Monday, December 14, 2009

Interesting Evening

I love this shirt of Syd's. It reminds me how T1 can affect so many aspects of our life that we often took for granted before diagnosis. One such incident happened tonight. This is the story...(said in my best commentator voice.)

For the past 2 weeks Loren has been selling Christmas Trees every evening. Apparently this has been an ambition of his since he was a child. Go figure--to each his own I guess. So the girls and I are left to our own devices in the evenings. We miss dad but keep ourselves entertained. Miss Sydney has been working very hard in school and is reading like a champ! She received a book-it award for reading. This entitles her to her very own personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. Nifty!

Tonight we finished her homework and decided to go to the library and then to Pizza Hut for dinner so she could redeem the much coveted book-it. We get to Pizza Hut. Wash hands. Order. Check blood sugar. 267--she is high. So I decided to give her her insulin 15-20 minutes early so it is working before she eats her 60 carbs worth of a personal pan pizza. If you aren't aware, pizza is extremely difficult to give insulin for. I think it would be easier to give syd a bowl of ice cream for dinner rather than pizza. But I didn't want to deprive her of her hard work! We would make the pizza thing work.

So we wait. And wait. And wait some more for our food. Then we waited a bit longer. Finally our waitress came and apologized and said their ovens had broke. They couldn't cook our food. But, guess what, we didn't have to pay for our drinks. Well, whew because $4 in drinks was my biggest worry in this situation. So the girls and I head to the car. I'm thinking, "Crap, syd has insulin for 60 carbs in her system as of about 35-40 minutes earlier." I am trying to figure out what I can feed her that is 60 carbs. She generally doesn't eat that many carbs because she is only 6. I finally decide to drive across town to another Pizza Hut. We get there. I immediately, but kindly, ask the waitress to get her pizza cooking and I explained the situation. She was very kind and rushed back to put in our order.

I check Syd. She is 101. So obviously falling quickly because now it's been an hour since I dosed her and its 7 o'clock which is later than we usually eat. The waitress brought us some sprite--woohoo not diet! To help perk up her sugar while her pizza cooks. It dropped a little more before her food came but nothing too serious. But I have no idea how much soda was in her cup. (I usually order her milk if it's in a pre-measured serving or diet soda) I don't know how much she drank. And she ate her pizza all gone. I feel at a loss right now because it was a rather stressful evening.

We got home. I put the girls to bed. Syd was 110. I'm not sure if she is going up or down but I'll know soon enough. I'm sure it will just be dandy but during the heat of the moment I was a little peeved that Pizza Hut's oven broke down. What are the chances? A big thanks to my pal Stacey who let me vent to her during this whole incident!

So that was our interesting evening. I know eating out can be difficult with T1 but I didn't ever think it would be because the oven broke. :-) Generally it is mommy malfunction with dosing or something. This, however, was not my fault. ;)

So, lessons learned in hindsight....

1) I should have got her a non-diet drink to sip on while we drove to the next pizza hut. Didn't even cross my mind though.

2) A bean burrito from Taco Bell is also about 60 carbs and would have been sufficient and quicker to eat.

3) Even a weird fluke like the broken oven with 5.8 units of insulin on board and no food on it's way can't hinder the excitement from redeeming a book-it.

Way to Go Syd! Keep up the great work!

14 comments:

LaLa said...

Great reading!! Keep up the good work. We have a new reader in our house and it is so fun!!

Crazy indeed. You did great, Mom. And now we know bean burrito = 60 carbs. Very good to know!!

I wonder why pizza is so hard?? I've heard that from several people.

Damn oven!

oops ... sorry I just said damn on your blog (2x now).


XOXOOXO

Joanne said...

Great job, Mom... I would have been panicking for sure! I hate when life throws us curveballs like that, as is figuring our carbs and insulin isn't enough!

Amy said...

Good Job Shamae!!! :) Eating out is tough enough without pizza ovens breaking!!! But... you did great!!

Meri said...

What a trooper! Going to another pizza hut took guts! I am continually impressed by you friend.

And congrats Syd! Reading is so fun!

Lora said...

Phew... I would have F-R-E-A-K-E-D!
You would THINK that a Pizza Hut would have a back up oven???

BTW ~ So super nice of them to comp you the drinks. lol

phonelady said...

see catastrophe avoided and good job mama . You are a champ and so is syd . that waitress deserves a kuddo too cause alot of them would have been like so what . we have run into that too . really rude . Oh well dont get me started . Good job on the reading for syd too . yeppers kuddos all around .

Jen said...

Oh man! Don't you love it when you can be calm to your kids on the outside but inside you are freaking out!!! You handled it like a pro and sounds like you will be even more prepared for the next oven break down (who would have thunk it!!!)!

Stacey said...

thanks for the shout out lady...and btw, you can vent to me any time you want :) yet another reason i wish you lived closer...in person venting is so much more fun!

:) Tracie said...

Way to go Sydney!

Pizza Huts ovens don't work, Olive Garden runs outta olives, what next people?! (we've seriously given Olive Garden a hard time with that one)
I agree though, pizza is a hard dose measure because of the slow acting carbs.

Beautifully handled!

Rachel said...

WOW! What are the chances of that happening!!!! Good job Syd on the reading.

Tristan had the same thing...we redeemed his last week! :)

The Lane Family said...

I know what a pain monitoring and counting carbs is for me and so my heart goes out to you in managing Sydney and letting her be a kid at the same time.

It seems like you learned a lot of lessons in one evening if only we did not have to learn them the hard way all of the time :)

I wanted to let you know that last week when I took Avery to see her GI doctor there was an 8 year old girl with parents their to see the endocrinologist. The parents started talking to me and we got on the topic of their daughter. She has had diabetes since she was 2 and they said that it has been a rollercoaster but they have learned so much as has their daughter.'

The intresting thing was that they were there because her pump has been acting up and she has been doing what Sydney was. After about a month they found out that her pump was defective so she was getting a new one in the next week or so. They also told me that this is a hard time of year because every year at this time her numbers go crazy. I thought it was very interesting.

The little girl was really cute she came over and showed Avery how she give herself shots and tests her blood. The two of them had quite the conversation. What a small world we live in huh!!

Wendy said...

I hate it when stuff like that happens!!!!

Great job managing it...and good to know about Taco Bell :) (Well, except that the tortillas are flour...sigh...)

Congrats, Syd!!!!! Keep up the great work and enjoy your PIZZA!

Anonymous said...

Wow stressful! I never realized what you had to do to eat out! What a good mom you are!

The Herrigs said...

Hind sight is always 20/20 right?! You handled it all like a pro as always and Syd still got to celebrate her reading with pizza. Yay!!