Yesterday was Little Man's endo appointment. While, I admit, most of the time we were actually sitting in the office (after the urine sample and A1C finger stick, and downloading his pump info), the appointment consisted of just chit chat... we also got some awesome news!
His A1C results back in January were 7.9.
This time they were....
(drum roll please......)
7.2!!
Oh yeah! Take that diabetes!
I got so excited, I had a permanent smile on my face for a good 3 hours (tried desperately to spare the nurse my embarrassing "chair dancing" skills lol!)
Little Man sat on the little bed in the room, looking back at me and the nurse, asking, "What does that mean? Is that good?"
I looked at him and said, "That's very good!" and gave him a high five for all the hard work he's done trying to learn everything and manage things. The nurse told him "Yes, it is very good! Its like, if this was a test in school, you'd get 100%!"
Its funny she put it that way too, because, while we were waiting in the hall to see if she was going to send us out to the waiting room till a room opened up for us, or send us straight back, I was telling the nurse that was doing the finger stick for his A1C that "I always get a little nervous for these appointments, waiting for the A1C results. Its like, its our report card!"
The really exciting thing about his A1C result is... It's the lowest we've ever had it since he was diagnosed 3 1/2 years ago! January's was the highest it's ever been, too.
What's the lowest A1C result you've had?
What's the highest?
Showing posts with label Random. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Random. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Birthdays and Diabetes
Birthdays and Diabetes.
It can be scary, yes.
But let's also not forget, they need to be fun, too!
I often hear families fret over birthdays, birthday parties, etc. I've been there and done that too. I know how scary it can be, especially when its one your invited to and don't have a handy list of carb information available.
Why am I talking about this today?
Because, Wednesday was Little Man's birthday! Happy Birthday Little Man!
Yes. That is a Real cupcake. No "reduced sugar". No "Sugar free". Real cupcake... and he loved it! :-)
D-parents, myself included, tend to get stuck in the habit of sticking to the sugar free/reduced sugar stuff all year round. While, I'll never advise not to do that (in fact, most people, diabetic or not, should watch their sugar intake for health reasons!)... I will say this much.... It is OK to allow our little munchkins some sugar sometimes! A piece of candy here and there around Easter time... a piece of real cake (or cupcake, since they are easier to count carbs for as they are already portion properly!) for a birthday a few times a year, etc... that is A-OK, and, if nothing else, kind of important to do as well!
Why is it important? Because, we want our kids to feel just like every other kid, right? That's why we strive to make sure they are not treated differently in school, other places, etc, right? So why not for their special day as well?!
Its pretty rare that I allow a lot of sugar filled stuff. I've always kind of been like that, even before his diagnosis. I've always been a stickler for fresh fruits and veggies as snacks, junk food on occation.
I'll admit, when he was first diagnosed, I was overprotective about this sort of thing. In fact, his first two birthdays with diabetes, we did reduced sugar ice cream, angel food cake type cakes with sugar free cool whip for icing. That sort of thing.
Last year, we decided to bite the bullet, and try out regular cupcakes and ice cream. A fear we had to face, we felt. We knew that, theoretically, as long as we covered the carbs, he should be fine... but, as you all can probably relate... it didn't make it any less scary!
We knew that, at his diagnosis, the dietitian had actually told us "if your going to give him candy/cakes/cookies, etc... its better to give him the real sugar than sugar free stuff, because of the sugar alcohols"... but for a long time, I just couldn't wrap my brain around that! So, we took the leap, and prayed.
This year, I can say, we felt confident giving it to him, because we knew it was OK! Moderation is key, as with anything.
Will I make a regular sheet cake for him? Probably not yet. But, it's not so much because I'm afraid of how it will affect his blood sugar. Its just because, cupcakes are easier to portion control and figure carbs for. I, for one, choose simplicity when it comes to this sort of thing. Diabetes is confusing enough, and there's enough guess-timating involved in it... if there's an easy, no guessing solution I can take... I'll take it!
How do you handle birthdays?
