Happy New Year!! 2009

Our holidays have been a whirl wind. It came and went so fast..faster than usual, or so it seemed. I got to enjoy some time with my parents as they came to MN a little later this year and arrived on good roads on Monday. We have gotton some snow yesterday, and hope for good travel weather on Friday when they go home in the New Year.

I had to work Christmas Day night at the desk, and also have to work, tonight, New Years Eve till 10:30pm. They are hitting me with all the holidays this year. I guess I don't mind too much.

Bailey has a busy weekend with hockey coming up, besides having 2 games scheduled for the weekend, they put the kids in a tournament in Paynesville as well, for a game on Friday night, and then 2 games on Sat and 2 on Sunday...so a total of 5 games in 3 days !!! It's good experience for games for the kids, but we will all be hockey'd out after the weekend. I'll miss the Sat. night game in Litchfield, because I also work this weekend. Since Steve hasn't had much work this month, it's good I at least have some hours.

My mind has been overwhelmed with everything...there is so much circulating around me lately...it's not what I'm used to. Whether it's good or not so good there is just too much. Even though there has always been something occupying my time, there just seems to be less time lately.
Bailey is still having headaches, and just when I thought that maybe his medicine might be working, everything is being changed now. He had 2 headaches in October and 3 in November, so I hadn't called his doctor with an update, because I thought maybe it would stay around 2-3/ month and things were looking better. Now in December it went to 5, with a couple of them being more severe.
Not as concerning as in the past, but still it went up again. So I finally called in to his doctor, yesterday, to report the last 3 months. He decided that raising his dose on his current medication, wouldn't produce anymore results, he's reached the dose limit. So over the next 2 weeks we will "wean" him off that medication and start a new one on the 3rd week in January. He had a 6 mo. follow up appt. scheduled the end of January, that is now pushed back to the end of March after he has been on the new medication for 3 months.

Hannah on the other hand has been going through alot of emotions, and for the most part is handling all of her "new life" like a 7year old, most likely would. We have our good days and not so good days, almost to the extremes. I've been trying to take in all I can about diabetes, but then realize after a short time that my mind is still so overwhelmed and can't seem to focus on any more information. It would be nice to be invloved in the JDRF walk at the Mall of America on January 24....but it's all too soon for me to be so involved, when the last thing I want to think about is walking the MOA, with 18,000 people. It would be a sight to see, and hope to be involved with that in the future.
Hannah has gone from the, "I wanna help" phase last week, to seemingly tired of the whole diabetes situation and just wants it all done for her the last couple of days. She was getting better with the finger pokes and insulin, but now seems to be more vocal about it all again.
She is getting back to her old self with the food as well and is not eating all of her meals very well the past few days, but grandma and grandpa are here and that change in itself will mess up our routine. Her numbers have been low the past few days as a result of too much insulin for not eating all her food. We've cut back on the insulin ourselves, since we know she isn't eating everything.... but plan on calling the clinic soon for new dose changes if her numbers don't start to even out after they leave. She did have some good levels now the past few times, so we will adjust and play it by ear. Before school starts back up, we hope to have it sort of figured out. Diabetes, we have learned is not a perfect science. As Hannah adjusts now, and as her body grows and changes later on, we will be re evaluating her every 3months or more. We hope to go to St Paul once more on January 21, and then might be able to go to Minnetonka, to the Children's West Diabetes clinic for her check up's every 3 months, may save us some trouble of going all the way to St Paul....not much better, but a little.

I'm looking forward to next week now, trying to get back some normalcy, gonna try hard with my exercise and weight loss plan, and just looking forward to a Happy New Year.

A web site that I've found that I've enoyed looking at is called D-Life. (www.dlife.com ), they also have a TV show on Sunday nights, not sure on the channel, but it's on satallite/cable. I came across it one night while I was working, I watch some TV inbetween laundry loads, etc. and just by luck I found the show, talking all about diabetes, just a week or so after being diagnosed. The web site is very informative, supportive and such, with lots of good things to click on.
Everytime I'm on the site, I'm always finding a new spot to click on and find out different things.
Some other good sites are:
www.jdrf.com
www.childrensmn.org
www.diabetes.org
www.childrenwithdiabetes.com

HAPPY 2009!!!

Christmas Blessings

Merry Christmas !!

