I’m so excited to get my hands on the new edition of Think Like a Pancreas: A Practical Guide to Managing Diabetes with Insulin–Completely Revised and Updated written by Gary Scheiner. What was even more exciting was flipping to the resources in the back and seeing D-Mom Blog listed!

This is my go to book when I think about making changes to I:C ratios and testing basal rates. You may know Gary from his Type 1 University classes or from his coaching at Integrated Diabetes Services.

Disclosure: Gary was nice enough to send me a copy. Please read the disclosure statement regarding affiliate links.

{Bookshelf} Think Like a Pancreas- Revised! is a post from: D-Mom Blog

The information provided here is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please read the disclaimer, disclosure, and privacy policy statements.

When Q was first diagnosed, once her blood sugars were somewhat regulated after getting insulin to carb ratios and the bedtime dosage of Lantus figured out, we were told that we didn’t need to do overnight blood sugar checks. So we didn’t. If her blood sugar was fine at bedtime, she was good for the night.

I’m not sure if she was more “even” overnight when she was on injections or if it was because her blood sugar range at the time was higher (100-200), but if she went to bed fine, her morning BG was okay too.

Sometime after we started an insulin pump, we began checking blood sugars overnight. I can’t remember what made me start doing it. First it started with checking her at 10:00 or 11:00 pm before we went to bed. It has progressed into that late evening check and then setting my alarm sometime during the night, usually 2:00 am, to check her again.

Like I said, for the first couple of years after diagnosis, we weren’t checking in the middle of the night. But now we are. When I awake at 2:00 am, I can’t just roll over and fall back asleep and sometimes I’m up for hours, finally falling asleep close to 5:00 am. I know what you are saying: have my husband do the overnight checks. He does sometimes, but if he’s up and walking around it wakes me up, so I may as well do it myself.

So last night (I’m typing this at 2:46 am, by the way), I was tired. I laid down in bed after the kids went down and fell asleep sometime around 9:30 pm. I remember being tired at that time. I set the sleep timer on the TV’s remote to turn itself off in an hour. I contemplated setting my alarm to awake me at 10:00 pm, but thought that I would check on her if I was still awake, but that I’d let myself fall asleep early if my body would let me.

My eyes opened and I looked at the clock. It was exactly 2:00 am on the dot. Is my body trained or what?

I walked to the kids’ bathroom to grab the meter off of the counter where it’s placed each evening at bedtime. I fumbled a little in her room trying not to wake her brother who was having a “sleepover” with her.

Her blood sugar was 82.

I walked back to the bathroom and grabbed a juice from our overnight kit and returned to her, rubbing her back to partially wake her and whispered to her to drink the juice, which she can do in one giant gulp while still sleeping.

I went downstairs to pour her a glass of milk, thinking that I’d give her a little protein to keep her even through the rest of the night.

I checked her blood sugar again: 70.

70?!

How low would she have gone had I not awoken without my alarm?

I have no idea why she was low. She was 84 before bedtime and my husband gave her 15 uncovered carbs including protein for her bedtime snack, just like our plan dictates for a number between 80 and 100.

One of the biggest lessons learned is that her brother does not in fact function as a diabetic alert dog, despite spending the previous day insisting he be called “Ruffy” the puppy.

Further Reading

{Diabetes Management} Overnight Supply Kit

{Our Story} Overnight BG Checks is a post from: D-Mom Blog

The information provided here is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please read the disclaimer, disclosure, and privacy policy statements.

A little glitter never hurt anyone. Although we did impose a moratorium on glitter at school parties after the Halloween incident in kindergarten.

(E-mail and feed subscribers please click over for embedded video.)

Further Reading

More YouTube Tuesday videos.

{YouTube Tuesday} All That Glitters is a post from: D-Mom Blog

The information provided here is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please read the disclaimer, disclosure, and privacy policy statements.

They seem to be multiplying!

Q counted out 50 pods to send in for recycling through Insulet’s Eco-Pod program. She was happy that there were a few leftover to use for craft projects.

If you are wondering about the pods marked with an X, we leave the old pod on anywhere from 15 minutes to hours. If I think I’ll have a difficult time remembering which is the new pod and which needs to come off, I’ll mark the old one with an X.

All images are copyright D-Mom Blog and D-Mom Media and may not be copied or reproduced without express written permission.

{Diabetes 365} Pods, Pods, and More Pods! is a post from: D-Mom Blog

The information provided here is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please read the disclaimer, disclosure, and privacy policy statements.

I’ve been curious about the home A1c tests. We have an A1c done in office every three to four months, but sometimes I wish I could check in between to see if changes we’ve made are making any difference. (And, yes I know the A1c is only one measurement of how well diabetes is being managed.)

I saw the Bayer A1cNow Selfcheck kits on sale and decided that it was worth it to buy a box and check it out. That evening I pulled it out and did the test and was absolutely SHOCKED at the number that popped up. There is NO WAY that Q’s A1c was 10.5.

