THE STORY OF ONE FAMILY'S JOURNEY WITH TYPE 1 DIABETES AND CELIAC DISEASE.
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Saturday, August 21, 2010

What Better Place?

MOM     "Let's get your sugar checked so you can get in the pool."

SUGAR  "Oh yeah.  My pump has been buzzing for awhile."

MOM     "Really?  How long has that been going on?"

SUGAR  "Awhile."

(Um, thanks.  That helps.  Alot.)
I proceed to pull out her pump and find this....


And then I remembered that she was actually due for a site change the PREVIOUS day...or was it the day before that? ... At any rate, at some point, it looked like there was still enough insulin to make it another 24ish hours, so I let it go. 

The dang thing warned me when it was down to 10u, but that was in the middle of the night, and I didn't see the need to go through a site change at 2 am.

And then it was the next day, and....well, you know.

Oops.

We were at a swim party.  With food.  Lots and lots of incredible looking food, including some scrumptious GLUTEN FREE desserts prepared by our hostess.
 There was even a loaf of our FAVORITE brand of gluten free bread so Sugar and I could pile up a sandwich (from a gluten free deli tray -- man, Heidi totally ROCKED IT!). 

Ah, yes.  There was all this scrumptious food and WE DIDN'T HAVE ANY FREAKING INSULIN!!!!!!!  We had everything we needed for a site change....minus, of course, THE INSULIN!!!!!!!

Who needs that stuff, anyway?


Everyone at this swim party did.
(Multiple bags of diabetes supplies -- all hanging out on the countertop like old friends)

Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters....yup....it was a room FULL of families living with type 1 diabetes!

Humalog?  Novalog?  What's your pleasure?  I can't describe the feeling of relief when we realized that this MAJOR catastrophe wasn't really major - or a catastrophe - after all.

Anway, after the insulin debacle, Sugar faced a pretty ugly low while swimming.  Another mom -- a mom she had never even met before -- was in the water and recognized right away that something was wrong.  Imagine that?!?!  A complete stranger grabbed her and helped her out of the water.  Of course we didn't have the test kit outside with us.  I mean....why, pray tell, would we do a thing like that??  We've only been at this for FIVE YEARS...besides, if you're going to show up without insulin, why bother dealing with any of it????  (I'm being sarcastic, by the way.)

I got THE LOOK.  The look that shoots straight through my heart, bypassing any rational thinking, and soars like a cannon to the area of my brain that KNOWS this is a bad one.  I didn't need a meter for that.  And guess what?  While Mr. Rose was off retrieving our bag o' supplies, a juice box appeared out of nowhere from, yet another, new family we had never met before.

So....just to be clear....over the course of 2 hours....

1)  We snagged 50u of Novolog off a complete stranger.
2)  A mother with no previous knowledge of Sugar rescued her from a horrible low while swimming.
3)   Someone else we had never met before had a juice box ready and waiting.


The evening was spectacular.  All those families gathered together....testing, testing, everywhere.  It was awesome to hang out with Heidi (from D-Tales) and Sweet Momma (from Sugar Kids).  I had a great time meeting a few new families too!

It was truly the BEST possible way we could have spent the last weekend of summer vacation...well, minus the lack of insulin and that nasty low blood sugar....


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16 comments:

  1. How fun! not the empty pump and nasty low, but the party full of kids just like Sugar. I bet she had a blast.

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  2. OK...I have had a couple of those OOPS incidences lately. Luckily were at the perfect place with awesome d-fams to help out!!!

    AND FOR THE RECORD I am so stinkin' envious that you guys were all hanging out! Your VT friend wants to see your beautiful face IRL!

    Have a great weekend Wendy.

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  3. That is sooo cool! LOVE that you gets to hang out with other D-families! What fun!
    I always have extra infusion sets (at least in the car). Never thought about the fact that I don't carry insulin with me so if I spaced out the low cartridge warning, we would be in trouble. Hmmmm, something to think about. What better place for you to have that problem!

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  4. Reyna, me too!! I'm sooo jealous! But, it's awesome for you and for Sugar:) Thank you for being brave enough to admit forgetting to do a site change...you are definitely not alone. In fact, I think I'd better go check ours (oops!).
    I'd call the final score on that day 1 for the Candy Hearts team, D=0.

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  5. That is so awesome! Gotta love the D family!

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  6. It looks like everyone had a blast (minus the low of course)....I'm jealous too! Those little white things with sprinkles???--what are those?...they looked really yummy!

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  7. We had such a GREAT time!!! We, too, felt it was the BEST way to end the summer! Gregg and I were both smiling looking at your photos. :) We need to do this again soon!

    And everyone jumping to your aid--well, that's just what we D moms and dads do. We help each other. We get it. We care. And every one of us there, even those you'd never met before, knew that you would have come to our rescue, if needed.

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  8. Ronda, the dessert with the sprinkles -- those were cake balls that I made gluten-free. They were indeed yummy! We had none left. :)

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  9. Holy Guacamole! What a fund day - well minus the no insulin and the low. But - - how awesome to have the support of the other d families!!

    Nice!

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  10. That was a FANTASTIC day. I can I just say, I remembered being so impressed how both you AND Sugar handled that lows like pros. You are one awesome D Momma, my friend! =)

    I can't wait until we all get together again!! Maybe my house next time?

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  11. Wow! So gealous! I would love to spend the day with a group of supportive D families.

    I've soooo been there with missing a site change. I wish you could set the Ping low cartridge warning to 5 units. 10 units gives me too much time to totally forget!

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  12. I did that at my in laws one time... now THAT was embarrassing :)

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  13. What a day! Sounds like fun, despite the low and no insulin. But hey, that's what D-moms are there for! And don't worry, we all have days like that! I know I just did. For the first time, Audrey went 5 days without a site change. I'm a HORRIBLE mom!! I'm always on top of things. Well, apparently not THIS time but usually I am. :)

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  14. I don't know what is wrong with me but I just cried through that whole post!

    what a touching story and

    p.s. we all make BIG ooops once and a while...you are only human...super human that is however human none the less :)

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  15. I dont know why exactly but this totally made me cry!

    The fact of having all these other D parents and kids around having fun, and who GET IT. And know what to do and help must be an amazing feeling!!

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While I'm happy to share our experiences with what works, and what doesn't work, for the management of Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease in our house, please do not mistake anything you read here for medical advice. Decisions regarding your/your child's health care should be made only with the assistance of your medical care team. Use any information from this blog at your own risk.