With all the stress and added hecticness this month, I still feel truly blessed.
We continue to move forward with everyday life and are thankful for so much.... although times are tough espicially this time of year, I look to God for strength and guidance.
Hannah has made some huge adjustments the past week in her diabetes, as she has become more aware of her situation, and has even come to accept it more, which is a big step. We've all come a long way the past week or so oin dealing with all of this. She has wanted to become more involved in her blood sugar tests, in that she wants to get it all set up for us....she says, "I wanna be the grown up, and get it all set up". She picks and wipes her own finger now for the finger pricks, and gets everything ready, still with a little hesitation, she allows me to prick her finger, with a smaller owe!, each time...less wiggling around too. She has finally taken my suggestion and cuddling her blanket or a stuffed animal helps too. She has even started watching the blood go into the test strip and thinks it's pretty cool how the blood from her finger gets sucked up into the strip. She is just as anxious as us to see the number pop up in 5 seconds.
Her insulin shots have become much easier as well, as that hurts even less that the finger pokes. She also picks the spot on her leg, as to where the shot will go. She has some specific routines at home as to where it is to be done and the bathroom seems to be the spot for the insulin. So no matter where we are for the blood sugar test we have to go to the bathroom for the insulin.
She favors her right leg for her insulin, and that leg has some red pokes on it and several small bruises from the shot itself...they go away. I haven't convinced her to try the backs of her arms yet. It would be easier for when we are away from home to just do her arm and not have to go in the bathroom each time to pull her pants down. Her left leg she allows us to use for the Lantus (24 hr insulin) , sicne they recommended that at the hospital, she remembers that, Lantus -LEFT. I guess I just don't want to over do her right leg, but in time I'm sure she will let us try different spots.
She is still in the "honeymoon" phase of her diabetes, which is where her pancreas is still producing some insulin within the beta cells still in her body... within 6 mo. to a year she will need increasing amounts of insulin to cover after the honeymoon phase ends and her pancreas is no longer producing insulin at all. Right now her insulin amounts are pretty low, and gets approx. 1 unit per 30-40 grams of carbs/meal, which is a max of about 3.5-4 units that she has ever gotton at once. Usually her meals average around 2-3 units. At supper time she also gets her Lantus dose ( long acting)-- and that has been good at 2 units. Keeps her overnight levels consistantly normal, which has eliminated us having to get up in the middle of the night to check her. We still have to do the overnight checks once a month, and if we question her bedtime level or any snacks before bed we are unsure how it will affect her. She has helped me pick out her diabetic medical ID bracelet online, so that should arrive in a few weeks.
Today we had our 2 week post hospital check and education at the McNeely Pediatric Diabetes Center, connected to Children's Hospital. It's actually been 3 weeks already, so not sure why they scheduled it for this week, but we were glad to just do it today on Christmas Eve and then Hannah got to attend her last day of school before break yesterday for the class party, which the appt. was originally scheduled for yesterday.
We had to get up at 6am!! uuggh. for a 9am appt. We met with a diabetes nurse educator, who explained to us sick days more in depth, and answered some more questions we had, and then we met with a nurse practioner who looked at Hannah, and then also assessed Hannah's blood sugar levels from the past weeks, which they are able to download all the numbers off of our meter. They came up with an average level over the last 3 weeks of 141... (normal is 80-180). Even though her numbers seemed all over the place the last few weeks, they are more worried about lows than highs and when they came up with an average, that sounds better than having all the numbers in front of us.
Besides the first week of all the highs, as she was developing the stomach flu, she hasn't had too many more highs, and has had 8 lows. Lows are anything under 80. She had 22 highs, but alot of that was insulin and dose adjustments at the beginning plus her body fighting off sickness. She really has been doing well the last week or so, and they made a few more dose adjustments today to help fix the few lows.

