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.