The Type 1 Mom Song

The video at the end of this post goes through the typical day of a mom who has a child with Type 1 diabetes. It is a hoot! It is a great comical look into our lives! Anyway enjoy!!

Funny Story Time

Last Thursday, in addition to her pump, Sydney was hooked up to her continuous glucose monitor. I have mentioned what this is before but here is a brief recap for those who missed it. It is a little needle (about 1 inch long) that gets inserted into her skin. It is hooked to a wireless transmitter that "talks" to her pump. It is equipped with electrodes that monitor her blood sugars every 5 minutes. It is wonderful because you can download the graphs and see what her sugars do. We can find trends (eg. if her bs spikes every night from 11pm-2am we can increase her basal rate of insulin to keep it in the normal range.) The downside of this device is it sets off the alarm if it drops below or rises above the set parameters (syd's are 75 or 250). The first night we had it I had a church meeting and left my sweet husband in charge of the girls. Earlier in the day, somewhere during the tears and crying while trying to insert the monitor, our diabetic educators forgot to mention (or most likely we just forgot what they told us because of the plethora of new information) that the monitor has about a 10 minute lag time with sugars. Example of the lag time---if Syd's sugar is low, we give her carbs, it takes about 10 minutes longer to show how fast/if the sugars are rising. Syd's alarm went off on her pump showing a low b.s. reading. Loren gave syd about 10 carbs. 15 minutes later the alarm went off again. Syd was still low--more carbs were given.

This happens another time and Loren was baffled. Surly her sugars should not still be low. So he checked with her glucometer and it showed normal levels. He called Nancy (one of our wonderful and amazing educators). She told him about the lag time. What happens when you give a diabetic 35-40 carbs without compensating with insulin? Syd's sugar skyrocketed to nearly 400. When this happens, it takes a while to bring the numbers back down. In the meantime, I got home and we put the girls to bed. Since her levels were still high, Syd's alarm went off every hour reminding us that her sugars were over 250. Eventually we fell asleep and, consequently, didn't hear the alarm ringing. We, instead, woke to a screaming Sydney. I ran to her room, certain something terrible had happened. She was sitting on the side of her bed screaming, "My pump is trying to shock me! My pump is trying to shock me!" Apparently if you don't hear the ringing, the pump starts vibrating.

We calmed Syd down and tucked her back into bed. An hour later the same thing happened. We, again, get the girls back to bed and tuck our very tired selves in bed. An hour later, at 3 a.m., I awoke to hysterical screams and I heard the footsteps of someone running through our house. My heart jumped into my throat! What was going on? Apparently the screaming scared Loren too because he sat up in bed and started screaming at the top of his lungs! This, obviously, scared the daylights out of my already terrified 5 year old running through the kitchen and she started screaming even louder. At this point, my 2 year old, lagging about 10 steps behind her big sister, began screaming. Eventually I got everyone calmed down and quieted the shouts of hysteria. It was at this point we decided to turn the sensor off so we could get some sleep. Unfortunately, sleep didn't come quickly. Sydney was too scared to go back to her bed because her pump kept trying to "shock" her and Morgan was scared because of all the screaming. Loren was embarrassed that "the man of the house" was scared by the screams of 2 little girls. (It didn't help that I teased him for it...Come to think of it, I still am teasing him about it.) Anyway, I'm still surprised our neighbors didn't call the cops after all that craziness! After a bit we bribed the girls back to bed and we all got about 4 hours of sleep. Needless to say, it was a very long night. BUT I am happy to report that the nights since then have been less eventful. We have been waking up about 3 times a night to check sugars on the pump but without incident and we are quickly able to crawl back under the covers. We also got smart and dug our baby monitor out of storage and we are now using that to monitor any alarms that go off in the middle of the night. Just in case anyone is wondering, it is possible to bless and curse technology at the same time.

We have done both...often. Anyway enjoy this video! It is great! It is a very accurate and humorous look into the day of a mother whose kid has type 1! Enjoy! (p.s. it says it might be too graphic for those not familiar with the disease but it isn't.) I typed out the lyrics below because sometimes she sings a bit quickly and unless your familiar with the jargon, you won't know what she is saying. The song is great!



The Type 1 Mom Song
Get up now, get up now. You look pale to me.
Check it now, check it now. We will have to see.
Are you high? Are you low? Do you have to eat?
Check it now! Do you have to pee?
Get your clothes. Are you wearing that?
Wash your face. Brush your teeth. Where’s your homework at?
Pack your lunch so you don’t have to eat school crap.
Don’t roll your eyes at me like that.
Quick eat so we will have the time to calculate the carbs.
Take your bolus so that you will not go high and have to check ketones.
Remember that the endo is expecting you today at three.
We will get the good mommy test grade they like to call your A1C.
Don’t panic, I’m sure that your log book is here somewhere.
It just can't grow legs and jump up and disappear.
Have you changed your needle since last week?
I swear to your dad I will have to speak. Don’t forget to check before you eat.
How many carbs are in that treat? Where’s the work you missed at school today?
Why not? What’s the problem? What did she say?
I’ll laminate that 504 and nail that sucker to your teacher’s door!
Don’t test my patience. I’m sleep deprived.
I have no life. Can’t recall my last vacation.
So I’ve closed the kitchen for the night.
It’s restaurant food. No carb counts. Hope I guess it right.
Grab your ball and skates it’s time to go
So we might be on time for once.
Get a juice and a snack so you don’t go low. Exercise is good you know.
Kick it hard. Jump high. What an awesome catch.
Strips and meter I will fetch. Check it quick so that you get right back
Knowing your number’s on track. Each day is a blessing.
I give thanks for you being mine. The challenges are many. We will overcome in time.
Get your shower and your pump shirt on so we don’t have an incident.
We can’t afford to repeat last years pump in the toilet accident.
Brush your hair, brush your teeth. Get your pj’s on.
Take your blood sugar now. Let’s see what wrong.
Have a juice. Take seat. Get a cold washcloth.
Get a-HEY DON'T YOU PASS OUT ON ME! Stay still until your 103.
Have a root beer, twizzlers, cupcakes, snow cone,
Snickers, juice or milkshakes. So if all your friends
Ate a thousand carbs you’d eat them too! If I’ve said it once
I’ve said at least a million times that we’ll get through all this!
I’m proud of how you handle it. How are your supplies at school? Do you have strips? Needles too?
What! We’re out of strips! Where is the Walgreens that’s open nights?
I’ll be right back, make sure your homework’s done and in your pack.
Get in bed. Get a hug and kiss goodnight. I’ll check you at midnight.
Don’t forget, I love you. And today we will repeat again for sure
Everday until a cure. You can help us find the cure.
Give now. Give now. Give now. Give now.
We thank you. We thank you. We thank you. We thank you.
Find the cure. The cure. The cure. The cure. The cure! The cure.