Feeling Hopeful

A little over a year ago, I wrote about some Medtronic "hopefuls" that were coming down the pipeline.  I call them "hopefuls" because hearing about ideas and actually seeing them come to fruition are two different things.  I often get my hopes up when I hear of a new direction the hunt for a cure is taking.  I also get my hopes up when I hear of advancements in technology which will improve diabetes management, until that cure is found.  I never lose hope, but sometimes my initial excitement fades over time.

Well, let me tell you why we should never lose hope!  I found an email in my inbox this morning, letting me know that Lorraine had posted a new blog post over at This is Caleb.  She posted a video explaining Medtronic's new mySentry Remote Glucose Monitor.  I only had a couple of seconds to check it out, but after seeing it, became so excited that those seconds turned into hours!  I encourage you to visit This is Caleb and view that video!

This is a piece of Medtronic's news release, describing the mySentry:

mySentry is used in conjunction with the MiniMed Paradigm® REAL-Time Revel™ System, an insulin pump with built-in continuous glucose monitoring. mySentry can be placed in the bedroom or in any room throughout the house so all important information is just a glance away. mySentry provides flexibility and a wide range of uses including displaying all of the alerts and alarms available on the Paradigm Revel insulin pump: predictive alerts, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) graph, insulin pump battery life, amount of insulin remaining, and time until the next glucose sensor calibration

(Yeah, yeah!  That is a better explanation than the one I gave back in November of 2010, where I called it "something like an alarm clock".)

Why is this new gadget so important to me?  I went back to find this old post I had written, linking to Beta Buddies and a wonderful post written by Reyna about Dead in Bed Syndrome.  I have revisited that post a hundred times in my head.  Reyna said it "out loud", but it is a fear that all DMamas live with on the inside.

Medtronic's news release stated "An estimated 75 percent of all episodes of severe hypoglycemia in children occur at night."

My husband or I wake up a minimum of two times every night to check Ally's blood sugar.  Our biggest fear is that Ally will suffer from a severe low at night while we are sleeping.  We also choose to check overnight blood sugars because we don't want to miss a high blood sugar, letting it go for 11 hours untreated.  This mySentry Remote Glucose Monitor will alarm if Ally drops too low or runs high.  You can even set it to alarm, predicting a low or high blood sugar (if you are using these predictive alarm features on the CGM).

My favorite thing about the mySentry is that it has a volume control!!  There have been one too many nights (including one this week!) where we awoke to check Ally in the night and have heard her CGM alarming low as we approach her room.  A moment of panic!  The alarms on her CGM are just not loud enough to awake her when she is sleeping.  We even have a baby monitor sitting next to her bed and we still can't hear the alarms when we are sleeping. 

I am so excited about the possiblities for safer care for my girl...and maybe even a better night's rest for Mom and Dad!

For more information, visit http://www.medtronicdiabetes.net/mysentry.

Christmas Dress Shopping

When I'm dress shopping for my girls, I do have to consider each one individually.  Jessi has certain requirements, something of the Fancy Nancy nature.  The frillier the better!

Ally likes something cute and hip.  Being the oldest, she also tends to get more new clothes than the other girls. It only stands to reason, because she doesn't have any older sisters passing clothes down to her. Recently, we went shopping for a nice Christmas dress.


When buying a Christmas dress for your little girl, what do you look for? Frills or ruffles? Bows or lace? Special colors or patterns? 

Those things are all important, but there is something else that we have to consider when buying a special outfit.

 
Ally wears an insulin pump.

I know, if you are reading this, you already know that she has type 1 diabetes and most likely also know that she wears an insulin pump.  But that is an important factor that we have to consider when making our holiday dress selection.


Ally's insulin pump is connected to her with a site, which we rotate every 3 days between her arms and hips or bum area.  The pump is usually worn in a pump pouch around her waist.  When Ally needs to give herself insulin, or check her CGM reading, she needs to look at her pump.  Easy enough. 

Now picture this seemingly simple task, while wearing a dress.  She would have to pull up her dress in order to do this.  Not so easy!

