon will make you go low, or the adrenalin in your system will make you go high, whether you looked at your mother wrong, whether the moon is in a strange cycle, or Jupiter and Mars are visible at sundown.

There are just so many factors that the best you can do is have discipline and structure and test often - keep them from going too low or too high and have as normal a life as possible and you've succeeded.

Diabetes symptoms come on gradually

Many ask how I knew that Emma was sick and I can talk about the symptoms that she was experiencing, but its easy to look back and see what you were missing. Emma was taken to the Urgent Care with an ear infection on New Years Eve 2006. That was the first time she had had any sort of illness - she had been surprisingly healthy. Within 2 1/2 months, she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. And looking back at the photos of her during that 2 1/2 months, I'm surprised we didn't suspect anything sooner about her illness.

Here's some information from the Children With Diabetes site that talks about the gradual development of Type 1 Diabetes:

Diabetes Develops Gradually

The process of developing diabetes is gradual. Studies performed by the Joslin Clinic1 have shown changes as much as nine years before the actual presentation of diabetes symptoms. The development of Type 1 diabetes can be broken down into five stages:

• Genetic predisposition
• Environmental trigger
• Active autoimmunity
• Progressive beta-cell destruction
• Presentation of the symptoms of Type 1 diabetes

People with Type 1 diabetes have a genetic pre-disposition to the disease, but one or more environmental insults is required to trigger disease. This fact can be derived from studies of identical twins with Type 1 diabetes. When one twin has Type 1 diabetes, the other twin gets diabetes only half the time. If the cause of Type 1 diabetes were purely genetic, both identical twins would always have Type 1 diabetes.

One environmental trigger is thought to be the Coxsackie B virus. Researchers at UCLA found that a small segment of GAD is structurally similar to a segment of a Coxsackie B protein. GAD is found on the surface of insulin-producing beta cells. The implication is that the body's immune system, after warding off the Coxsackie B virus, continues to attack beta cells because of the similarity of GAD to the virus.2

The environmental trigger results in the production of autoantibodies. People with Type 1 diabetes have antibodies in their blood that indicate an "allergy to self," or an autoimmune condition. One autoantibody found in people with Type 1 diabetes is the islet cell antibody. This antibody is often present months or years before the diabetes presents. Other antibodies include the GAD (or 64-K) antibody and the ICA 512 antibody. The presence of these antibodies is a sign that the body is attacking its own beta cells.

Symptoms of Diabetes
Once over 90% of the beta cells are destroyed, the body is no longer able to regulate blood sugar levels and the patient develops some or all of the classic symptoms of diabetes:

• excessive thirst
• excessive urination
• excessive hunger
• weight loss
• fatigue
• blurred vision
• high blood sugar level
• sugar and ketones in the urine
• Kussmaul breathing (rapid, deep, and labored breathing of people who have ketoacidosis or who are in a diabetic coma)

While the symptoms appear abruptly, the development of the disease actually occurs over a much longer period of time.

So, despite the fact that we saw the obvious symptoms for about 2 1/2 weeks, it was clear that Emma was developing this disease over a period of time. And I'm just glad that we identified it when we did or she could have been much worse before she was diagnosed.

Bartering Supplies

Anyone who has a chronic illness, has had a major medical problem, or who has to deal with insurance companies on a regular basis will laugh at this post.

Insurance companies are weird in what they decide to pay for and not pay for.

They have argued over and over with us about how many blood GLUCOSE test strips we get a month. We test on average about 11 times a day, which is 330 strips a month. And that's when Emma's not sick. If she's sick, or if she's having a lot of lows, we test more. But they wanted to just pay for 200 strips a month, so I've had to fight and get pre-authorization, and REMIND them that they pre-authorized in order to get enough test strips.