She was also changed from Lantus, to Levamere, another long acting 24 hr insulin. We stated she was saying the Lantus hurt in her leg for a minute or so after the needle was out....and that can happen with Lantus ( it can hurt more in some people I guess), so she was switched to Levamir, which shouldn't hurt now, so we'll see. We also noted she has gained back all the weight she lost, plus gained almost a pound....considering she was 42 lbs and now is back up to 47.
We also met with the dietician and the social worker, and got all the kinks worked out with anymore questions we had. The appointment took about 2 hours and then we had to run down to the pharmacy to get some things down there. They gave us the wrong syringes when we left the hospital, so we had to get some at our pharmacy to get by, and then exchanged the wrong ones today--they gave us 100 unit ones vs the 30unit onces we need.
We went to the United Hospital cafateria ( which is also connected to Childrens Hospital) for lunch as we waited for the pharmacy to get stuff together. It was early only like 11am, and Hannah wouldn't eat anything except the fruit snacks I packed for 'lows' and some milk, we all had a meal and tried to get her to eat, but she just wouldn't. She said she wasn't hungry. We have learned how important it is for her to eat on time or at some sort of schedule. WE left the clinic at about 12noon or so, and she got extremly crabby. We knew we should have stayed until she ate, but we figured at some point in the next 30 min she'd be starving and we'd have to stop somewhere. She kept saying she just wanted to go home and eat. Although I tested her in the bathroom by the cafateria, she seemd hesitant to bother with the insulin in order to eat. She was only at 82 when we were eating lunch, so that is why we let her have the fruit snacks and milk without insulin coverage. We had to make one stop for a christmas present, and she didnt' want to, she started acting up, not wanting to walk, just angry at life at the moment. We figured we needed to get her something to eat SOON> We made it back to the car and she was just acting up-- to an extreme. Ready to go, she wouldn't buckle herself in. She was so stubborn and refused to do it and pretty much had so much anxiety built up by now that we were all feeling the stress. Steve wouldn't leave until she buckled up and we sat there for probably 10 min, some of it in silence and some of it trying to talk some sense into her--which she wasn't listening to any of it...Finally Steve got her to buckle up with threats that Santa may not come.....but even up until this point that wasn't working. She finally did it though. As we left and got on 494--we are all the way in Bloomington by now-- we had a long drive home and knew we needed to stop to get her something to eat yet. She was still acting up, and wouldn't sit up straight, and after Steve yelled at her to "sit up, his famous "knock it off" phrase, and he also made another threat that he was gonna call Santa and leave a message ( he he!) not to come to our house. She got so worked up after he yelled, that she had a hard time breathing, and was coughing and such...maybe more of an act, but I couldn't take it anymore and we pulled off in Edina at a DQ ASAP!!! I told Steve and Bailey to go inside.... as I needed to calm her down ( and everyone else needed a break) and I talked to her. At first she kept saying she wasn't listening to me, but after a few minutes, of me tearing up she got it, that this wasn't working. I explained to her that her diabetes can make her sick and if she didn't stop this she would be back in the hospital. She needed to eat, as of right then it was going on 1:30pm. So I tested her in the van and she was 187--which was a good number considering I was thinking she'd be either high or low, considering her attitude. High's and lows can make her irritable and she was definatly that. I got her calmed down and we went in and ordered her some food, got her the insulin, she ate and after all that..... was fine.
Just made for a stressful time. We made it back home by 3pm and are now getting ready for supper and our children's Christmas Eve service at church. Santa usually comes while we are at church.....so we'll see, the kids are excited. We told Bailey this summer about Santa, but he still enjoys the season and helping us with the Santa story for Hannah's sake yet.....we still know what the season is all about and that Jesus birth is what we will celebrate tonight and tomorrow.

My parents weren't able to make it to MN for Christmas this year, because of some bad roads and alot of snow in WI over the past several days....they may come next week, so we will see. We are so used to having them here, it will be a little different this year.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

Prayer for a little boy

Kathy, a friend of mine back in WI, has a nephew who has been going through alot the last few months. A healthy baby boy, turned sick. The family is now at Childrens Hospital of WI, in Milwaukee, and their little boy who spent his 1st birthday in another hospital in IL where they live, now has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. It's still small, but aggressive and wraps partly around the brain stem. Thinking their little boy, as he is called Issy,( Israel), was throwing up constantly from a food adversion, they were taking steps to get him used to food when things just weren't getting better and only worse, which is how they made the trip to visit family in WI and then ended up at Children's Hospital. Now he will spend christmas in the hospital as well.

Please pray for this family, as they are doing surgery right now to remove the tumor, as much of it as safely possible. They will then send it out to be tested, so they know what they are dealing with.
I have never met Issy or his daddy, but do know Kathy's sister Lori from back when I was in high school.

It's a parents nightmare, and I can only join in hoping and praying that God will grant healing, and peace.

here is healthy Issy

kids fighting

This is the first in a sequence of videos I took of the kids outside. At first they were fighting and I was laughing my head off from the inside, so I quickly got the camera to video tape them and then I think they saw me and more so were putting on a show.

It's in 3 seperate videos because Hannah came in crying twice and Bailey came in once to complain. I only uploaded one video so far cuz it took so long...but it sure was funny to watch.

week in review

The last few weeks have gone by pretty quickly and I have one more day off of work before I go back for the weekend. I'm not sure of my housekeeping schedule for next week yet, but I will have a busy week regardless of maybe fitting some of that in yet. Christmas came up too fast this year....
Kids have school until Tuesday, which is also the day my parents come into town for Christmas. We decided to change Hannah's 2 week hospital follow up appointment from Tues to Wed. becasue she didn't want to miss her last day of school before break. So now though, we have to be at the diabetes clinic at Children's in St Paul by 9am on Wed.(christmas eve). I guess then she won't have to miss school and my parents are here to stay home with Bailey. I know we have more education meetings, and they will also meet with Hannah and see how her levels are doing and such. It's supposed to last up to 3 hrs. I'm sure we'll come home overwhelmed again.

