A little milestone

So we had our two-week appointment yesterday with our pediatric endocrinologist. We're big fans of Dr. Amy, and we were excited to hear that she happens to the medical director for diabetes camp, which Noah will attend this summer. She's just super down-to-earth and kind; she spent the first few minutes of the appointment with her arm around Noah. Considering he's going to be with her several times a year until he graduates college, it's a good relationship to foster.

Anyway, he's been struggling to keep his blood sugar up, so we reduced his dosage of his basal/long-acting insulin, and (drum roll...) we've transitioned to per meal dosing. Yay! Basically, this means that instead of having a consistent mealtime fast-acting insulin dose, and then trying to match the amount of carbs in his meal to that dose, we now get to decide what to feed him, count those carbs, and then give him insulin to match. This is oddly liberating when it comes to planning meals, but more than that, it means we've stepped a little further into "real life" as a family with a diabetic kid. Matching the insulin to the intake is the way it's supposed to be done, but everyone starts off the other way to get a handle on "patient's" insulin-to-carb ratio.

And, even more exciting, we don't have to go back to the doctor for another 2 and a half months, at which point they'll test his A1C, which is the real measure of how we're all managing Noah's diabetes. Perhaps I'll explain A1C in a later post, but I doubt it will really hold anyone's interest.

And along those lines, I think this blog may be coming to an end. Simply put, diabetes has taken over our lives. I count carbs in my dreams. I'm constantly evaluating our food stashes to make sure I have frosting, glucose tabs and juice boxes in every car, every backpack and every purse. Yesterday I panicked because Noah didn't finish his breakfast, and I didn't realize it until I had put him on the bus. Thus ensued frantic phone calls to school, to get in touch with his teacher, to have her send him to the nurse and drink a box of juice, lest he get a low.

But he came home with a low anyway, as has been his pattern for the past few days. Which means scrambling to wash his hands, test his blood, get 15 grams of carbs in him and then wait, not-so-patiently, for the number to come up.

Dinnertime was somewhat annoying before (kids acting insane in the witching hour, trying to match when dinner is ready to the ever-changing arrival time of my husband, me being exhausted at the end of the day, etc.). Now, it's utterly chaotic. Staving off Noah's hunger so he doesn't ruin his dinner, simultaneously trying to ward off a low while dinner is cooking; getting Noah to do everything he has to do (again, wash his hands, test his blood), which is not always successful, sometimes he does it fairly willingly, but other days he still balks, whines or cries; actually cooking dinner; counting the carbs in the dinner and measuring out Noah's portion; calculating Noah's insulin dose; answering the phone when Matt calls to tell me that he is a) on his way home; or b) not yet on his way home, and adjusting dinner accordingly; writing down what's on the menu for Noah, his glucose numbers, his carb-count and his dose.

It's all truly exhausting and all-consuming. And I know that frankly, none of you guys care to hear all of the gory details. So that leaves me either blogging to myself, or leaving it alone, so I'll likely chose the latter. And I make this proclamation to avoid any negligent-blogging guilt trips by the Boy Wonder. ;-)

A new blog is in the works, however. My dear friend, Catherine, is spear-heading the design and coding. As some of you may have guessed, I am kind of a freak about whole, organic, local, sustainable foods. Then enter diabetes. It has completely changed the game. We've heard from lots of people, including our dietitians, that otherwise healthy families tend to develop less healthy diets over time because of the convenience of processed foods when it comes to counting carbs. You'd be amazed how much of the "Help your diabetic kid" books out that are devoted to carb counts for happy meals and canned fruit. And try to find a farmer's market style-cookbook that provides nutritional information. And diabetes management doesn't exactly fit with my style of cooking, which thus far has been "a little of this, a little of that into the pot, and see what happens." I need to create a database for myself and other like-minded families with tips, ideas, recipes, cheat sheets, etc. for how to keep a diabetic kid healthy without resorting to the middle aisles of the mega-grocers. And I need to vent diabetes bullshit to an audience that won't think I'm whining or overreacting. I've gotten enough feedback so far to know that not everyone thinks this is that big of a deal. Sigh. We'll see how it goes....