On Your Seventh Birthday

All week Amy was giving me the daily update as to how many more days until her birthday.  On Saturday, she woke up singing "today is my special day".  And it was special, she was 7 years old.

I think seven will be a different year.  She's not so small that I need to watch everything she does, but not yet old enough to do everything on her own.  I think this summer will be a struggle with myself, between letting her do things on her own around the neighborhood, and my need to be constantly watching her.  She is growing more independent every day!  This is the sign she posted on her door.

What is Amy like at seven?

Appearance wise, she is very tall, and has thinned out quite a bit in the last year.  Her multi colored hair (I swear there is red, brown, blond and grey all mixed in) has finally grown out enough so that we can put it in two braids again.  We cut about 10 inches off in November and donated it to Pantene's beautiful lengths program. She is also very particular about what she wears and whether it matches.  She is amazing and beautiful, and I hope she always feels good about herself and her appearance.

She does extremely well in school.  She is reading above grade level, and does math workbooks for fun. She has a way with words already, and has been writing and illustrating her own little books (I have them all saved in her keepsake box).  She loves to color, draw, do crafts, knit, sing and dance.  But she also loves to run around, ride bike and hang up side down from the swing set. She is learning to play the piano, takes ballet lessons and is involved with the Girl Guide program as a second year Spark.  In a week, we will see the start of the local soccer program too.

Don't get me wrong, its not always blue skies and butterflies.  We still have moments of struggle between us, fights with her sister and listening issues. But these challenges are becoming less frequent. 

In short my little lady is becoming an outgoing, intelligent, confident, caring individual.......who just so happens to have diabetes. 

I've purposely left out the diabetes part all the while describing who Amy is becoming and what she is involved in, because although it is a very important part of our life, it doesn't define who she is, or what she can become.

Everyday we face challenges in managing diabetes. Its ever-changing. What you did today, may not work tomorrow.  But we are doing it, we are making our way through, and finding what works for us.

My wish for Amy on her birthday is that she always know how much we love her, and that we will always be there to help her...with anything.

I also HOPE for a CURE in her lifetime.

Life is Short, Laundry is Eternal Winner

Not to brag or anything, but......

I won! I won! I won!

Scott Benner over at Arden's Day had a signed book giveaway.

I was the lucky winner!

I can't wait to receive it so I can start reading it.
Check back here for a review when I'm done.

A big thank you to Scott for his giveaway!

You're more beautiful than you think

I knew having two girls wasn't going to be easy.  For some reason kids seem harder on each other now than when we were kids.  Self esteem, bullying, appearances, social status are all things that I don't remember worrying about as a child.

My girls are only 4 1/2 and 7, yet already they seem worried about how they look and what they are wearing.  I'm hoping it doesn't come from me.  I'm very careful about how critical I am of myself around them.  I've personally struggled with weight most of my adult life, and I don't want that to be my girl's struggles as well.  Over the past few months I've really been working on feeling better and looking better, trying to make 2013 about improving myself, as I'm getting closer to 40 than 30 now.  I'm very open about it with the girls, but talk about becoming more healthy, becoming more active, feeling better.  Ultimately I'm hoping to look better too, as that will make me feel better, but I don't stress the looks with the girls.

I'm concerned about how Amy will feel about her pump in a few years, how she will feel about "being different" and how she will deal with that.  For right now, she is very accepting of it, and is already drawing pictures of herself with her pump pouch.

A self-portrait of Amy
(although she hardly wears her glasses lately)

 

Women historically are harder on themselves than others, and see themselves in a negative manner.  Dove has, once again, conducted a little experiment.  See it for yourself.

Lets all make a deal right here, right now, to be kinder to ourselves.

"You're more beautiful than you think!"

The Lowest and a Promise

Do you ever get tired of fighting with your child about what to use to treat a low?

Yesterday while I was at work, my mother called to let me know that Amy was feeling shakey and was 3.9 (70) and that she was refusing to drink a Junior Juice because I had told her that she could have a Banana Cream pudding for an afternoon snack if she was hungry.  since she hadn't had gym that day, and she was only dipping into the low, I said sure.  I'm tired of arguing with her.

20 minutes later I get another call.  She's now 3.2 (58).  She still doesn't want the juice.  I tell her to have 10 skittles.  I don't hear anything more until I open the front door.

"Mommy, this is the worst ever!"  she says while jumping up and down.  I'm expecting a story about how she made a huge mistake in her knitting (which my mother just taught her to do the past few weeks).

"I went to 1.4 (25)!"

My heart drops.  Then I turn angry.  and I'm embarassed to say I took it out on her a little.  Not the diabetes like I should have.  I scolded her for refusing the Apple Juice and not listening.  Her little face crumbled and she broke into tears apologizing.

When I got my things put away, I went and sat with her, gave her a hug and calmly explained who scarey that number can be, and what could possibly happen.  It rotted me that I wasn't there to make sure that she listened and used what I wanted her to use to treat.  It rotted me that we have to deal with this at all.  That my beautiful child could pass out, or worse because of this disease.  All because she just wanted a banana pudding and not a drink, because she wasn't thirsty!

I reminded her that I'm just trying to take good care of her, and want the best for her.  That I only want to use things that are quick, and that the pudding didn't absorb fast enough because of the fat and that juice works really quick because its already a liquid.  Stuff that 6 year old really don't know or care about.

She told me that she understood and that she was sorry and that she will listen from now on, and that she was so scared, and that she wished I had been home.

I'm lucky that my mom was there and that she acted quickly with some apple juice (FINALLY). She told me that she doesn't even remember where the glucagon is or how to use it.

Last night after tucking Amy into bed, finally asked her what it felt like.  How did she feel? Could she see? Could she walk?  Could she talk?

While shaking her head, and rolling her eyes around, she said I felt like "whoah, whoah, whoah" like my head was waving around. 

"I didn't like it" she said.  "I was scared" she said.  "I promise I will listen from now on" she said.

That was a close one.

CDA Clinical Practice Guidelines 2013

Yesterday the Canadian Diabetes Association released their new Clinical Practice Guidelines 2013.

I've quickly reviewed Chapter 34 on Type 1 Diabetes in Children and Adolescents.

The biggest change that I noticed was the change in glycemic targets for this populations in the <6 and 6-12 years old.

<6 years old: A1C < 8.0% and FPG of 6-10 mmol/L, down from < 8.5% and 6-12 mmol/L.

6-12 years old: A1C < 7.5% and FPG of 4-10 mmol/L, down from < 8.0% and still 4-10 mmol/L.

13-18 years old: A1C < 7.0% and FPG of 4-7 mmol/L, the same as before.

I'm happy to see these changes.  I know before Amy was 6, they were always at me that her readings were fine when she was around 12 mmol/L, but I hated her there.  Even know our CDE tells us that the range should be graduated to the child's age, which it does state in the guidelines, but I feel Amy behaves different the higher her sugar is.  She also feels different in the higher range.  She is at her best between 5.5-8 mmol/L.  I find above or below this, we start running into problems.

Last week we had our quarterly appointment in St. John's.  She was only on the pump for 4 weeks before having her A1C done.  Before this, she had a number of 2pm highs.....very high.....like in the 20s, almost every day.  I'm not expecting much of a reduction, but I'm hoping for some.

She is still having some highs, especially before recess, at 10am, but we're working on it.

What do you think of the new targets?