I also work Christmas Day at 4pm, so not looking forward to that, and also the day after christmas at 4 again, but then have the rest of the weekend off.

Hannah is getting some better at all of this diabetes stuff and so are we. It's being accepted more by all of us, and it will still take some time. Hannah still will say at her blood sugar checks and insulin shots, that she "doesn't want to do it" !! and will repeat that over and over while wiggling around, she will let us do it, but not without letting us know that she is againest it all.
Her levels have been running pretty good,( much better than last week anyway) although they are still all over the place. I just want to see a good number each time. She is the best in the mornings, although at bedtime now she has been running a little low. The daytime numbers have been better too at school, and haven't got a call all week from the nurse. So all in all it's been a much better week, and hope to have each week get better. Different environments scare her, we have such a routine down at home and school now....so now I suppose it will be another thing to work on going places and having to incoorporate all this in other places and situations. It's ongoing education forever, as she grows and changes so will her diabetes.

Bailey has been busy with hockey and had his first game on Tuesday. They played River Lakes, which is Paynesville, Cold Spring and Richmond combined. They have gotton better by combining their teams this year, and although it was a competitive game it was also a frustrating game to watch...we were ahead 2-0 after the 1st period, but they they caught up and even though we scored another goal in the 3rd, they had scored 5 in the 2nd and 3rd. So we lost 3-5. Lots of practice still needed at this level. Bailey played good and hussles, just needs to be a little more aggressive. He plays 2 more games this weekend on Sat and then again on Sunday. I can make the one on Sat. but Sunday's game is later in the day and then I work.
I'll be missing a few games this year, which I'm not too happy about, but can't have every weekend off.
On Wed we had out local newspaper reporter come over for a interview. She is writing a story on Type 1 Diabetes and Hannah's story. Steve's sister Jen, works for the Delano Herald Journal. Our paper is called the Enterprise Dispatch, but is part of the Herlad Journal "family". Her paper suggested writing a story about diabetes and Hannah, and Jen then contacted our town's paper to have them come interview us for the story. I wasn't too sure about it all at first, but I think it will be informative for the commuinty.
Looking forward to reading our story in print.

COOKIES !!!!

It was a good weekend. Hannah also had a good weekend regarding her diabetes. It felt like we had a more normal routine, and her levels were mostly good, which made things seem better. She was feeling better on Saturday morning, and we decided to bake christmas cookies.
Sunday we had some bad weather with some rain, then freezing rain, then snow. A bad combo. We decided it was too unsafe to drive to Litchfield for church, and then also later for hockey practice. We stayed in with the weather, and Hannah and I baked some more cookies and Bailey and Dad watched football and played video games. Bailey wanted to help some with the cookies too.

a good night

Hannah had a good night....she ate some soup at about 4:30pm last night Which she almost had to because her blood sugar level dropped again at 4:30 to 67. She just wouldn't drink anything I offered her all day. So I then convinced her to have some soup, it always has made her feel better in the past, in which she loved and ate the whole thing, I had to feed her though, not sure why, but I did, she liked that. Whatever to make her eat/drink. She had part of a blueberry muffin, and some juice as well. She laid in Bailey's room all day watching TV, and on and off sleeping, so I made probably a 100 trips up the steps all day. When I rechecked her at 5pm, her level was back up to normal. It just gets so scary when it gets too low, which up until now, at home we really only have been dealing with high's. We've been just going from one extreme to the other, also with her drinking SO much a week a ago and now wouldn't drink anything.
I didnt' give her any insulin all day, except at 5pm her long acting 24 hr Lantus dose. So we know we are off schedule when no insulin was given all day...no carbs taken in to give it to her for.
She slept good all night and in fact is still sleeping at and it's 9am!!, both kids need some catching up sleep. Her night-time check was normal and also did another one earlier this morning, just to make sure things weren't dropping again and it was good. I slept then until 8:30 which felt good.

So better get her up now and on to another day with diabetes. I think it will start to get better now, it's kinda early in the day to tell, but I can always hope.

Depending on how she feels we will be making christmas cookies this weekend.

It's been a long week.....

