Forty Days of Diabetes - Day 7

How low can you go?

Some people have rescue inhalers with them at all times, we have rescue Skittles. A person with a functioning pancreas can hover around 70 when fasting without feeling symptomatic. A person with T1D might start feeling symtomatic around 80 and get progressively worse as their blood sugar drops lower. Or they might feel symptomatic if they're dropping fast from a recent dose of insulin. 

We treat these lows with the rule of 15's. Check blood sugar, treat with 15 grams of fast acting sugar, recheck blood sugar in 15 minutes. And check, treat, repeat as necessary. In the meantime Caitlin feels horrible and is ravenously hungry. She's trying to inhale a giant bag of skittles and I'm trying desperately to keep track of how many she's shoveling into her mouth while anticipating a rebound high from over treating.

Forty Days of Diabetes - Day 6

Insulin is not a cure...

If you had 5 minutes to evacuate your home what would you grab? Family heirlooms, jewelry, photo albums, your laptop?  Ask any family with T1D and they would all answer the same. Diabetes supplies. Not a thought would be given to anything else in the house, we would make a beeline for that cabinet full of D supplies and load up.  

Without insulin a person with Type 1 Diabetes would begin showing the first signs of Diabetic Ketoacidosis in about 4 hours.  Without insulin your body begins to break down fat as fuel which leads to high levels of blood acids called ketones. Left untreated DKA will lead to seizures, coma, and eventually death. Some Type 1's can have some residual beta cell capacity even years after diagnosis so it's unknown how fast DKA would advance. Someone with 0% insulin production would fall ill within 12-24 hours after their last insulin dose and mortal outcome would likely occur within a day to a week or two.

Insulin is not a cure.  I'm so thankful for the pharmaceuticals and technology we have but to be so dependent on outside sources to keep our children alive is just plain scary.  We need a cure! Help us turn type one into type none with JDRF.  

Caitlin's Ketone Crushers Team Walk Page

Forty Day of Diabetes - Day 5

Forty Days of Diabetes - Day 5

Yes, she can eat that. She can eat everything you and I can eat except she has to match up her carbohydrate intake with her insulin boluses. Not as easy as it sounds.  Carbohydrates are found in sugar, starches and fiber so they're in almost everything we eat. And they're not all created equal. Absorption rates are influenced by the glycemic index of the foods and fat, fiber, and protein content. It's a magical juggling act to get the insulin onset to match up with the food absorption rate. With a functioning pancreas our blood sugars can be as low as 70 before meals and as high as 180 two hours after meals. Caitlin's blood sugars rise and fall like a roller coaster throughout the day. She has wild swings from very low (scary-hurry-up-and-get-the-skittles-low) to so high at times that her blood sugar meter simply reads HI. 

So, yes, she can eat that. Not as easily as you or I but she can eat that.

Forty Days of Diabetes - Day 4

Why JDRF?

I'd never heard of JDRF before D Day. I'd probably seen ads for it, or maybe their sneaker logo fundraisers at Walgreens or Marshall's, but never paid it much attention. It didn't pertain to me, I was busy thinking about other things and Diabetes was something that happened to other people.  

And then there was D and we were feeling vulnerable and overwhelmed and along came a package with a JDRF backpack full of books, T1D literature and Lenny the Lion. An actual stuffed lion with patches on his body where Caitlin could practice giving insulin shots. Shortly after that there were phone calls and emails from volunteers reaching out to us.  Other D parents who knew exactly what we were going through. It seemed a natural fit to fundraise for them once life started to return to normal, or our new normal.

• JDRF is the leading global organization funding T1D research with more than 100 U.S. locations and 6 international affiliates.
• Since inception, JDRF has contributed over $1.9B to T1D research and including $98M in 2014.
• JDRF is currently funding 45 human clinical trials of potential T1D therapies.
• Approximately 80% of JDRF expenditures directly support T1D research and research-related education

JDRF’s highest priority remains funding research to deliver a cure for T1D and its complications. At the same time, JDRF is also focused on developing better treatments that will transform the way people with T1D treat the disease today, in order to help them live healthier lives now and in the future. Finally, JDRF also seeks to prevent T1D, to keep future generations from developing the disease.

You can help create a world without Type 1 Diabetes by making a tax deductible donation to JDRF. Click below to donate to our walk team or to join our walk team and fundraise on our behalf. Thank you!!!

Caitlin's Ketone Crushers Team Page 

Forty Days of Diabetes - Day 3

Oh the things people say.....

I've heard most of these more than once. I took Caitlin for a haircut several weeks after diagnosis. The stylist saw us checking her blood sugar before she climbed into the chair and said, "aww, my grammy had diabetes and they cut her legs off". I had no words.

The one that makes me scratch my head the most is when I'm told, "I could never give my child a needle".  The sarcastic ass in me wants to ask if they'd choose to let their child die but I just smile and nod.  And then pray that they never have to join our club. 

frown emoticon

Forty Days of Diabetes - Day 2

Test Strips and Lancets and Snacks, oh my..........

Back to school shopping looks a little different in our house. It includes the usual stuff like notebooks, pencils and graphing calculators (pink, of course). But, unfortunately, T1D comes with a lot of baggage.

We have a new school nurse this year. About half way through the summer I received a text from Caitlin's usual nurse informing me that she'd taken a position in another school in the district. Instant stress! We've been working with Darlene for two years and everything has gone as smoothly as we could hope for. She's supportive and very understanding of the complexities of T1D. Not all families are as lucky as we are with the support we receive from the Nashoba school district.  

Caitlin and I met with our new nurse yesterday and unloaded our supplies and the first words out of her mouth were, "oh my, I'm going to need a bigger bin". Unless you're up close and personal with T1D you have no way of knowing how much gear comes along with it.  

A typical list looks something like this:

• blood sugar meter and test strips
• lancing device and lancets
• ketone meter and test strips
• alcohol swabs
• syringes
• insulin
• pump sites
• fast acting sugar (candy, juice, glucose tabs)
• Glucagon

These aren't things we keep just in the nurses office at school. These are things we carry with us every single day and everywhere we go.  

And the new school nurse?  I have a feeling we're going to have a very good year.

Forty Days of Diabetes - Day 1

Our third JDRF walk is sneaking up on us.  This means that T1D has been in our lives for almost three years.  It's becoming more difficult to remember a time when it wasn't there.  Last year I kicked off our fundraising campaign with Forty Days of Diabetes on Facebook to raise awareness not only about Type 1 Diabetes but also about how much it affects a whole family living with it.  

So it seemed so appropriate to talk about Caitlin's nighttime low last night.  Things like this don't happen very often but they're not so uncommon either.  We walk the fine line every day of trying to keep her as close to 100 as possible without inducing hypoglycemic events.  It's not easy!!

Forty Days of Diabetes - Day 1

Tap, tap, tap.... I peek at my phone, it's 2:30am. She sneaks the door open, "I'm 64". Her voice is small and sad. She's too tired to eat, just wants to sleep. I walk her back to her room and lay with her while she eats Skittles. Even a child doesn't want to eat Skittles in the middle of the night. I worry about cavities, I worry about the "what-if's", what if she hadn't woken up, what if she'd been at a sleepover, what will happen when she goes to college? I worry....

And then we check and recheck until we see a happy number and everyone goes back to bed. Just a regular night in a house where T1D lives.