When Three Diabetics is a Good Thing

Hardly ever.

But that said, I must admit it does come in handy every once in a while.

The Three Bears Phenomenon
Because there's three, test time is quite unusual.  We've always got one who's too high, one too low, and another whose blood sugar is just right.  Depending on how you look at it, and we prefer to see the glass half full (admittedly though, this is sometimes quite a challenge to do), the positive side is that we've always got someone in the house right on target!  This is a good thing.

Problem Solving as a Group
 If there's a problem we've got to think through, someone else in the family has probably experienced it and has paved the way to a great answer.  This is also a good thing.  It was especially helpful to us yesterday when Mitchell's pump stopped working.

Over the past week, his pump has been going through new batteries like a fiendish addiction, often demanding fresh batteries every two or three days.  On Sunday night his pump shut off and gave him an A21 and then an A17 alert.  Luckily the good people at Medtronic are always available.  After having us clean the metal battery cap that makes contact with the battery, they decided to go ahead and ship out a new cap to try.

After hanging up the phone I realized Cheyenne had experienced this problem a few years back so I gave her a call.  Her advise?  Get a new pump.  She reminded me that when her pump did the very same thing it was not a faulty battery cap, in fact the cap was in great condition and looked perfectly new.  Replacing the battery cap only prolonged the length of time she was off the pump before getting a replacement pump she inevitably had to get to solve the problem.  After checking Mitchell's pump cap and finding it in pristine condition, we decided her advise would get the problem solved faster.

Luckily, his pump was still under warranty.  I quickly called them back and they were more than happy to send out a new pump.  Until then, we're back to the old school way of doing things.  But I've logged more years with a trusty old syringe than a pump, so we're well within my comfort zone.  Like revisiting an old friend (we've used over 20,000 of them). 

and lastly,

We've Got Our Lows Covered
Every once in a while someone goes low when they're unprepared.  Never a good thing, but it happens.  Once again, this allows another sibling to come to the rescue.  Everyone carries emergency supplies for lows but inevitably someone forgets to replenish their supplies (not naming names, but I will tell you this is usually a teenager).  The other day, said teenager experienced a low and was completely unprepared (exasperated gasp).  Chloe to the rescue!  She simply reached in her bag, pulled out a juice box, and voilia!  Problem solved.  Then she gave the above UNmentioned teenager the "low lecture", as only a nine year-old can do, and reminded her sibling of the dangers of being unprepared.  Not bad huh?  I've got built-in medic/spy.

Honestly, three kids with diabetes is overwhelming a lot of times.  But sometimes, every once in a while, it's a good thing.