This has been the hardest, most stressful thing I have ever been though. Nothing compares. I know that it is supposed to get better, but it's been hard to see that far ahead. The days this last week have gone up and down in a moment. At times it looks as though things are starting to get better, than BAM...right back down to the beginning as we start all over. Monday right away her doses were changed. Hannah went back to school on Tuesday after talking with the school nurses later in the day Monday. The school part of it was actually a relief, as she did wonderful for the school nurse Tues. morning. Having a strange person, and a friend in the room for support, certainly made Hannah nervous and behave, not wanting to throw a mini fit in front of her friend.
I was supposed to come for the first test that morning before gym, but made it there a minute or 2 too late and she had aleady did the test. She said Hannah did fine. So all week I have just been "on call" for any problems and not had to go in each time. She did call me everyday though, to tell us her blood sugar was high. Tuesday/Wed. they wouldn't let her do gym, but after us calling the nurse from Children's she was allowed to do gym on Thursday even though she was still high....Exercise will bring down the levels to a degree, so they started checking her after gym on Thursday instead of before. She was still running high.
Tuesday she was in the 300's to high 200's all day and Wed was the worst she was in the 400's all day and yesterday was high 300's all day. So after several calls to the diabetes nurse all week, we have adjusted her breakfast dose the most throughout the week. The other meals and doses were slightly adjusted. I won't mention all the times this week, I have almost lost it....Hannah still gives me such a hard time with everything, she is a tad better for Steve but not much, and he hasn't had to do it all that much over the week. She gets so angry with it all, throws things, stalls, cries several times a day, whines, is unsure of so much....I try to stay calm for a few minutes before I have to just take charge, stop crying myself, and just do what needs to be done. I hate that it has to be such a struggle. She spent 10 minutes before having to get insulin last night, with a washcloth over her eye because she said her eye hurt, she was angry...I'm not even sure if her eye even hurt, more of a way to stall, she was throwing books, hitting her self in the eye, just plain mad at her eye, but I'm not so sure that was the real issue. I sat and watched her do this for 10 min before I had to just give her the insulin so she could eat supper and we could get ready for her program.

So today I figured things would start to look up, with our new doses to try. Well...time for a new plan again, for today...she went to bed with a tummy ache last night. She had her christmas concert for school last night and was feeling well. Besides that huge struggle at supper time, she was feeling good.
She had a hardboiled egg before bed, she only eats the white part and eggs are carb free, so she likes that as a snack sometimes now.
We no more than made it up to bed and she said her tummy hurt. We talked for awhile and then she went to sleep. About 10:30pm, I heard her throwing up--alot. I get so mad when the kids can't make it to the bathroom. What a awefull mess to clean up!! She laid in our bed while I did the clean up. uuggh. She threw up once more, but made it to the bathroom. I got everything clean and went back to bed.
I tested her then at 1:30am like I have been every night, and her level was 125--her overnight numbers have always been good (normal is 80-180). She woke up at 4am to throw up a little again, and slept then until morning, when I woke her up at 6:30 to test her and see how she was feeling for school. She was within range at 6:30, and let her go back to sleep, cuz she said her tummy still hurt, and decided then that school wasn't gonna work today.

After a few more hours, I checked on her and she wanted to eat, so I gave her a small version of her normal breakfast, and counted carbs and give her insulin. Her breakfast dose was just raised, so I gave her 3 units for carb coverage. It was more my fault than anything, giving her the insulin before I knew if she would actually eat a normal breakfast after throwing up all night. We have to normally give it before she eats, so it's kinda hard to guesstimate what she will actually eat, but today I should have waited, being that she wasn't feeling too well. She didn't and wouldn't eat anything. So I started to freak out a little, knowing she just got insulin.
She was at 97 mg/dl, at 8:30am and knew her levels would start to drop alot now. I tried to convince her to eat/drink. I made calls to the nurse and clinic in St Paul. She didn't get back to me until 10:30am, which I had already tested her at 10am and she was at 47 already...I convinced Hannah she had to drink juice and eat some fruit snacks, and then at 10:30 it was at 67. Still way too low. Although she wasn't showing any real significant signs of being that low, she was weak and shakey. Then at 10:30 the nurse calls me back and I'm a mess. She talks me through the Glucogon shot. We have an emergency "low" kit. Never thought I'd have to use it already. We haven't been educated on that too much yet, or about sick days, which is at her 2 week check on the 23rd, so I was a little lost as to what to do.
So I gave her 10 units of glucogon,per nurse Jodi, at 10:40 or so, and when I checked her blood sugar at 11am it was already up to 215...ahhhhh, and then at 11:30 it was 224 and also checked for ketones in her urine- negative for now.:) If she starts to produce ketones I need to call the urgent line back. The Glucogon perked her up almost immediately and she sat up to color.
She will not eat or drink right now, and the nurse said I have to try to keep her hydrated with carbs, and after she has kept that down for 30 min then give her her insulin coverage dose. So far I haven't even been able to get her to drink. We'll see what the rest of the day brings. I'm hoping she is drinking and eating maybe soup or something by supper time. She fell asleep now, so will test her in about 30minutes and try all day to get some fluids in her.
Nurse Jodi has been so helpful the past week, she also thinks now that maybe the reason Hannah's numbers were so high this week, was she was trying to fight off this virus she now has. Hannah also had a slight upper respiratory thing late last week when we first discovered all this, so her body was fighting off a bunch of viruses, which maybe made for a rough week all around.
THANKS FOR THE PRAYERS. I'VE NEVER NEEDED THEM SO MUCH AS NOW.

