The first 15 minutes of our day....

Start off by getting kids up and going....but first a hello to our friend Type 1 Diabetes. Ok, so it's not our friend, but still....

A little about Type 1:

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic (lifelong) disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to properly control blood sugar levels. Type 1 diabetes can occur at any age, but it is most often diagnosed in children, adolescents, or young adults. Type 1 has NO CURE. Therefore, insulin is needed to stay alive.

Insulin is a hormone produced by special cells, called beta cells, in the pancreas, an organ located in the area behind your stomach. Insulin is needed to move blood sugar (glucose) into cells, where it is stored and later used for energy. In type 1 diabetes, these cells produce little or no insulin.

Without enough insulin, glucose builds up in the bloodstream instead of going into the cells. The body is unable to use this glucose for energy. This leads to the symptoms of type 1 diabetes.

The exact cause is unknown, but most likely there is a viral or environmental trigger in genetically susceptible people that causes an immune reaction. The body's white blood cells mistakenly attack the insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells.

There is a lot of information out there on Type 1 and Type 2. Most people don't realize that Type 1 is very different from Type 2. With Type 1, she can eat whatever she wants, as long as she is dosed with insulin for the carbs she eats. If she didn't have access to insulin, she would most likely die within 2 weeks. While it is a deadly disease, if it's managed properly she can really lead a long, healthy, normal life.

OUR DAY BEGINS:

First get out her long acting insulin and her short acting insulin. The long acting lasts 24 hours. The short we give her right before meals, and snacks. Anytime she eats carbs.


I bust out the measuring stuff. Everything she eats needs to be measured or weighed to make sure we give her the proper amount of insulin to go with the cabs she eats.
We document every time we poke her little fingers...approx. 6-8 times a day. We then record her blood sugar levels, and treat according to the highs or lows.


Our handy "clicker" as Tae calls it. She gets a "spikey" in the finger with her clicker, then we test the blood on her meter.


My handy diabetic cupboard... consists of:

alcohol wipes

lancets (the spikey's aka needles for her finger)

clickers

blood sugar meters

keytone meter

keytone strips

blood sugar strips

syringes

glucagon kit (similar to an) epi-pen

glucagen

calorie king

insulin pen

Lantus insulin

Novalog insulin

She picks her finger and either pokes herself, or has one of us do it. Then see what her blood sugar reads.


She's actually 100% brave. Not a tear since we got home from the hospital almost 2 months ago. The we calculate what she's eating and add up the carbs. Hoping she'll eat everything we're guessing she will. Then give her two shots, one of the long acting insulin and one of the short, for her breakfast. Either in the bum, arm, leg or stomach.

This book is a must have. It's full of info on carbs...


She loves drawing and coloring so so much. She'll wait while I measure and add.

Then 2 hours later we check her again. If she acts strange in any way, we check her. If she wants to eat, we check her. If her blood sugar was low, we check her every 15 minutes until it goes up. If she's sick we check her quite often because she runs the risk of going high, which leads us to checking for keytones in her urine. The fun never stops. Diabetes does not sleep. Luckily she's doing extremely well. She's a champion.

This was all I could handle photographing for the day. One day, I'll document the typical 7 times we check her, 4 shots she gets, and maybe even checking her urine. I know you'll never want to miss out on THAT!! :)