It is not so pleasant, in the middle of class or church, to have to pull up your dress because your pump is alarming.  Nor is it fun, in the middle of a party or a restaurant, because you want to bolus for your food.  This is when the remote feature would really come in handy.  But her MiniMed Revel pump does not have a remote.

So we adjust.  She still looks really cute (and don't forget hip) in her sweet little bubble skirt, sweater and leggins with bows :)

Seven Days and Counting

Seven Days.  That's 168 hours.  And still counting.

Oh wait!  Did you think that I was counting down until Christmas?  Wow!  I guess that is only 7 days away.  But that's not what I was referring to. 

It has been 7 days since Ally started feeling ill.  Last Sunday afternoon (day #1) she started complaining of a stomach ache.  She wouldn't eat anything and spent the rest of the day laying on the couch, holding her stomach.  Anytime she has a stomach ache, I check for ketones (because stomach pain and nausea are both signs of ketoacidosis).  None.  No fever.  Blood sugars were holding steady in the 120-140 range.  And the cycle began.

The cycle where I tried to figure out what was going on in her body.  Is she getting sick?  Is the stomach ache from diabetes?  Maybe it was just something that she ate earlier that didn't agree with her?

Monday morning (day #2) we woke up to a nice blood sugar of 121...and ketones!  The moderate kind (.8 on blood ketone meter).  We keep Ketostix (urine strips) for routine ketone checks because they are cheaper than blood ketone strips.  However, if I ever suspect that she is sick, I skip the urine strips and go right for the blood ketone meter.  Children With Diabetes highly recommends blood ketone testing over urine testing.  Read more about it here.  I originally learned of blood ketone testing, not from our endo, but from one of my favorite fellow bloggers, Reyna of Beta Buddies.

So, .8!  I thought that she must be coming down with a tummy bug. We worked hard to get rid of those ketones all day. We gave her insulin to correct for the ketones and she was doing a great job of drinking lots of fluids to help flush them out. The ketone level dropped, according to our blood ketone meter, to .6.  But she still didn't feel like eating. She was afraid she would throw up.  So I didn't force it.   Then a few hours later, ketones were up to 1.5!  I realized that since she hadn't had any food all day, she was not getting any insulin (other than her basal and a little for ketone correction).  After speaking with the on-call endo, I started giving her carbohydrate filled drinks to sip on so that I could get a little more insulin in her to help fight those ketones.  I was checking her blood sugar and ketone levels every 2-3 hours through the night, correcting with insulin when needed.

(Sidenote: Since we were originally trained to read ketones with Ketostix (urine strips), I can never remember what the number readings from the blood ketone meter mean. Small? Moderate? or Large? Luckily, I remembered that Hallie of The Princess and The Pump has a sick days tab on her blog. I quickly hopped over there and found this helpful chart for reading blood ketone meter results. Thanks Hallie!)

This up and down ketone battle continued through days #3 and #4.  She started having low blood sugars, so I set a temporary basal rate in her pump for the night.  That worked to bring her blood sugars to a comfortable overnight number, but then the ketones would come back. 

So, let's recap the vicious cycle going on inside my head (and inside her poor little body!).

Tummy ache = no eating = ketones = more insulin = low blood sugars = temp basal = good blood sugars, but more ketones = more insulin = low blood sugars = more tummy aching = ???? Is there an end???

But wait!!!  This cycle did end.  On Thursday morning (day #5), Ally felt good.  Tummy felt better.  No ketones.  BGs running on the lower end, but not many lower than 70.  She ate a small breakfast and headed off to school.  The school nurse and I checked in with each other all day.  I was worried about her having lows at school, following this tummy thing.  Instead, she was high all day. 

And a new cycle began.  High blood sugars and a fever!!  I was seriously beginning to think that this was never going to end.  Poor kiddo missed school again on Friday (day #6 and also her 4th day absent this week).  She cried each day that she missed because she wanted to go to school so badly.  She was afraid that she would miss out on the "secret" school project (ie: gift for parents) that her class had been planning.

So, day #7 and we were still fighting fevers and high blood sugars.  Yes, that says 500!

Day #8, I'm holding my breath and hoping that I can now stop counting the days of this lousy illness and begin counting down to Christmas!!