It took me about 3 months to get them to approve the blood KETONE testing strips - something you need to test for when a diabetic is running high numbers. When we first got the prescription, it was denied at Target - they were told it was a "medical" expense and not a "pharmacy" expense. So, I submitted the prescription to the approved medical supply company. It was denied - they were told it was a pharmacy expense. It took lots of phone calls from me AND the nurse from the Doctor's office, and finally my demanding a conference call with the supervisor from the Pharmacy Dept AND the Medical Supply Department where I got them to agree which department would be paying for this prescription and who would be calling to tell the supplier.

So, now I get two boxes a month of the blood KETONE strips - 10 in a box. Only once have I used 10 in a month. Many months I only use 1 or 2 strips. So, I have about 15 unopened boxes.

Someone on the Children With Diabetes message board today indicated that she had drums for the lancet that we use and she need blood GLUCOSE strips. Well, I don't have extra ones of those (because of the story above about arguing between 200 and 350). BUT, I have a TON of the Blood KETONE strips. Many people have trouble getting insurance to cover these strips.

So, I'm sending several boxes of Blood KETONE strips to a member of the board. She is sending blood GLUCOSE strips to the person who has the drums for the lancet. And that person is sending me some of the drums for the lancet that we like to use.

This is a ridiculous game to be played - thanks to a screwed up insurance system. But, as long as insurance is going to be screwed up, we'll figure out how to work the system the way it needs to be worked. I'll get rid of some items that will expire before I have a chance to use them, and get something that I'd like to have extras of. And everyone is happy.

Thanks for your service!

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the armistice treaty between the Allies and Germany was signed, ending World War I.

Since then, this day has become the day to not only celebrate the end to a brutal and bloody war, but to celebrate and honor all of the veterans of this country. Military service in this country is not required, but is left to those who volunteer. It takes a person of great personal strength and commitment to take on such a serious commitment, even moreso during a time of war.

Remember today to honor and thank all former and current members of our Armed Services for everything that they do to keep this the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

Emma's numbers - finally pretty good

Last night notwithstanding, when I fought super-low numbers all night, Emma's numbers are finally starting to stabilize. We have been fighting unexplained highs, random lows, and everything in between. We have changed every basal rate on her pump (the ongoing stream of insulin to keep her steady) and bolus ratio (the amount we give her when she eats).

She actually had a meal last week where her preschool teacher FORGOT to give her insulin with her food - and she was still under 200 2 hours later. That means she would have been low had she HAD insulin.

Finally, after playing over and over with the morning numbers, we had a good morning at preschool today. She was 147 at 2 hours after breakfast and 100 at 2 hours later after snack - both of those numbers are smack-dab perfect and can't ask for more.

I look forward to getting back to a period when I'm not checking all the time because we don't know what's happening. We had a happy 3-4 month period where she was very stable and I could pretty much predict what her numbers were going to be when, and we rarely had to get up overnight. We've been back to getting up at least once (or twice or three-times or four-times) overnight for a couple of months now and its getting old.

Thankfully we have a great nurse who does most things by email (often at 10pm at night), can take an export of my pump readings and give me recommendations right from there. Its so much easier than trying to fax in numbers and trying to get a response.

Under 12 Girls Fall Classic Champions

With a 2-0-2 record in the tournament this weekend, Samantha's team, the South Riding United, won the Under 12 Girls Championship.

All of the games this weekend were hard fought. Our first game on Saturday morning was against the Gators and we won 1-0. Our second game was against the Hokies. It was a tough game with a LOT of shots on goals for both teams, but in the end it was tied 0-0. We went into today tied for first place with the Hokies, each team with one win and one tie.

Our first game today was played with great skill. All of the girls seemed to really be on their game, the defense was keeping the ball away from the goal and the offense was pushing forward and scoring. We started the game with two quick goals and in the end won 5-0. That score would ultimately be the one that won the tournament for us. Our fourth and final game of the tournament was played against the Monarchs - the only team that beat us this season. They scored a goal about halfway through and we were down 1-0. We fought back and fought back, but couldn't score as time was rapidly ticking away. Finally in the final minutes, one of our players kicked a huge kick that went OVER the goalies head for the tying goal. That game resulted in a 1-1 tie.

