Oh the Changes We Are Going to See!

Kyli has had diabetes for 8 months and it has been a LOOOOONNNNG and short 8 months.  When I look at how much has changed, I am in awe.  Our true and easier Honeymoon Phase was a good 6 months. When I say this, I mean that Kyli's body was doing most of the work during that time. She would need a shot of Humalog, maybe once every two days and we were not on a long lasting insulin and I slept through the night NEVER worrying about whether she was going to drop too low or not.  It was awesome and a great way to ease into her having diabetes. 

I left my job Feb 19th and I swear, Kyli's body was waiting for me to come home, because within 2 weeks of me being home, EVERYTHING started changing. We went from the one shot every other day to one shot of Humalog a day. Within the last month, I things have changed even more. I am pretty sure we are on our way out of our Honeymoon period. Kyli is getting anywhere from 4-8 shots a day. We do a minimum of 6 blood sugar checks a day and we exceed that most days with about 8-10 checks.  The other day, I was looking at her fingers and saw that they were dry and her fingertips were peeling, the sad part was that the dead skin coming off looked like Swiss cheese with all the holes in it from blood checks...Kyli is my hero though, I never hear complaints from her about blood sugar checks.  The other big change for me, I am now afraid of nighttime lows.  I am up until at least 11pm every night and do a check before I go to bed, I then wake up EVERY night at 2am and do another blood sugar check.  Based on that result will determine if I am up at 4am for another. Last night, I was up at 4am feeding Kyli milk and fruit snacks, waiting 15 minutes checking her again, and last night we had to do it again. The whole while she gave me her cheesy grin and told me she loved me. That is one amazing little girl!

After experience, I can say...Diabetes Stinks! But I am also going to say that there are some things that I get to experience that parents without a diabetic child may not get to or maybe just not as often.  I read this off another blog and it is true, I get to hold my child's hand every day not just while we are walking, but I get to really look at her hand, see how it has changed and give her kisses.  When Kyli has sugar lows or highs, I have no choice but to stop what I am doing take care of her needs and then SNUGGLE with her until she feels better, and I LOVE SNUGGLING with her, the rest of it sucks but not the TLC. I am more in tune with Kyli because I have to be, I know her personality and quirks better than other parents may know their child, because I have to. It can determine a life or death moment but it also means that we have a very close relationship and she already feels VERY comfortable talking with me and the love and trust that I see in her eyes when she looks at me, it makes me want to cry.  She understands that I have to give her little huts each day, but still somehow manages to trust and love me with all her heart. I don't know how she can be so full of love, but she is.  She amazes me each day with how much love her holds, just this morning she gave Mercy (our dog), her bowl full of oatmeal.  The bad part, we did not get to carb count before this but when we asked why she gave it to Mercy...she said, "Mercy looked sad. She did not want a toy, so I gave her my oatmeal." Was the dog happy afterward, of course! She was given extra food!

The one comfort I have going for me right now that probably keeps me from going crazy is technology.  We have started the process of getting a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) and in the very near future we will start the process to get a pump.  These will let me sleep a little better at night and we will not have to do shots, only a site change once every three days.  So much better for her, and we can make sugar corrections much quicker to keep her from having high sugars. YAY!!

This is Kyli and Noah at the Mammoth Game. We went with the ADA, it was a blast. This was after a nap for Miss Kyli...