That would indicate an average BG of 255. I don’t think so!

So not only was I totally upset and discouraged, but I was perplexed. I wrote it off as inaccurate and decided to wait until our next endo appointment and use the second test in the box to compare. In the meantime I saw two other bloggers use the home kit and they each seemed to think that the test was accurate enough.

Our next endo appointment rolled around. I have been struggling with Q’s A1c’s (both literally and emotionally) because they are higher than I would like them to be and we made some changes in the past couple of months that we really thought would bring it down. In fact her A1c dropped 0.5, a much appreciated improvement.

We still have a little way to go, but we made a couple more changes to I:C ratios and correction factors that I think will help. We also talked about doing the iPro again. (Unfortunately this clinic requires three separate visits: putting it on, taking it off, and discussing results with the doctor in person. It’s 90 minutes each way for us.)

Armed with an A1c taken in the endo’s office (finger prick, not blood draw), I pulled out the home A1c test to check it’s accuracy.

It was 1.8 HIGHER than the result at the endo.

FAIL.

I followed the instructions each time. We both washed hands each time. I don’t think I did anything to mess it up. (Plus if I can’t do it right, then they have no business selling them to the masses.)

Long story short, the Bayer A1cNow Selfcheck test does not get the D-Mom Seal of Approval. I won’t waste my money (or shock at seeing a super high number) ever again.

Have you tried an at home A1c test? Did you feel like it was accurate?

Further Reading

Moments of Wonderful A1c Now – Trying out the home test

Diabetes Mine Home A1C Testing vs. The Lab

Disclosure: I paid for the home A1c test with my own money. Bayer did not ask me to write about their product. Opinions are my own.

{Diabetes Management} Home A1c Test Fail is a post from: D-Mom Blog

The information provided here is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please read the disclaimer, disclosure, and privacy policy statements.

Featured D-Blogs of the Week

Here are some of my favorite posts I have read recently:

One Happy Mama The Shirt (This post made me cry because I really understood how she felt. I walked into Q’s room, opened her closet and snapped a photo of her fish pajamas, which I shared with Kristina on Facebook. I still have those teeny tiny scrubs, neatly folded, and sitting on the top shelf of Q’s closet. I don’t know why I keep them, but I do.)

Mom of an Extra Sweet Insulin Challenged Girl 8 Months of Pumping (I know many of us say how much better having an insulin pump is over doing injections. Read this account of the hard work that actually goes into transitioning from MDI to a pump.)

A Sweet Grace Basal Dance- From Complex to Simple (This was a timely post to read. I need to do a little overnight basal testing. We had several days of high BG’s that just wouldn’t budge. I was about to change all of our rates and she returned to normal. Must have been growth hormones!)

Your Diabetes May Vary Of Fantasy Diabetes Devices, Sheldon & Dewy (I want a diabetes assistant like Dewy! Bennet makes so many good suggestions of the areas where us parents, trying our best to act as artificial pancreases, need help.)

Diabetes Mine Can You Trust Nutrition Labels? (See, no matter how hard we try to count carbs, the odds are already stacked against us!)

Grab the shiny button to tell your readers that your post has been featured right here on D-Mom Blog.

{Type 1 Tuesday} 01.24.12 is a post from: D-Mom Blog

The information provided here is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please read the disclaimer, disclosure, and privacy policy statements.

Yes, I now it’s the middle of winter and the last thing on your mind is camping. But it is time to start thinking about sending your kiddo to d-camp this summer.

Q is already preparing herself for camp and couldn’t be more excited to go for the first time this summer.

Last summer I sent her to a local day camp that was not specific to diabetes. I was so sick to my stomach the first few days, but with the help of a d-mom we know who is on staff we felt comfortable* and ended up sending her for a second week. This year she wants to go for three weeks in addition to d-camp. Plus the kids usually do six weeks of daily swim lessons!

Not to mention that we camp as a family.

Oh, and add book-related travel and a social media summit or two. I think this summer is going to be a whirlwind!

Here is a list of diabetes camps by state or region (it includes Canada). If you know of a camp that’s not listed, please let me know…I’d be happy to add it!

Happy camping!

*As comfortable as we could be given that there was no nurse on staff, but I was literally five minutes away the entire time.

Further Reading

D-Mom Staycation

Diabetes Camps (list by state or region)

More posts about diabetes camp

More posts about non-diabetes camp

{Camping} Time to Sign Up! is a post from: D-Mom Blog

The information provided here is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please read the disclaimer, disclosure, and privacy policy statements.

We have a two-story house and I’m usually pretty groggy when I check on Q in the middle of the night. I try to zombie my way through overnight checks with one eye only slightly open in hopes that I can fall back asleep. After a couple of nights when I had to go all the way downstairs for some supply or another, I put together a little kit that we keep in the kids’ bathroom upstairs.

At bedtime we bring Q’s pump pouch and the clipboard where we log her numbers and put it on the bathroom counter. Usually this is all we need.