So that left it to the final game. The entire team watched the game and cheered for the Gators - if the Gators beat the Hokies, we were the champions. If the Hokies win, we're second place. And then there's the situation of a tie. If the Hokies tie the Gators, then we have even records at the end of 4 games. And lo and behold, that's what happened.

So at the end of 4 games, the South Riding United and the Hokies are tied with a 2-0-2 record. The tournament director has to pull out the tiebreaking rules to determine who wins. First criteria: who won head to head competition? Well, it was a tie. Then, it went to the team with most wins - we each had 2. At that point it went to Bonus Points. Bonus Points are awarded for each goal above and beyond your competitor in each game, for a maximum of 3. We won a game 1-0 yesterday for 1 bonus point. We won a game today 5-0 for 3 bonus points, for a total of 4. The Hokies won 2-1 yesterday and 3-1 today for a total of 3 bonus points.

So we won!! It was touch and go all day and Samantha really did a great job in the last game of playing defense and helping to keep the ball away from our goal.

1-0-1 and 2.25

1-0-1: That's Samantha's soccer team's record after the first day of tournament play. They could have beat the team they tied - they just weren't playing their best today. We won the first game 1-0 and tied the second on 0-0. So two more games tomorrow and then we'll find out our standings. We are "tied" for first right now - but its round robin and we have two more teams to play tomorrow. The team we tied today is the other team tied for first place. It will be interesting tomorrow.

2.25 - that's how much I paid per gallon for gas this morning on the way to the game. I can remember when we were aghast at a price that high - now we celebrate how low it is!

Appointments

A nice thing about homeschooling is that you can schedule appointments "during the day" and not worry about "missing school".

But here's the thing - you do miss school.

I try to schedule things in the afternoon, because the majority of our schoolwork is done in the morning. But it doesn't always happen that way.

I have a great schedule that we follow on most days that gets all of our work done efficiently. Until we have an appointment.

If we have an appointment during the morning, it throws the entire schedule off. So I have to figure out what to do. Because I have my mother's brain that doesn't always think in the morning, often having an appointment means skipping most everything else.

Practicing their piano is a priority. Doing part of their writing assignment for writing class is a priority. Both of these are because there are others involved with their progress (or lack thereof). So I make those a priority. Often when there's an appointment in the AM, the only thing that happens is piano practicing and their writing assignments.

I'm hoping to find a way to integrate appointments more easily into the schedule but it hasn't happened yet - I'm still hoping.

Can she have this?

I get asked this question a lot. Its a very valid question. Many people have not had an interaction around a Type 1 diabetic that involved food. And honestly, until I had one in my own family, my knowledge was very limited as well.

The treatment of Type 1 diabetes has changed significantly over the last generation, the last 10 years, and even the last 5, with the introduction of single "24-hour" insulins, fast-acting insulins, and insulin pumps to replace the regimented, scheduled treatments of the previous generations.

For Emma, its all about carbs. She asks me all the time, "How many carbs does this have?" or she tells me herself. Because for a diabetic, its carbohydrates that are converted into sugar. Its the sugar that is poison to her system - IF she doesn't have insulin to counteract it. Its all about the carbs

And in previous generations, diabetics were relegated to eating a certain number of carbs at a certain time to day, to match the action of their insulin. Now Emma can eat any amount she wants at any TIME she wants (or whatever we decide whenever we get around to eating it). Its just a matter of matching her insulin dose to the carbs she eats.

So, it might be grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Or, it might be a McDonalds Happy Meal with Chicken Nuggets and French Fries. Or even a big piece of birthday cake after a couple of greasy pieces of pizza.

Its all ok for her! And we're very thankful for the treatment advances over the past years that have made it possible.

And I'm happy to continue to educate my friends and acquaintances who ask out of genuine concern and love for Emma and a desire to keep her safe and healthy. Yes, its ok if she has that piece of candy, but thanks for asking!

What is normal?

