emotional wreck...

Diabetes has been a part of our family's lives for over 6 years. It has been tricky. Frustrating. Scary. Overwhelming. These girls of mine have been poked and prodded more than any children should be. They have been tested and quizzed. They have been taught and they have learned. They have shared their story and have educated others. They have been such amazing examples to EVERYONE they come in contact with about this nasty thing we call Diabetes. 

Like I have said before, we have from day one, taken this trial as it is. There is NOTHING we can do about it except take care of it. In return, their body will thank them by functioning properly. 

We have been so blessed to live in a time where it has been studied and explored. My children are 100% better off than the children with diabetes in the 70' and 80's. We will always be grateful for that.

 But like any disease, there are obstacles. We can't sugar coat it (no pun intended ;)  an pretend that because we are aware and on top of this disease, that we don't have mishaps. As good as we are about their numbers, the numbers can play games with us. 

Some of the things that effect blood sugar levels

Emotions. 

This is a HUGE one for my daughters. One in particular. 

She is my responsible, reliable, on time girl. She has most of her life in order.

She likes things a certain way. She has a tough time adjusting.

So when something isn't going as planned, she has a come apart. 

Sometimes it takes awhile for her to adjust. And talking to her about it, trying to help
her see and accept the 

adjustment doesnt always help. Sometimes it makes it worse. This is when 

our sweet girl drops. Her numbers plummet.

She goes from a perfect 124, to 58 FAST. 

And from there it all spirals. 

She then is low. Feeling shaky. Emotional. Frustrated and even confused. 

She won't speak rationally. 

I will tell her to check herself and she will refuse. 

( this doesnt happen overtime. only once in awhile. I'm only sharing these things with you for learning purposes...not to make her feel ashamed. Like I said before, same is AMAZINGLY responsible and ;likes to take care of things. This is just a situation that happens.)

Her number will go lower. Thats when I speak clearly to her, looking hr in the eyes. I tell her she can choose not to check, not to drink juice, but that she is also choosing to spend a night at the hospital. And if she chooses that, then she needs to go pack a bag. 

Thats when she gives me a look only she can give and she takes care of herself.

This emotional thing also happens when they are sad.

 If something has happened that makes them sad, they will drop. Their tears and emotions drain them of their sugars. They knows this and when they starts to cry they will tell me they feel low and we take care of it immediately. 

When the girls are angry.

Oh when they get mad their numbers drop as well. 

We are blessed that these girls have trusted their mama from the get-go and have always known the importance of their numbers. So when they are angry, they can feel a change and we can see it. The get slow, dizzy, even more frustrated and then they head to the kitchen for sugar or will ask for it. Sometimes we will offer it if they haven't asked sooner. 

Hormones.

When one of our daughters was around 11 she was CRAZY town angry! This is SO out of character for her! We had NO clue why she was so upset all the time. And why everything made her sad or angry. This went on for a couple years. It was a NIGHTMARE! Her number were out of control, too.

She had always had decent numbers...but keeping her number under 250 was near impossible. We were SO concerned. She went from a 1:15 ratio to a 1:12 then to a 1:10 and then to a 1:9...we flipped!! and her lentos went from 15 to 24 in a week! She got to 26 and thats when things started to slowly calm down. She is back down to a 22 now, and has been there for awhile. 

As their bodies grow up they will need more insulin but that much that fast freaked us out.

It has since stopped/changed and she has things under

control now. The same is happening with our other daughter. 

Her hormones are now out of control. Her attitude switches SO fast! And if her hormones and emotions are on a rise, this one has shown the opposite of her sister...her numbers drop. 

We have seen SO many lows because of this. 

(these are the times when the parents take what our amazing doctors have to say BUT also learn and discover what works for THEIR individual child. Children are not all the same...they are NOT text book. Somethings are, but each human is wired differently, and we have learned this VERY well.)

So this daughter needs direct sugar immediately. 

Her ratios haven't changed, yet. We expect they will. For now we take one day 

and one check at a time.

Exercise.

My oldest runs. She also has PE/Body Toning every day.

She gets a lot of exercise each day. She loves it!

But she has noticed, after a run especially, that her numbers go bananas.

She will go high. She will have to give herself extra insulin for that. 

You would think excercising would TAKE the energy/sugar from you. And there are times it DOES. 

We always have extra sugar when we swim or hike etc etc.

But as this daughter has gotten older and works out regularly, her number sodding always drop...but rather the opposite.

TRICKY!

This diabetes bit is tricky!!

Stress. 

This is the number one cause of one of my girls drop in numbers. 

She will stress and her number will drop. Then she will stress more about her number dropping and her sugar WONT stick. So she drops more. We have had some pretty scary times when we pump 75 grams of sugar in her in an hours time and she STILL wont rise in numbers. She cries. I get worried. FINALLY it kicks in and she can rest. 

These are the LEAST favorite moments.

Sickness.

We had our first moment with diabetes and sickness the first year they were diagnosed. It was 5 months after diagnoses when their pediatricians said children with autoimmune illnesses NEED the flu shot. We hadn't ever given them the flu shot before and never had problems. But because we were advizedto, we did. Within a couple few days our girls were up all night puking. One girl threw up 9 times that night. ANY sugar I was able to get in them came back up within a few minutes. IT was terrifying. I went to a neighbor/friends house that also had diabetes. I got a bit of advice from them and some sprite. Up until their diagnoses, my girls NEVER drank juice and NEVER had soda. So to think the only way to help my puking children was to put this carbonated sugar disgust in their clean bodies made my skin crawl. We did it. They kept a bit down. Then bit more. THAT wasn't fun. 

We have taught these girls to listen to their body. To feel what it is telling them. And to use their instinct and education to help them decided what to do. Diabetes is not something to take lightly BUT we can be happy knowing we have GREAT doctors and resources and knowledge. If we stay responsible with it, everyone can have a long happy full life. 

We have so many examples around us that have proven that.