Diabetes--Type 1 has entered our lives......

Hannah was diagnosed on Wed. with new onset Type 1 Diabetes. I had been noticing some symptoms with her over the last few weeks, mainly drinking tons, peeing tons (even waking up 2-3 times night to go), looking tired, hungry all the time, despite loosing about 4 lbs,... I only discovered that recently when I read online about diabetes and one of the symptoms was weight loss, and although I didn't notice it, I decided to just weigh her to see. I weighed her on her birthday, Sept 6, just to get a 7 yr old weight, so I actually had an accurate weight to look back on, and she was 4 lbs less now, and that is a huge amount for her small body. Even though she was acting fairly normal otherwise, she was irritable and tired much more, recently as well. After really starting to get concerned over about the last week, the final straw came on Wednesday...when she woke up for school, ate a good breakfast and then instead of getting dressed she fell asleep on the couch. She started with a cold about 2 days earlier so I figured it was partly that was making her tired and that she was getting up in the night a few times over the past few days to go potty. So I let her sleep, and when she woke about an hour later she was hungry for another bowl of cereal. So I gave it to her, knowing that she has been extra hungry lately. She got dressed and we made it to school about 1 1/2 hrs late, and her first class is PE, so I figured it was good to miss that anyway. She went to school feeling fine, or so I thought. The school nurse called about 1 1/2 hrs later, and said she had thrown up in class. So I went to get her. I found out later from Hannah she drank a carton of milk for snack, all at once basicly (so thirsty!), and that made her tummy hurt and she threw it up. So she really wasnt sick, but they had to send her home, obviously, which ended up being good. She came home and fell alseep again for about an hour, and I just couldn't shake all these symptoms... now vomiting, but not stomach virus related, and all the other stuff. So I made an appt. for that afternoon at the clinic in Hutch...she didn't want to go and said she felt better, although she didn't look well.
We saw a Dr Anderson, who is actually a peditrician at the Children's Clinic in St Paul who just happend to be working in Hutch that week. He confirmed my suspicions after testing her urine for ketones, and blood for glucose (sugar). Her blood sugar level was well over 500 mg/dl, and should be under 150-180. She had large amount of ketones in her urine as well, which means her body was using fat for energy because there was a build up of sugar in the blood, when the pancreas isn't producing insulin to lower the sugar levels. When the body breaks down fat for energy, ketones are produced, and voided mostly in the urine, which was another symptom I noticed but really didn't know how to describe, a fruity/foul smell to her breath....which is the ketones.
We were immediately referred to Childrens Hospital in St Paul. Hannah's regular Dr was at the clinic, but on call for appointments, which is why we didn't see her to begin with. We were at the clinic a good 2 hrs, after the testing, and results and all the waiting...then Dr Anderson had to quickly organize the referral and called her doctor to come visit with us as well. I was in a little bit of a shock, Hannah was lost and confused. After a few phone calls and adjustments to our normal day, Steve, Hannah and I made our way to St Paul, and Steve's parents watched Bailey for the night. We left home about 4pm, and stopped in Delano to eat, Hannah wanted McDonalds, but ended up only eating 2 chicken nuggets (which was probably a good thing for having diabetes). At least Steve and I got some food before our long night began. Hannah slept most of the way there which was a good thing for the long night ahead of us. We made our way to Children's through rush hour traffic, which added anxiety, by about 7pm. We spent 2 hours in the ER, saw several dr's, nurses put in the IV, which was very tramtic for Hannah ( and us), it took 2 nurses and Steve and I to hold her down for it. Mostly lots of waiting...in a very uncomfortable ER room.

After 2 hours in there it was about 9pm, and they finally took us up to her room. We got her settled in, and we had a resident and then later a student come in to talk to us, evey single Dr we saw asking all the same questions, and having to repeat the entire situation over and over. I was exhausted. Finally Steve was able to leave about 11:30pm, and Hannah and I settled in for the night. She was able to sleep for awhile, until a nurse came in to check her blood sugar and started the insulin. That was all new to Hannah and no one up to this point explained the process to Hannah, it was 1am, so there was no time.....the nurse just finger pricked her in her sleep and she woke up, yelling at the nurse, who I think Hannah thought was me. She said things like, OWE!!! "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?, THAT HURTS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING....and if you can imagine Hannah using her most full toned voice to a stranger, it's not common...not ever, so it was a bit comical, but yet, not. I had to tell Hannah that is the nurse, mommy's over here, they have to test your blood now.
Then she had to have 2 doses of insulin a long acting and correction dose for high levels of sugar. They came back to check her 3 hours later, and that was still a struggle as she kicked and screamed. Her level went way down to 66 and she had to drink juice to get the levels back up and then they have to recheck in 15 minutes...not a good night.
She gets insulin at each of the 3 meals...we count carbs as to what we think she will eat, and give her the appropriate dose of insulin for those carbs. All snacks and any food in between the meals all has to be accounted for with insulin. There are a few "free" foods that have no carbs such as meat, and cheese, eggs, and a few others, but not things Hannah typically thinks are snacks. But if she eats those things they are not counted in the carbs, nor does she get insulin for eating them at anytime.

