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.

I'll Take That as a Compliment

Last week when Chloe needed to change her pump reservoir, Cheyenne and Justice happened to be in town on a surprise visit for the weekend.  Currently, I'm the only one in the house that knows how to use the Sil-Serter (a.k.a. "The Torpedo Launcher") to insert her pump site.  Both Cheyenne and Mitchell use the Quick-Serter.  It just so happened I was sick and resting in bed, but as chance would have it, Justice uses the Sil-Serter so he offered to help Chloe change her pump site.  This was a great idea!  Son-in-Law to the rescue!  Except for one problem.  Chloe did not want him to do it.  She adores Justice and has him help her count carbs at meal time and such but she was NOT having him change her pump!  She wanted "mom to do it".

She came upstairs to find me in a flurry of Kleenex and NyQuil cups and informed me that I was the only one who was allowed to change her pump.  The funny thing is, that a few weeks ago, after first getting her pump, she would often suggest that we go back to the doctor's office and have her favorite nurse Maryanne change it each time.  During the first couple of weeks she was not real happy with the way I was getting the job done.  And honestly, in the entire span of my 16-year diabetes "career", this dang torpedo launching Sil-Serter gadget gizmo-thingy, well, it has me nervous each and every time I've had to use it!  So I found it quite amusing that she wanted ME to change her pump and not Justice, who's a pro.  Her conversation with me went a bit like this...

Chloe:  Mom I need to change my pump and I want you to do it.

Me:  Are you sure you don't want Justice to do it?

Chloe:  (furrowed brows) Yes, I'm sure!

Me:  Really?  Cause Chloe, he has way more experience at it than me.  He's been doing it for years.

Chloe:  So.

Me:  Seriously, you'd rather have me change it?

Chloe:  Yes mom.

Me:  Really?  Can I tell you something?

Chloe:  What?

Me:  I still get really nervous when I change that thing.  It freaks me out.  Are you sure Justice can't do it?   

(at this point I should probably admit that it is never a good idea to tell your child that you get nervous about any aspect of their diabetes care.  You want them to be confident in your care.  However, I think that under the influence of the above mentioned sniffling-sneezing-coughing-aching-stuffy-head medicine, well, let's just say it made me a lot more candid with her than I should have been!)

Chloe:  No mom.  I know you get nervous, but I trust you.  You do it really good.  Even when I scream.

Me:  Wow, you know that? and you still trust me? 

Chloe:  Yes, I only like you to do it.

Me:  Okay then (sneeze), let's go get the stuff.

Chloe:  smile

Mark says she's imprinted on me.  She won't even let him do it  (course, come to think of it, neither would I).  The strange thing is that I never get nervous about much of anything.  I'm fine with blood, guts, needles, skydiving, public speaking; not much gets me nervous.  But this Sil-Serter, this things' really got me!  It just looks so violent!  And here I thought I was putting on a brave face so Chloe wouldn't see my nerves, apparently she saw through it, but she doesn't care.  She trusts me!

I'll take that as a compliment.

Fridge Art?

Some friends came over the other day and pointed out the fact that the "fridge art" we unabashedly display on our fridge is quite unique.  I guess we're guilty there.  I suppose the stuff you display on the front of your fridge is usually the things you care most about, like your child's latest works of art, cherished photos, the phone number of your favorite pizza place.  And since the space there is pretty limited you've got to be choosy.  Only the most important things make it to the magnet.  It's a little like being the curator for the Louvre-you've only got so much square footage to display a world of meaningful things. 

So, if what goes on the fridge front can tell you a lot about the family, what does yours display?  Inspriational quotes?  Photo collages? Kindergarten art? Maybe even coupons.

Originally, my fridge was supposed to display absolutely nothing.  What does that say about us?  That I'm a neat freak?  Probably.  I made sure there was nothing on my fridge a magnet could stick to so I wouldn't collect a jumbled mess of trinkets on my fridge.  Unfortunately, that plan recently went awry.  Here's a closer look at what we've now got on ours...

Post-it Notes!  And what does this say about us?  Well, perhaps that we love food facts more than we love family photos.  It also says, that Chloe is trying really hard to memorize how many carbs are in her favorite foods so she can bolus for them without looking it all up each time.  So while we're on the steep learning curve, folks who come to visit us will get to enjoy valuable nutritional facts about our favorite things to eat!  We call it "Informational Food Art".

Meter Mania!

Now that Chloe's on a pump, she's using a new blood glucose meter.  I went to put her old meter in a cupboard that has come to be known as "the graveyard of old meters", I saw an ever-increasing pile of retired relics that have been so much apart of our diabetes journey.  It was interesting to look back at all the old meters we've used on the kids over the last 16 years...things have come a long way!