When you talk about blood sugars, you often ask the question (or you are ASKED the question), "What is normal"?

Well, normal means lots of things.

For a completely healthy non-diabetic, normal blood sugar readings would be 70-120.
Even right after a meal.

Your body has an amazing ability to secrete insulin that is immediately effective on sugars in your system - synthetic insulin is much slower.

Normal for a Type 2 diabetic that is diet-controlled is about the same as a non-diabetic.

Normal for a diabetic is a bit different. Would we LOVE Emma to always be within 70 and 120 for her readings? ABSOLUTELY.

Will that happen? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Is it normal to see a reading over 200 after breakfast? Yep
Is it normal to see a reading of 50 after a lot of activity? Yep
Is it normal to see an unexplained reading of 300+? Yep
Is it normal to see an unexplained reading below 40? Yep

So, for us, normal is relative. We target numbers in the 80 - 150 range. But its not abnormal to see anywhere from 50 - 300!

For a diabetic, its not about a single number. Its about how we deal with that single number, how we react to trends, and how we fix a situation that we handled incorrectly (overdose, underdose, missed dose, bad pump site, bad insulin, illness, etc)

One reading at a time.

Symptoms of Type 1 diabetes

In honor of National Diabetes Awareness Month, I'm going to have a series of posts over the month that hopefully help to educate and raise awareness about diabetes. I know I have some readers that aren't associated with Type 1 diabetes, so I hope this is beneficial.

When people ask me how I knew that Emma should be checked for diabetes, my answer is simple: she was drinking an enormous amount of water and peeing a lot! It was that simple.

Diabetics without insulin cannot process carbohydrates and convert them to energy (because they need insulin to do that). Therefore, their system tries to dispose of the carbohydrates and they end up as sugar in the person's blood stream. Having excess sugar in the blood stream makes the person thirsty. They keep drinking and drinking trying to quench a thirst that is unquenchable.

When a person's body doesn't get its energy from carbohydrates, it burns body fat to get energy. The resulting by-product of that process are ketones. This process makes a diabetic lose weight and ketones are poisonous to the human body.

The excess water the person is drinking, combined with the ketones produced by the body, makes a person need to use the bathroom A LOT. Its so extreme that it can be quite obvious that a person needs to go all the time.

Most people that have identified a person with diabetes, or suspected a person has diabetes, usually picks up on these two symptoms - drinking a lot of water and using the bathroom a lot.

Some of the other related symptoms include: loss of weight, dark circles under the eyes, lethargy due to lack of energy from food, and extreme irritability.

Identifying a person at risk to Type 1 diabetes EARLY is key to help them get the diagnosis and begin the insulin treatment that is crucial to save their life. Many diabetics have been diagnosed because they were admitted to the hospital almost in a coma from the extreme high blood sugar levels.

Being aware of the symptoms of Type 1 diabetes and discussing any concerns with the family doctor is the key to early diagnosis.

Second Place!

We had a very exciting baseball weekend!

Michael's travel team played in a tournament with 4 teams - 3 from the regular season league and 1 additional team. It was a double-elimination tournament.

We lost our first game on Saturday to the Manassas Generals - we lost all 4 games to them in the regular season. The second game on Saturday was against the Virginia Young Guns, who we beat twice and lost to twice in the regular season. At the end of the 2 hour time limit, we were tied 10-10. The tiebreaking rules say that you play another inning starting with a runner on 2nd base. Well, it was 6:05 and it was clear we couldn't finish that inning before dark, so the entire inning was rescheduled to play at 9:30 on Sunday morning.

That was very advantageous for us - a pitcher who couldn't be there on Saturday could be there Sunday morning.

So we went to the field on Sunday morning just hoping to win the one inning we play at 9:30. We batted first and scored two runs, and then shut down the other team and won the game 12-10.

The boys were ecstatic, but had to regroup beause we now had to play the Manassas Generals again.

We played a FANTASTIC game. Our pitcher SHUT THEM DOWN and we won 12-0 in 4 innings due to the mercy rule. This against a team that we hadn't beat all season!

