Diabetes, if you wanna rock, I'm ready to roll...

I wanted to do a quick little update so those of you who know what is going on don't have to worry unnecessarily. I don't like my peeps to worry. ;)

If you follow Wendy's facebook page, you know last night we ended up taking Syd to the hospital per recommendation of our CDE. So, here is a little update for all of you who have been worried.

Like I mentioned in the post before this, her numbers have been crazy. They are low. They stay low. They don't respond normally to carbs. She wasn't getting insulin w/ her food. Her basals were at 20% of the normal...so if you don't know T1 lingo...that means she was not getting much insulin at all. Her numbers were still hovering in the 40-60s range. It was so bizarre. It was also scary because she had stopped recognizing her lows. If your child is old enough to know what this feels like, and then all the sudden they can't, it's nerve racking. It means they are getting desensitized to what a low feels like. Lows, especially prolonged lows, can cause seizures. Coma. Death. It is very serious and that's why it was making us so nervous.

I took her to the hospital where they had us disconnect her pump completely. They gave her carbs. They were going to watch her. I was a little annoyed at this though because, as I told the nurse, I can do THAT at home and not get charged for it. But they also wanted to do some blood work. The on call pediatrician called Sydney's pedi endo and he gave us a game plan to get through the night. We pulled her off the pump. We are back on injections for the time being. However, no insulin w/ her food. Only correct, via injection, when she is high. He also didn't put us on a long acting insulin like Lantus.

I told Sydney that we were going on shots for a bit (I don't know if that means 1 day, a week, or what) and she said, "Mom I think that's a good idea. I'm just really tired of being low all the time." Syd has been worn out. Lacking energy. Glucose is an integral part of the body. Everyone needs it. When you run low for so long, your body gets tired--it has no fuel. Try running your car w/out gasoline and see what happens. That's what happens in the body. Sydney has been good with the shots. She was awesome with the blood draw. She didn't move a muscle. I think those are harder on me than her. I looked in her glucometer to check her averages. They have all dropped dramatically. Her 30 day ave b.s. is 145. Her 7 day is 120. And, considering we have been checking her at least 15 times a day...I would say the 7 day one is pretty accurate. The past 4 days have been the worst as far as her staying under 70 pretty consistently. They are wondering if maybe there is something else going on in her body that's causing such an unusual reaction. So they are checking her thyroid and adrenal glands and some other things. But those results won't be back for a while.

Several people have asked how I'm doing. I'm ok. I try to keep that positive outlook. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes reality slaps me across the face and I realize this isn't going away. T1 never goes away. It is always there, waiting to throw some unexpected barrier in our path. It's exhausting both mentally and physically. But, I have a great support system. We have felt so loved w/ the outpouring of texts. Emails. Facebook messages. Phone calls. It's been awesome.

I try to use my blog to be a buoy for others. I hope it accomplishes that. I hope that, despite the hell diabetes puts us through from time to time, we can all lean on each other and keep standing strong. It takes courage to face a beast like this day after day. One of my favorite quotes about courage says, "Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, I will try again tomorrow." That's what we are doing...trying again tomorrow. Trying not to let the magnitude of everything pull us under. Trying. It's a powerful word. Thanks for the outpouring of thoughts and prayers. Cyber hugs to all of you from my sweet, little family.

--Syd in the wagon at discharge.