Do you give your d-child regular cupcakes/cakes/ice cream, or do you make something special for them?
It can be scary, yes.
But let's also not forget, they need to be fun, too!
I often hear families fret over birthdays, birthday parties, etc. I've been there and done that too. I know how scary it can be, especially when its one your invited to and don't have a handy list of carb information available.
Why am I talking about this today?
Because, Wednesday was Little Man's birthday! Happy Birthday Little Man!
 |
| Little Man with his Birthday Cupcake on his 7th birthday. |
D-parents, myself included, tend to get stuck in the habit of sticking to the sugar free/reduced sugar stuff all year round. While, I'll never advise not to do that (in fact, most people, diabetic or not, should watch their sugar intake for health reasons!)... I will say this much.... It is OK to allow our little munchkins some sugar sometimes! A piece of candy here and there around Easter time... a piece of real cake (or cupcake, since they are easier to count carbs for as they are already portion properly!) for a birthday a few times a year, etc... that is A-OK, and, if nothing else, kind of important to do as well!
Why is it important? Because, we want our kids to feel just like every other kid, right? That's why we strive to make sure they are not treated differently in school, other places, etc, right? So why not for their special day as well?!
Its pretty rare that I allow a lot of sugar filled stuff. I've always kind of been like that, even before his diagnosis. I've always been a stickler for fresh fruits and veggies as snacks, junk food on occation.
I'll admit, when he was first diagnosed, I was overprotective about this sort of thing. In fact, his first two birthdays with diabetes, we did reduced sugar ice cream, angel food cake type cakes with sugar free cool whip for icing. That sort of thing.
Last year, we decided to bite the bullet, and try out regular cupcakes and ice cream. A fear we had to face, we felt. We knew that, theoretically, as long as we covered the carbs, he should be fine... but, as you all can probably relate... it didn't make it any less scary!
We knew that, at his diagnosis, the dietitian had actually told us "if your going to give him candy/cakes/cookies, etc... its better to give him the real sugar than sugar free stuff, because of the sugar alcohols"... but for a long time, I just couldn't wrap my brain around that! So, we took the leap, and prayed.
This year, I can say, we felt confident giving it to him, because we knew it was OK! Moderation is key, as with anything.
Will I make a regular sheet cake for him? Probably not yet. But, it's not so much because I'm afraid of how it will affect his blood sugar. Its just because, cupcakes are easier to portion control and figure carbs for. I, for one, choose simplicity when it comes to this sort of thing. Diabetes is confusing enough, and there's enough guess-timating involved in it... if there's an easy, no guessing solution I can take... I'll take it!
How do you handle birthdays?
Do you give your d-child regular cupcakes/cakes/ice cream, or do you make something special for them?
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Sunday Funnies
Ok, the content of this video isn't really "funny"... I just found it semi-funny, and somewhat interesting how this doctor decided to explain diabetes in song-form... to make it a little more interesting to those without diabetes to know more about it, maybe?
Only thing I wish it included was, the symptoms to watch for!
Otherwise, great, interesting, educational video in my opinion!
What do you think?
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Winter Wonderland
Today, Little Man is at the "farm". He loves going there every weekend... the freedom of running around on land as far as the eye can see really gets him going!
So, today while he's there having the time of his life, me and my Little Princess made an attempt at playing in the snow (while Mommy made an attempt at shoveling the driveway/sidewalk) LOL.
The cold got to us pretty quickly though, and the sheet of ice covering our sidewalk didn't help matters. So, we came inside, enjoyed a cup of Hot Chocolate together, and played with some Play-Dough!
Since Little Princess wanted to come inside early instead of making a Snowman outside... we decided to do one inside!
No cold fingers, toes, noses and ears.... Stay nice and warm... and can make them as colorful as we want!
What do you like to do with your munchkins on really cold winter days?
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
My Independent Little Monkey
Oh my little independent monkey. How they grow up so fast!
This morning I woke little man up for school. Laid out his school clothes on the bathroom sink so he could get dressed, then went about starting his breakfast. As I was zipping around the house taking care of a few things, he came out and checked his sugar by himself.