So all of a sudden we were in the finals against a fantastic team from Harrisonburg - the Valley Diamond Dawgs. This team was intimidating.

Our boys played very well and while we lost 9-5, it was very competitive and we were thrilled at how well the team did.

We beat BOTH of our regular season opponents in the tournament and came in 2nd to a great team - great results for our first season as a travel team.

Michael had a tough time pitching due to a sore arm - we were all disappointed (including him) that we weren't able to have him pitch more - but he hit the ball very well and played strong in the outfield, including assisting in a play to prevent a hitter from getting a home run by getting the ball in and eventually having the catcher tag the runner at home!

Winning doesn't always mean 1st place - as far as I'm concerned, we WON!

My mother will laugh at this!

When I was growing up, we spent a lot of time at the baseball field. There was this little boy who was always running around the field - his brother was a couple of years older than him and was often on my brother's team.

Well, this boy never met a dirt pile or a mud puddle he didn't like. He was ALWAYS covered in dirt.

I am now the mother of one of these - she is 3 and her name is Emma!

Happy Birthday Granny!

Just taking a quick stop home between baseball tournament games and wanted to take a quick second to wish Granny a Happy Birthday!

There are downsides to homeschooling!

Most homeschooling parents love homeschooling! Most really feel its their calling in life.

So, you will often hear about all of the fantastic benefits of homeschooling. And there are many benefits of homeschooling. But you rarely hear about the downsides. I thought I'd share some:

-- The papers just keep on coming. You skip grading papers for one or two (or seven) days, and the amount of time it will take to catch up becomes daunting.

-- Teacher workdays don't help you feel "caught up"; they often make you feel behind because you didn't do lessons that day.

-- There are no substitute teachers if you need a sick day or a mental health day. Unless the principal (Dad) wants to take it on!

-- Homeschooling is really a misnomer. You find yourself in the car MORE and away from HOME so you can add in "specials" such as art, music, creative writing, drama, sports, etc that the other kids have in school!

-- Instead of the kids getting OUT of the house during the day and you having a chance to CATCH up on housework, they are AROUND the house all day creating MORE housework.

-- A Parent-Teacher conference just makes others think you are MORE nuts because you sit around talking to yourself!

I have spent the past day or so grading a week's worth of papers, vacuuming 3 rooms that desperately needed it, sorted through no fewer than TWENTY sets of Scholastic order forms, finished cutting apart the Latin vocabulary word flashcards, listed some unused homeschool items online to sell, analyzed and sent a week's worth of Emma's readings to the nurse for analysis, and many other miscellaneous things that have just been building up, or finally needed to be done. I'm feeling a little more caught up, but I'm trying not to "rest on my laurels" becuase I know that if I don't KEEP up, I'll have that week's worth of papers to review again NEXT week!

And don't get me wrong - this is still the right decision for Samantha and Michael but don't let anyone tell you that homeschooling parents are taking the "easy way out" - no way!

Hello Winter!

Boy this has been a weird fall.

Today, the high temperature in Suburban Washington, DC is 48!

That's right - 48 degrees.

And that's before the wind chill. The forecast calls for wind gusts up to 40mph this afternoon.

Sounds more like Winter to me!

It must be in our blood

To say that I grew up around baseball would be an understatement. My dad started and ran leagues, coached teams, organized events, and even coached an AAU team that won a state tournament and competed in the National AAU tournament. I kept score for years, for both Little League games and our high school baseball team.

Mike grew up in Williamsport, PA - home of Little League baseball - need I say more.

We are both happy that Michael is interested in baseball, since we both like it so much. We have cheered through many seasons of soccer with Samantha and Michael and enjoyed watching the games. But I haven't felt nearly the excitement at any of the "fast-paced", always moving soccer games as I have at most of Michael's recent travel baseball games.

Many say that baseball is boring. Not much action and lot of standing around. Then why is my stomach in knots just wishing Michael's team to just get one more out before the other team scores another run? To just WILL the boys to hit the ball and not get out, and to cheer loudly when a steal turns into another base?

