D-Mama and The Flu

Ok, I remember someone saying that when you have a baby there will be nights where you get no sleep and not realizing that they were being literal.  You may not realize that being a D-Mom is like having an infant at times.

Having a child with Diabetes who has the flu is an insomnia enducing event!  You monitor their blood sugar a little more, you let them snuggle in your bed with you (at least we do) and you wake at every cough or snuffle.

Last night was a long one for us.  I was in the midst of a crazy fever when Ali woke up in the middle of a flu induced nightmare.  Alison snored all night and struggled with her breathing.  But in the end, although she's still really sick, her BGLs have been pretty good.  They've yo-yoed up a bit, but we've been able to bring them back down. 

We expected that Junior Kindergarten would expose us to colds and flus, but we were not ready for 5 illnesses in four weeks :).  Not like this, never like this as they say!

Oh! Well!  We'll nap this afternoon and hope that we all have a better go at sleep tonight! 

Long Time No Blog

I can't believe that I haven't put a post up in three months.  Wait, that's not true!  Life has been so busy and exhausting, that I usually find myself asleep before my head even hits the pillow!

So what's been going on since we went camping in July?

Alison started school in September.  I have to be honest and tell you that the hubby and I had many reservations about sending her off to JK.  I thought that I was a completely confident D-mom, but the prospect of sending Alison off on the bus to school all day chilled me to my core!

In our parental struggles to decide whether or not to let Ali board the big yellow bus and start her life as a "big girl" I was lucky enough to have and make friends with other D-moms who had been through it before.  Of special note is Amy (Laughing at Diabetes) who's beautiful daughter was dxd right before starting JK.

With the help and support of many we were able to train the staff at Alison's school how to check her BGLs, give her a bolus, treat a low.  We made step-by-step, picture laden documents, we put ourselves on-call, we worried, we fretted, but in the end, we found our way.

So what's the school experience like for Ali?  For the most part its normal.  She has her own little private area in class where she goes for her snacks and lunch and for her testing.  Alison does miss out on eating with the other kids since the lunch hour the school has implemented is different from when we have Alison eat.

She is, like most T1D kids we've met, extremely resilient.  Alison LOVES school.  She has rolled with the punches and made the very best of the situation.  Her teachers have been very attentive and helpful.  After a month, we've all started to adjust to the routine.  If only we could find a way to keep all the colds that come with JK at bay!

Next step?  Maybe getting the courage to have someone babysit so that the hubby and I could have our first date in almost 5 years...but let's just stick to baby steps.

The Happy Campers

Well, I was worked up for no reason!  My younger brother invited my family to go camping with him, his wife and his three kids.  Growing up we were constant campers - not your traditional tent or camper type either, we were lean-to extreme back woods campers.  My brother has a trailer and a nice tent for the kids, so this is by no way roughing it.


That being said, in the last two years, every new experience that Alison embarks on scares me to my core.  I am mentally and physically more than equipped to handle an outdoors adventure much harder than the one we were going on, but I was so timid.  What if she's hypo all weekend from running around with her cousins?  What if she runs high all weekend and I can't really justify letting her have marshmallows around the campfire?  What if she's hypo in the middle of the night?  She wakes up with night terrors when she's low at night...she'd wake the whole park up!!!


In the end, Ali's BGLs were a little all over the place.  She did have a hooking incident on the playground that lead to a set change.  But she slept in the tent with my 7 year old niece Trin, my nephew Tristan and my brother.

We ended up having to come home early (Saturday evening) because Riley was really under the weather which was a real dissapointment to everyone except Riley, who seemed happy to be in her own bed.

I cannot wait to get Ali back out to the campsite.  I now also realize that Camp Banting is a real possibility in four years! 

Thanks go out to my hubby and my brother for convincing me to go out even though I was anxious about camping - I realized how much I missed it and how much fun it was for my girls.

So, I Think We Might Be On To Something....Finally!

Looks like, since our last endo visit, we might be onto two tricks that work for us (fingers crossed, touch wood).  First, it seems that we have all our basals worked out and programmed into Alison's Ping...except maybe mid morning (she's still coming up low at lunch even when she's not active- we hit 1.9 the other day which was scary).  Two, using her hip and butt for insertion site works best for Alison with the Inset 30.

We have not had any bad insertions since her appointment which is unheard of for us, since 4 year-olds wiggle during site changes!

BTW, the Inset 30 link above is a link to a how-to site change video.  I'm sorry, it is in German, but it is one of the better ones for the proper placement of the feet of the Inset 30, so I thought that the language be-damned, it was worth posting!

Happy Anniversary Mommy

Today is one of those odd days of reflection for me.  I can, with exact clarity, remember where I was at every moment of this day two years ago.  I can recall the smells, the sounds, the thoughts running through my head.  If I think too hard, I can even bring back that overwhelming feeling that the room is rapidly running out of air.

Today is the two year anniversary of Alison’s diagnosis.  Last year I tried to sweep it under the rug.  It didn’t work.  Instead of keeping busy, I was miserable.  This year I decided to take another approach.  Another D mom was blogging about how they celebrate the victories on their diagnosis date, so we thought we’d take that approach.

Alison had a scheduled appointment at the Endo clinic and we went to Dairy Queen after.  Nothing fancy.  In fact, it will seem like nothing at all to most of you on a hot summer day, but, in our house, where ice cream is a luxury, it was akin to a royal visit!

The part of the day that is still replaying in my head right now is a conversation I had with one of our nurse educators and a student that was learning from our yearly panel review session.  I had mentioned how far we had come in the last two years.  How I looked back to two years ago, exactly today, and don’t even recognize the person I was, how much I have grown and adapted.  I said how I really wish I would have known that it was going to be ok.  Not tomorrow, or the next day, or six months down the line.  Not that it was ever going to be normal, or the same, but that we’d find a new kind of happiness and that’s ok too.  He mentioned that the past weekend had been a very busy diagnosis weekend in our area.  So as I go to bed tonight, my hope and prayer is this…I hope that those going through the phase that we were in two years ago tonight will find the grace, courage, hope, love and strength, a little bit at a time.

And as Alison said to me while devouring her ice cream “happy anniversary”

We Walked...Now We Sleep

Okay, so we completed our 3K in blistering humidity!  But what a nice route!  You could not have picked a more sunny day!


The bands played for us!  There were sponsors cheering us on!  There were bouncy castles (yes, Mommy even went through the bounce-ath-a-lon with Alison).  All in All, the Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes was a great day for the Morleys!


Alison brought in about $900, which is far higher than her $100 goal!  She was very happy when the volunteers  at the prize desk were giving her high-fives!  What a great accomplishment for a 4 year-old!


Alison was really happy and is already talking about how we can raise even more money for next years race.  She asked if Riley will be old enough to actually walk instead of being pushed in the stroller (yes, Alison insisted in walking the majority of the route).


Now everyone is knackered and ready for beddy!




Here are some pics from our day:

The Last Push

Hey Everyone!  We're in the home stretch!  This Sunday is the Telus  Walk to Cure Diabetes.  Alison has done a great job fundraising, but we could still do better!  If you were planning on donating you can still go to JDRF  and make an online donation.

For those of you from work who will be at the Richmond Road office this Friday (June 8), Alison and I will be selling paper sneakers to raise more funds for the walk between 8:00 am and 1:00 pm.  We'll be selling the shoes, but we'll also take donations of change in any amount!!!!