 

This is the first meter we ever used. It is rather nostalgic to look at. This one brings back a flood of memories, mostly of a life changed forever. This meter takes me back 16 years ago as if I was there at the hospital and the world was swirling about me. Testing, poking, strips, tiny band-aids for a 22-month old finger, and confusing food exchanges. If I remember right, it took 45 seconds to get the results. This was amazing since not to long before, folks had no meters at all. They only had keytone strips, which meant any information you had on your child's blood sugars was already antiquated by the time you got it. Can you imagine??  We felt pretty lucky to have such amazing technology right at our finger tips!

Oh, when this baby came out, boy we thought they were sleek and cool!  Check out that big screen!  We carried it around in a huge zippered bag that Cheyenne, who was two, called her "owie-kit" because the thing gave her so many "owies" on her fingers. Results still took 45 seconds. The test strips for these meters look huge to me now, compared to what we're using today. And let me tell you, little kids leave a trail of test strips everywhere they go, and they're a lot easier to suck up with a vacuum now than when we were using this One Touch Profile "dream machine"!  (Whenever I had a vacuum problem, it was always a test strip or band-aid; our house was a land-mine of these items.)

This was called the DEX and it was an exciting new-tech wiz-bang meter that we just had to have. It's big claim to fame was that you didn't have to load the test strips in because you popped in a round foil cartridge that came pre-loaded with 10 test strips! 10! It was like the machine gun of testing meters. By this time Chey was probably around 5-years old and this was such an easy way for her to manage the strips. I don't think we used it for long, probably because the ease of use came with a steep price tag to re-fill the darn thing.  Pretty cool concept though.

If I remember right, these babies took the wait out of waiting. As if 45 seconds took too long! 4 Seconds and you've got yourself a blood sugar reading! I had such a hard time wrapping my head around that one. Frankly, I was suspicious of these little tiny meters that worked so fast. I came from the days of using the big bricks! This little guy was so light and small, it took me a while before I trusted it!  Turns out, this thing was a beauty! And totally reduced the size of the case you had to carry around.

Whoa! This here was the revolution! A meter with a log book in it! Oh yeah!. By the time these came out I had two teenagers using this meter. Ha! Makes it super simple for "surprise inspections"! A step up in size but it sure packed a punch of information inside of it.  And the lit up screen was super sweet.

These little guys are my all-time favorite for non-pumpers. By the time these came out we already had two kids using the BD meter that worked with their pumps, but as for Chloe, the non-pumper, these were fantastic. Small, easy, fun colors, and a port to upload all the information to the doc! Not to mention, so incredibly cheap to buy. Our original meter was around $200 dollars! These little darlings are $20! This made it so easy to keep one at home, one at school, and even one in my purse!

The latest is this guy. So smart it "talks" to the kids pumps.  Wish it could talk to the kids and say "GET A TEST!", but for now, the soft mellow alarm will have to do.  Seriously though, I'd like to have it come with a remote for parents of teenagers that they can push and the thing will shock them to remind them to test!  Oh how great that would be.  Abusive, but nice.

The only downside for our family is that now everyone's cases look EXACTLY alike. We've got a pile of black zipper cases in a basket when they're all home. Tip: We finally devised a quick way to tell them apart...Keychains! Each kid has some sort of do-dad keychain so they can identify their "little black box"

Here's our collection of "pokers":

 

And that's a stroll down Meter Memory Lane!

Chloe Gets Pumped!

It's official. Another family member gets pumped!

Chloe is crazy for the new PINK one.  And thankfully these expensive little babies come in several colors so we can tell them all apart.  Pumps are AMAZING...I call them "A Mom in a Box" since it does most of the work for us now.  A little repreve from being the "human pancreas" for the last decade and a half!

Chloe's been around the diabetes block a few times, watching her brother and sister both get their pumps.  She was excited to get started.  When the moment came, and we pulled everything out of the box, we discovered the insertion device was not the same kind as her older siblings.  They have the rather nebulous looking quick-serter.  These are the gentle looking round devices you use to insert your tubbing.  But as Mitchell can tell you, there's really nothing gentle about it, especially when you're a skinny teenager.  They only look gentle.

But in a world where looks are everything, Chloe's came with the sil-serter which resembles a mini torpedo launcher!  It looked more like the device that punctures plastic price tag holders into place.  Oh my!  Her eyes widened when it came out of the box. Our amazing nurse Maryanne reassured her that it was much more gentle than the quick-serter because this one went in on an angle.

Chloe just laughed nervously and said, "Well, I'm just gonna look away for this..." and then she squinted her eyes shut and braced for pain.

It turns out, it wasn't all that bad.  Chloe said, with a shrug of her shoulders, "It's just another thing you have to get used to".  And she's right.  Boy am I glad she's nine and can reason through these things.  We've come a long way since the days of having to help a wide-eyed two year old through the crazy world of diabetes!