It must be in our blood.

589 days!

1 year, 7 months, and 9 days

That's how long Emma's been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. She's had it longer, obviously, during the time she suffered with it before it was diagnosed.

On many days, her diabetes just blends into our life seamlessly and its no more burden than reminding the kids to put on their shoes, brush their teeth, etc.

Other days, the burden is much heavier.

We have been fighting crazy numbers for quite a few weeks now. Lots of high highs and low lows. Its frustrating for us, and I know doesn't feel good for her. As a result, we've been testing a lot more than normal, so its now a more prominent part of our lives (especially in the middle of the night)

And the impacts it has had on our lives feel more, well, impactful right now. Emma was at a babysitter yesterday while Michael had a baseball game (we didn't want to subject her to the cold for those long hours in the evening). The babysitter had graciously agreed to check Emma's sugar levels. But she called at the first scheduled time to say she was having trouble. So there I was trying to keep the scorebook for the baseball game and troubleshoot what might be going wrong over the phone. I finally told her to just take a break and try at the next hour. It worked fine then.

Today, Emma was dropped off from preschool and the other mom casually said "Emma didn't eat all of her cookies". It had been about an hour since they had had lunch at school. I checked her sugar and she was ALREADY low (and had a lot of insulin still working). I had to give her juice and milk to compensate for the fact that she had been dosed for 16 carbs that she didn't eat.

Trying to balance keeping her safe and healthy with how involved her other caretakers are is tough. Her preschool teacher is the only adult in her little "in home" preschool. She checked Emma's levels before snack and lunch and then doses her. It's confusing enough for her to do this with 7 other kids, so I've tried not to ask her to check BEFORE lunch but dose AFTER lunch to make sure she ate it all. I want diabetes to integrate seamlessly into her school as well.

Some days are just harder than others. This is one of those days. I've lost the ability to look at my child and just smile at her sweetness (she is pretty sweet). Unfortunately, that thought is immediately followed by "I wonder what her reading is right now". It just stinks. It makes us tired.

I hope for the day that they develop a cure for Type 1 diabetes. I'll be first in line (and I know I'll be fighting with a lot of other mothers for that first spot in line). We've always heard its "within the next 20 years" but is it really. No one knows. And as the treatments have become so much better than they were 10, 15, or 20 years ago, it makes many believe that research time and dollars could be spent on diseases that are "more deserving" - I mean, our kids get along, just fine right?

Tomorrow will be 590 days. I look forward to the day I stop counting.

Virtual Friends are Real Ones Too!

I debated through several titles before posting this one - mainly so that I didn't alarm anyone with more, well, alarming titles.

I read and post on several online message boards. After a while, you come to know the people on these boards almost as well as you do your "in person" friends. One of these message boards that I frequent is based on scrapbooking, a hobby that many of us love. I have driven to several different states to meet in person some of the people that I have "met" online in that community.

Today, we mourn with a member of that online community. I never met Donnann in person but knew of her through our message board. Last week, she took her 5-year-old son Danny to the Emergency Room after he had woken up unable to stand or walk. The couple of weeks before, she had been asking for advice because he had stopped eating, was getting sick, and losing weight.

She walked into the ER with a sick child and walked out with empty arms.

The doctors found a 4cm tumor on his brain stem and attempted to remove it through surgery. Danny never came out of his coma and died.

No mother should ever have to bury her child.

Donnann and her family went from planning trips to the park to planning his funeral.

No mother should ever have to bury her child.

Danny gave the gift of life to 4 other people with donated organs. Today they celebrated his life and mourned his death.

Danny loved the movie Cars and Lightning McQueen. All around the world, online friends of Donnann's family released Red Balloons in honor of Danny who left the world too early.

No mother should ever have to bury her child.

Make sure you hug your own children a little tighter tonight!

I think the thermometer lied!!