But if there is a high or low blood sugar to deal with overnight, I have our supplies at the ready to minimize my activity and thinking at 2:00 am.

Overnight Supply Kit

• Blood glucose meter and strips
• Extra vial of blood glucose test strips
• Blood ketone meter and strips
• Syringes
• Supplies for 2 pump changes (pod, alcohol swab, Q-tip in baggie)
• 2 juice boxes
• Fast-acting sugar such as glucose tablets or Smarties
• Glucagon

I purchased this plastic box at Target, but I have seen the same one at Michael’s. I like it because the lid locks down and it stays closed.

The extra meter is just in case the meter on her PDM wouldn’t work for some reason or if the PDM was still downstairs.

The blood ketone meter is awesome for overnight because I can check for ketones while she sleeps and she doesn’t even wake up.

The syringes are in case I would have to give her insulin by syringe if her pump failed and her blood sugar was very high. In two years of pumping, I’ve only had to do this twice and the one time I probably could have bolused with the new site.

Syringes can also be used for mini-glucagon to treat severe hypoglycemia. (I’ve never done this. Our endo has gone over the procedure with me but asked that I call her if I felt like I needed to do this to access the situation.)

If you were wondering, I keep the syringes in an empty FreeStyle lancets box. They fit in there nicely. I’ve been on the lookout for a small plastic container that will hold a few syringes, but haven’t found the perfect one yet.

Further Reading

More posts about

blood ketone meters

glucose tablets

treating lows

{Diabetes Management} Overnight Supply Kit is a post from: D-Mom Blog

The information provided here is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please read the disclaimer, disclosure, and privacy policy statements.

People often ask why we chose the OmniPod over insulin pumps. I always give a diplomatic answer about how all pumps have their pluses and minuses before giving our reasons. But the reality is that there was never a question for us. We wanted a patch pump.

My friend Stacey has been wearing a traditional pump with tubing for a while and she decided to give OmniPod a try. In the spirit of encouragement, Q made a little video for Stacey to tell her some of the reasons why she likes the OmniPod.

(E-mail and feed subscribers click over for embedded video.)

Disclosure: OmniPod did not ask me to write about their product and I am not compensated in any way by the company. Though they should because Q is one of their greatest spokespersons.

Further Reading

More of Q’s videos

More post about OmniPod

{YouTube Tuesday} Why Q Likes the OmniPod is a post from: D-Mom Blog

The information provided here is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please read the disclaimer, disclosure, and privacy policy statements.

Speculation that Paula Deen will announce her diagnosis with type 2 diabetes has fueled all sorts of snide, judgmental comments about Deen herself and those with diabetes.

When I logged onto Facebook on Sunday I saw a headline from BlogHer that read:

Paula Deen’s Got “The Sugah Diabeetus”

Cue eye roll.

But instead of crying foul, which is so easy to do when you see a headline that places judgment on people with diabetes through the use of stereotypes, I wrote the following comment:

I’m more critical of people who say “The Sugah Diabeetus” than people who are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. My child has type 1 diabetes, which has no known cause and no cure, and people flinging around stereotypes such as that phrase do a great disservice to those of us trying to educate and advocate. While type 2 diabetes can sometimes be controlled by a change in diet and exercise, poor diet and lack of exercise aren’t always the cause. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that can in no way be prevented. Since the two types are often lumped together, my daughter faces a lifetime of biased and unfounded stereotypes.

You know what usually happens when ones of us tries to inform and educate on Facebook or on a non-diabetes blog…a bunch of uninformed people make accusations against us in the comments, telling us to lighten up. (Cue nasty comments from readers defending The Blogess.)

But that’s not what happened on Sunday.

If you actually read the post on BlogHer by Red Dirt Kelly, it’s not against Paula Deen at all, but rather about people who are insensitive on Twitter.

So if I’m not sounding the battle cry against BlogHer or Kelly, why am I telling you about it?

Because the comments on Facebook were supportive and not judgmental. Because Kelly explained that putting “The Sugah Diabeetus” in quotation marks was her trying to quote the yahoos on Twitter, not her opinion, and admitted that maybe that wasn’t obvious. She even added a clarification note on her post. And because BlogHer responded to me on Twitter with appreciation.

Ironically, I used a Paula Deen recipe on Christmas morning. It’s the first time I’ve used one of her recipes. I modified it because it was a little over the top and carb-laden. I am planning on sharing my version of her recipe close to Easter because I think I will make it on holiday mornings.

If Paula does in deed announce a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, maybe I can give her some tips on reducing the carbs in her recipes while still maintaining her Southern style.

Further Reading

We All Scream (at Wendell Fowler) for Ice Cream

Kelly of Diabetesaliciousness: Paula Deen – If You Need Us, The Diabetes On-Line Community Has Your Back!

*Image courtesy of The Food Network

Paula Deen Might Be T2…and Not Slinging Insults is a post from: D-Mom Blog

The information provided here is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please read the disclaimer, disclosure, and privacy policy statements.