Because I'm not feeling overly creative...

Outside my window...lighter than normal traffic on Willows Road. (The cool thing about my work location is that I can look across the valley and see the area where my grandparents lived. It makes me feel less alone. The uncool thing about this location is the hellish commute.)

I am thinking... that next year I need to ask for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving off so I can volunteer at Grandparents Day at St. Anthony's.

I am thankful for...insulin, my kids, my parents, Tennyson (my cat, not the poet), Fredrick Banting, Medtronic, JDRF, great teachers, friends, other bloggers who know what it's like to have a type 1 kid, Diane Kane (Sain's health room coordinator who does an AMAZING job!).

I am wearing.... jeans, skate shoes and a Maple Leafs hoodie. (how predictable!)

I am creating...a manual for my job, Christmas cards, and the early drafts of this year's Beat the Bridge letter.

I am going...slowly insane :) No, I guess I am going home then to the karate school but that's not for quite a while.

I am reading...Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood.

I am hoping...for a cure, stability, snow, peace, a Stanley Cup for my Leafs.

I am hearing...the hum of the HVAC and someone typing a few cubes away.

Around the house....Tennyson is probably having a wild party (or sleeping.)

One of my favorite things...the sound of blades on ice (a hockey person will understand.)

A few plans for the rest of the week: Work, karate, work, karate, Thanksgiving at my parents, sleep, then more karate.

Our Weekend

High, High, Low, Lower, dangerously Low, Low, Really High, low, low, low, high etc.

UGH!!

I love that my kid is growing and growing up but man is it wreaking havoc on her blood sugars!

(She's doing better now but it was definitely a fun weekend!)

Also, Sain is no longer a white belt... she's now an Orange Recommended! (I will get the picture up on Flickr tonight.)

snow

I miss Toronto a lot today.

Worries

I am hoping by writing this I will somehow make my worry go away.

Back story -- Aidan is a part of a research study that tracks to progression of diabetes. He was genetically tested at the age of 3 for a gene linked to diabetes. He has it. Aidan was also tested for autoantibodies linked to diabetes. He has them. For two years he's had no progression. Just because he has the gene and autoantibodies doesn't mean he will develop the disease... they keep reassuring me this.

Jump ahead to Aidan's 5th birthday. I have Aidan's bloodwork done every birthday (nice present, eh?) and wait for the letter saying everything is fine. This year I got the phone call asking me to bring him back in for a second blood draw. Aidan's second blood draw was in early September. I was told I would hear back in 6 - 8 weeks. I haven't gotten the much desired letter (you ALWAYS want a letter rather than a phone call with blood work -- that's one thing I've learned) and I am trying not to worry since I haven't gotten the phone call yet either.

What I am really, really hoping for is a letter in my mailbox when I get home today. I'll keep you posted.

Today's A1C

Not too bad considering the extreme highs for the last two weeks from illness and growing over an inch in the last 3 months! (she's over 4'6" now (138 cm))

(Sain's last A1C was 7.4. I was expecting this one to be higher because of all the sustained highs she had with the infection. What a pleasant surprise 6.9 was... it's nice when all the hard work pays off!)

Happy World Diabetes Day!

A few facts:
-Every 10 seconds a person dies from diabetes-related causes.
-Every 10 seconds two people develop diabetes.
-Over 250 million people live with diabetes worldwide. In 2025, this figure will reach 380 million.
-More than 200 children a day develop type 1 diabetes.
-In developing countries, close to 75,000 children live with diabetes in desperate circumstances.
-Type 1 diabetes is increasing fastest in pre-school children, at a rate of 5% each year.

Sain and Aidan take over the blog for World Diabetes Day (tomorrow)

If you look closely enough

Saturday was belt testing and Sain did amazingly well. Her form was great, she knew her techniques and even Master Dye complimented her (I think that meant the most to Sain.)

No one there knew the week she had but if you look closely enough there was a sign.

Sain kept both her hospital bracelets on for testing and when asked why responded, "They remind me how close I was to not being able to test and if I get to nervous they remind me how lucky I am to be here."

Next Saturday a number of kids will be awarded their new ranks. I know I am a bit bias but no kid deserves advancement quite as much as Sain.

How we spent the last 3 and a half days

It started Saturday evening with nearly 3 hours of unexplainable "High BG -- over 600" readings. We bolused, changed sets and insulin, bolused again, gave injection and, as a last resort, had Sain take a warm shower to get the insulin going.

I almost went to Children's at that point but the numbers finally started to go down.

Sunday the pain began. Sain rarely complains about physical pain -- if anything she's a bit too stoic but I was startled Sunday morning to hear her scream in pain from the bathroom.

(I will skip ahead to Sunday afternoon)

After a number of hours of pain and high blood sugar I took Sain into Children's ER. It seemed pretty clear cut, probably a urinary tract infection. All tests came back fine -- no infection, no acidosis, all labs were fine. The doctors were actually amazed at how healthy Sain is. After 4 hours of tests she was given an IV because of the dehydration from the highs and we were sent home and told to come back if the pain continued or got worse.

Monday it got worse. I decided to try Urgent Care from the local hospital (a 2 mile drive versus a 20 mile drive) and was pretty much told I was a hypocondriac mom whose child had uncontrolled diabetes. (Side note on that, Sain hasn't wanted to eat of late so when she wanted a maple bar I got her one. She ate it about 45 mintues before we went to urgent care so her BG was high and there was sugar in her urine sample.) All the Urgent Care doctor would focus on was the high BG and he treated me like I was an idiot who didn't know how to care for my daughter. I swear he only spent 5 minutes with us.

We spent Monday night alternating between advil and tylenol for the pain and doing many, many extra boluses to lower BG. Also, Aidan got sick on Monday night. :(

This morning I went to work for an hour to get some urgent things done and then took Sain back to Children's. They retested her and found a very aggressive urinary tract infection that didn't show up on Sunday's test. She was in severe pain most the afternoon but seems to be responding to the very strong antibiotic they prescribed. (She and Aidan are doing karate in the living room right now.)

Hopefully the BGs will come down soon - -she's 342 now and, sadly, that is a good number for today! (but no ketones!!)

AND HAPPY 41ST ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!