The next morning at the hosptial Steve came back about 10:30am after getting Bailey off to school, and we had a full day of diabetes education. Hannah got to do lots of projects with the Child Life Specialist in the playroom while we had our meetings with the nurse educator, pharmacist, dietician, and then finally the social worker who helped us deal with everything ,and get our insurance situation straightened out. We also got to meet Hannah's Dr. finally, Dr Voulgaropoulos, yea.... in other words Dr V. (He has a Greek backround), very nice doctor. He will be Hannah's endocrinologist. There was a whole team working with Hannah's case, including the resident, student, and all the nurses and educators, who were also very helpful in answering our questions. Children's Hospital is a teaching hospital, which is why we saw so many doctors, and people.

It was another long day!! Hannah continued to get her blood sugar checked every 3 hours, and insulin regulated. Her IV drip was stopped later that morning as well. Her cathater was left in just in case they needed more blood work, which they did recheck her Thyroid level, becasue Dr V said it was low. It came back the 2nd time normal. So it will be something else to maybe keep an eye on. They also check all diabetics for celiac disease ( Jes/Jose will be familiar with this). She was negative for that, so at least that is not an issue. Steve stayed with us until the supper check and insulin, which by now they have adjusted her doses many times and was getting the long acting (24 hr insulin) now at supper time instead of bedtime, and her 3 hr insulin went to 1 per 40 grams of carbs, which changed a few times as well. By this time Steve and I are now testing her blood sugar and giving the insulin. That night was hard as she was still fighting, and I was wondering how the heck we are going to do this at home. I kinda lost it for a moment. I regained my inner strength, and then Steve left for the night, to go home for Bailey and the dog.
It was hard because we both missed Bailey's first band/choir concert that night. Steve couldn't make it back in time, with wanting to be there for Hannah, and with traffic getting back home. It takes about 2 hours with traffic, and that just adds stress. I took a shower finally that night and just washed Hannah up with a washcloth.
We had a tad better night Thursday night, Hannah got her blood tested and insulin at 8pm and she got to have chocolate ice cream for a snack. She fell asleep watching SpongeBob (her favorite), at about 9-9:30pm. So I went to bed too....exhausted after only getting maybe 4 hours of interrupted sleep the night before. We got to sleep until midnight then, before the nurse was in again to check blood sugar. Which then it was 201....1 point above Hannah's target range of 100-200, the nurse questioned it and went to check if she needed the 1/2 unit of insulin, and they decided to give it to her, which we know now wasn't the right thing because at the
3am check, she was low, at 70 mg/dl. So she needed juice again tonight. She drank 15 grams of juice, and they recheck 15 min after a low. Which it still was slightly low at 90. So.... some more juice, checked again in 15 min and then it was back up to a normal 157 mg/dl. So you can imagine all the finger pokes in that hour wasn't too fun for Hannah. By 8AM then it was at 169, but climbed to 240 at noon. We just do the correction dose for highs, and then figure in her lunch carbs, for a total--then one shot is only needed.
Bailey came to the hospital on Friday morning with Steve and they got there a little after 10am. We had one more nurse education meeting at 10:30 and the playroom was hosting "Wild Bingo" where the MN Wild hockey wives came in along with Twin Cities Live to record some of the Bingo game. MN Wild prizes were awarded for bingo's, and both kids won something, Bailey got the Wild yearbook and Hannah a Wild calendar. It was a good thing that Bailey came as he was even excited to play and spend some time with his sister, I think he was feeling a little left out and sad that we had to miss his concert. Twin Cities Live recorded all the kids playing and it will air on Channel 5 with John and Rebecca on Wed Dec 10. "The Wild wives with some courageous kids" Check it out if you live in MN, otherwise we'll probably be taping it. It was kinda sad cuz some of the kids had to play from their rooms, they were too sick to leave their beds. So they had it hooked up to the TV's and they called in with their bingo's.
Hannah got her IV cathater taken out Friday after lunch, and we got packed up to go home after we met with Dr V once more at 2:30pm. He was very reassuring, as we thought Hannah was getting a bit better with the checks and shots, although she was still crying and fighting us a bit, they thought we were doing well and discharged us before supper. We thought we were staying for supper. It was good, it got us through the Cities before it got too backed up and got us home not too late. We stopped at Coborns on the way home for groceries, since we had no food in the house. We taught Hannah in the hosptial about carbs and where to look for the number on the packages of food, so at the store , she had to look at everything for the carbs number. It's a start for her to learn simple things about her disease.
So getting a few groceries took a bit longer than expected, and we decided to stop for Subway in Cokato before getting home. So once getting home, before she could eat we had to test her blood and give her insulin. We got home about 5:30pm and it wasn't the ideal situation, to finally be home, and have to do this to her in a new environment. Needless to say it was a bit stressful for all of us and she fought us more then ever. She was scared, we were stressed... nobody's fault, just a bad situation of coming home and having to do this right away...we did get it accomplished and she ate and was fine. Steve and I hugged, cried, and knew it only had to get better from here.
Poor Bailey, he just stepped out of the way and probably wondered, why this all had to happen.....he always has more questions that are taking awhile to get answered.