I sat down for a moment (or three lol), then realized, hmm.. He's been standing there checking his sugar at the table for a while now... what's going on?
I peeked in and asked him what he was doing, and he proceeds to walk to me saying "Mom, this isn't working right." My first reaction, especially after having a problem with our previous pump not too long ago (long story, will blog about that another day) was, OH boy... here we go again!
Instead, he caught me off guard LOL!
He handed me his Precision Xtra KETONE meter, which was showing an error. Looked at the test strip he used (knowing full well that I had used the last ketone blood strip last night!) and had to chuckle a bit.
Yep, you guess it! He used the Glucose test strip inside the Ketone meter LOL!
Had to smile at him, praise him for his efforts and recognizing what he was supposed to do when he sees a high blood sugar reading (which, yes, it was high when he checked it!), and explain to him that when he sees the letter E on that meter's screen, it means there's an error. I also explained to him that the reason he got an error was because the strip he used in the meter is only to check his blood sugar, and that we receive a different kind of strip for the ketone meter but that we need to get some refills for those kind of strips because we are out now.
It always amazes me how much responsibility one little guy WANTS to take on! He has always been the kind of kid to want to know everything about everything, though!
And yes, his urine ketones came back negative =-)
This morning I woke little man up for school. Laid out his school clothes on the bathroom sink so he could get dressed, then went about starting his breakfast. As I was zipping around the house taking care of a few things, he came out and checked his sugar by himself.
I sat down for a moment (or three lol), then realized, hmm.. He's been standing there checking his sugar at the table for a while now... what's going on?
I peeked in and asked him what he was doing, and he proceeds to walk to me saying "Mom, this isn't working right." My first reaction, especially after having a problem with our previous pump not too long ago (long story, will blog about that another day) was, OH boy... here we go again!
Instead, he caught me off guard LOL!
He handed me his Precision Xtra KETONE meter, which was showing an error. Looked at the test strip he used (knowing full well that I had used the last ketone blood strip last night!) and had to chuckle a bit.
Yep, you guess it! He used the Glucose test strip inside the Ketone meter LOL!
Had to smile at him, praise him for his efforts and recognizing what he was supposed to do when he sees a high blood sugar reading (which, yes, it was high when he checked it!), and explain to him that when he sees the letter E on that meter's screen, it means there's an error. I also explained to him that the reason he got an error was because the strip he used in the meter is only to check his blood sugar, and that we receive a different kind of strip for the ketone meter but that we need to get some refills for those kind of strips because we are out now.
It always amazes me how much responsibility one little guy WANTS to take on! He has always been the kind of kid to want to know everything about everything, though!
And yes, his urine ketones came back negative =-)
Monday, February 20, 2012
Writers Block! AHHH!
I've found that I've been crippled with writers block... AHHHH! LOL!
So, tonight is the night I decided to try to overcome it, and I figured, the only way to do that, is just to start blogging again! Not entirely sure WHAT direction things will go in from here on out, though! In the past, I've worked really hard to bring out the educational side of diabetes in my blog posts. I've wrote about everything from how carbs, proteins, and fats work in the body and play their own roles with blood sugars... to stress and blood sugars, and everything in between (that I can think of! LOL!). I've wrote about some of the laws and rights our children and families have when dealing with public school districts as well. I've even wrote several articles about you, the families of diabetic children, which I do plan to continue if the interest for interviews is still there :-))! (See Featured T1-ers interviews!) Pretty much, I've just come to a road block on what else to write about that is both educational, and helpful to parents of children with diabetes. If there's any area's you feel that I have overlooked, or have questions about, please feel free to ask about them in the comments! If it is a topic I haven't covered yet, I most definitely will do my best to provide you with the best information I can!
So, right now, I'm just kind of "winging it" so to speak LOL! While I am working on getting over this hump... I think I will also be working on cleaning up the blog appearance some as well. What do you all think? Time to make it look a little less cluttered? Maybe get a whole new look? Or do you like it just the way it is?
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