We spent over 6 hours outside today at Michael's double-header baseball game. I am in charge of the concession stand, so we have to get there extra early to set up. We arrived at 11:30 and left around 6pm.

The weather report said a high of 60 today. Considering last Sunday it was about 83 degrees at our game, this was a big change.

What the weather report didn't say was GUSTING WIND.

The thermometer in the car when we left said 55. I don't believe it.

I've been home almost 3 hours and I'm still cold down to my bones.

The wind was blowing through the fields today and the sun was giving no warmth.

The boys, being typical 8 year old boys, said "I'm not cold" but I insisted Michael put on his jacket and then I would find him putting his hands in the pockets - so it was at least cold enough for that!

Welcome Fall!

9 weeks!

When it comes to school, that's a magic number. I remember growing up that everything was about the "9 weeks". "The first nine weeks", "the end of the nine weeks", the "last nine weeks".

The school year was divided into 9 weeks, for a total of 36 weeks and approximately 180 school days.

This coming week is our 9th week this year. I feel like its a milestone. Our 8th week wasn't fantastic because Samantha felt a little under the weather a couple of days and didn't do schoolwork, which meant at a minimum that we wouldn't be doing History and Science, because she does those subjects with Michael. After that it was pretty easy to give Michael a day off, or an easy day, because Samantha was already "down for the count".

So, we will complete our "First 9 weeks" this week. This has been the best nine weeks we've had homeschooling, in terms of productivity. Our family schedule and lesson plans are really keeping us moving. My kids are like me in that they like to check things off a list - so I'm giving them lists.

The kids are also doing more chores, because I put those on the weekly schedule. All of our bathrooms are getting cleaned each Friday, and the front hall and family room and both sets of stairs are being dusted each Friday. The kitchen floor (supposedly) gets swept every day. I'll add more in as I feel like they are comfortable with these. Right now, they still drag along and it takes far too long to do them - who would have thought you could spend 30 minutes cleaning the toilet and the sink in a bathroom!

Our fall sports seasons are getting close to winding down - a couple of weeks left. Samantha scored a goal today in her soccer game - the first this season. She was quite excited. Michael has had some great outings in baseball (3 innings pitched, 7 strikouts) and some only ok outings. But he's hitting the ball well and staying focused, so we can't ask for much more.

Michael earned his Blue Stripe belt in Tae Kwon Do. I just downloaded photos so I'll post some later.

Our nephew Gavin visited with us for the night last weekend so his parents could go to a High School reunion. Mike took them to play putt-putt golf and they all had a great time!

Emma is loving preschool. She got to do a "Me poster" that talked all about her and we put some photos of her and her family on it and she colored it with colored pencils - she was excited to use colored pencils. When asked her favorite place to go, she said "Home" :). We talked a little more and it became "Preschool" and finally it was "Walt Disney World". We stuck with that one. Who can blame her!!

We made CO2 today

We have been studying about the states of matter in science - solids, liquids, and gasses. I have to admit that science has just not been my favorite subject since I started homeschooling. But today's little experiment helped change my mind a little - we made Carbon Dioxide! And we "poured it"

We mixed vinegar and baking soda together in a jar and then held a match over the mouth of the jar to show the flame going on - showing the carbon dioxide in the mouth of the jar.

Then we lit a candle. We mixed the vinegar and baking soda again. I think formed a kind of "sluice" with a piece of cardboard and "poured" the Carbon Dioxide. No liquid came out, but the cardboard functioned to direct the CO₂ down towards the burning candle and it put out the flame.

Really cool! If all of science was like this, I could get into it (as long as someone else gets all the supplies together in the first place - I hate having to track all the stuff down)

Blog on short hiatus

I'm having a slight problem with my laptop, in that if I try to open the monitor more than, say 2", the entire screen turns pink. I'm currently typing with my laptop opened, looking like an alligator's mouth, so that the screen is white and not pink

Sorry I haven't updated. Had a good weekend. Getting a major crick in my neck for working like this and signing off until I get the monitor fixed.