It did get better, yes she is still crying and putting up a struggle each time, but slowly I feel it can and will get better. It's all just so overwhelming right now. Like I'm wasting time typing this huge blog, when the house looks so messy, the kitchen table is one huge pharmacy right now, the laundry is piling up in all corners , papers, books, everything is caotic. Nothing is clean, nothing is organized, it just kills me to see my house this way. Mostly it is staying this way, becasue I haven't gotton up enough energy to tackle it yet, and I had to work both Sat and Sunday nights as well, after just getting home Friday night. I will have the next 2 weeks off though now, so that will help..... going back to work on the 20th.It won't help money wise though, because Steve is home now more too, but we need the time to regroup our life anyway.
The house is decorated for christmas though...ahhhh. One less thing to get done. I think if I didnt' have the tree and decorations up already, it wouldn't have gotton done this year. I still hope I have the energy to make cookies and such yet, Hannah so loves that part of christmas, so I will have to do it for her.

Anway thanks for sticking with me until the end of this blog....if you made it this far then I know you care. It's me just kinda blabbing what happened...now I can just update and it won't get so extremely long. Sorry, it took a few days to write this little by little as well.

Hannah is doing well this weekend, we have had good overnight levels, and the just before lunch readings have been high. Otherwise no lows yet. We have to call the nurse educator on Monday with our weekend results, and see if there needs to be any adjustments made. Monday we will also go to the school to talk to the nurse there to figure out the plan for the school day....which the first few weeks there will be more checks to see how her body handles everything, like gym, recess, lunch, snack, end of day, and walking home. I will be available for the next 2 weeks to go to the school at any time if Hannah wants me there or if the nurse needs my help. Steve will be home more the next several weeks as well. Pray that it goes smoothly. After Steve and I talk to the nurse she may stay for a 1/2 a day of school and hopefully go back Tues morning. Hopefully after a few weeks she will only need the before lunch check and insulin--so once a day and maybe then again just a check before she leaves for the day and walks home. I can always go pick her up too to avoid the end of the day check and I can just check her at home and give her insulin too, if she wants a snack.

Steve is way more into all of this than myself, he is very good with the numbers and math, which it takes me a little longer to figure everything out, but I more second guess myself, trying to get everything to be perfect, where as Steve rounds things off more, guesses serving sizes more, where I need to measure. But it all works out, we compliment each other, and it's something we have to work together on. I know I couldn't handle this myself without him. It has gotton us to communicate better, we are figuring things out together, and esentially it's one of the biggest things we now have in common. It will drive us to find out as much as we can about diabetes. Our goal is to educate our friends and family so that they know as much as we do and could also care for Hannah if needed.

So I think I will end here, and will keep this site updated as best as I can, please make comments on this site, it would be nice to hear from you, or if you have any questions about diabetes--type 1.
Hannah has a recheck in 2 weeks, so we will continue to learn as well.
Keep in touch, pray, and much love to you all.

( FYI--the first song that plays on here is by Hannah Montana, Hannah's favorite singer, it's a song called, "Make Some Noise". Hannah was sitting in the bath tub on Saturday after not getting very clean for 3 days, and she doesn't take baths too much anymore, but likes to listen to her CD player when she does take baths, and this song came on, and I started listening to the words and the tears flowed, for some reason, not even knowing what the song is actually about...it made me think of Hannah and her diagnosis....it felt to me as if it is a song about Hannah, and for her to be strong. So therefore it is now Hannah's Theme song.
It will lift her up, when she feels like she doesn't want to be her....she did say that to me right after we found out her diagnosis...and were packing up to go to the hospital, she said, "I dont' want to be me anymore"....how sad is that coming from your 7 yr old. ?? I reassured her that we love her for who she is, diabetes and all. )