In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lion

The weather stinks!  We can see a few blades of grass around our house but there's still a lot of snow out there.  I vividly remember my first spring break teaching in Invermere (1997).  March 14th to be exact.  That morning I met a friend at Panorama and we skied for a few hours.  Later that afternoon we went for a round of golf at Windermere Valley Golf Club.  It was the best spring break day, EVER!  I could have skied during this spring break, but an afternoon golf game would not have been possible within 500 km radius!

While I was bitter about all the travel that everyone else was doing (Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii, Vegas, Europe and on and on) we did have a nice little trip to Edmonton.  We took our international student and her friend to the 'zoo' at the Bass Pro Shop and then spent three days shopping, visiting, and swimming at West Ed.  The boys adored the aquarium and seeing the 'sea life'.

Hikari & Yuko with the moose

Watching the live fish at Bass Pro

Swimming at West Ed Mall

Watching the penguins at West Ed

Today is the last day of spring break and the first time in all my spring breaks of teaching that it is snowing the night before going back to school.  Ugh!!!

Carter

Charlie

On the T1D front, Carter has done quite well over the holidays.  His blood glucose numbers have been pretty steady and we haven't didn't have any lows (whew).  I should have knocked on some wood before typing this, however, as this afternoon I could hear both boys crying not long after we had put them down for a nap.  Charlie came waddling out in his sleep sac with puke all over him.  Once I went in the bedroom I understood why Carter was crying - Charlie had thrown up on his own bed, all over his brother on his way to getting off his bed (Carter's is right beside Charlie's) and then all over the bedroom.  My first thought...God, please don't let Carter get this bug.  When a child with T1 is sick, it requires testing his glucose levels every 2 hours for the duration of his illness.  My prayers were answered for exactly one hour and a half.  Soon, both boys were taking turns throwing up, crying, wanting mama snuggles.  A call to the endocrinologist was in order as it was our first illness since diagnosis.  Carter's blood glucose was 4.4 so the doctor said we needed to check his levels every 1/2 hour to ensure that he didn't go too low.  His poor little finger tips are blood stained and as I type this he just had another bout of vomiting (daddy has this one covered).  Syringe fulls of apple juice and finger pricks are my plans for the rest of the night.  

We have our next appointment at Alberta Children's Hospital on Tuesday...fingers crossed he'll be feeling better by then.

On the positive side, it gives me two more days before I have to return to work so maybe spring will actually arrive!!!

Spring Break

Who needs Mexico when you've got your brother and a baba of water.

Mexico, Cuba, Hawaii, Europe, Vietnam...all the chatter during the last week of work made me a little melancholy about our travel plans for spring break.  Not that Edmonton isn't a gorgeous city (insert sarcasm), but after 5 weeks of being fully immersed in learning to live with T1D; what it means, what our new normal is, it would have been fantastic to step on a plane and hang out at a warm, tropical destination for a week or two...next year, there's always next year.

Carter is taking on this new challenge with such maturity for an almost three year old.  He likes to help with checking his sugar and the only routine that he tries to avoid are the insulin shots, which have reduce to only one per day because he's still honeymooning.

Mama was taking on the new challenge with quite a bit of anxiety, although that has subsided some with me being home at spring break.  A tropical vacation would have been fantastic, but it's exciting to watch the boys outside riding on their Strider bikes and playing in mud puddles as the weather is finally warming.  All of a sudden, the neighbourhood seems to wake up from the winter hibernation and people are venturing outside with their kids and pets.  I love winter, but would love it a lot more if it only lasted about 6 weeks!

Keeping it Between the Lines

I read a super article this week, written by a 60 year old woman who was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes 42 years ago.  She did an incredible job of describing what it is like to live with T1D and how she is always 'walking a tightrope' of keeping her blood sugars between the two lines (going to high or going too low).  I hope that all of my family and friends will take a few minutes to read the article as she eloquently describes what her daily life looks like living with T1D.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riva-greenberg/type-1-diabetes_b_4869238.html

The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur.  Our family had our first follow up appointment with one of the diabetes nurses and a dietician at the Children's Hospital.  They took Marvin and I through some more teaching...the extreme lows, calculating recipes, and so on.  Charlie came with us on this trip and the two of them together made short work of ACH.  Nothing was spared...the trays in the food court, the gorgeous fish in the salt water tank, the little girl curled up in the waiting room for the respiratory clinic or the custodian who was trying to mop the hallways.  Charlie and Carter owned that place and ACH will never be the same again.  I wouldn't be surprised if there is a photo of the two of them at the main entrance for the next time we go..."banned from ACH."

I also went back to work this week.  I am sooooo happy that I took the two weeks off after we came home from the hospital.  It gave us the opportunity to wrap our heads around this new way of life and allowed me some time to grief.  Carter's lucky, he's going to be able to manage his disease, but it doesn't make it any less devastating as a parent when your child is diagnosed with a serious illness.

One of the kindergarten teachers, Jane, had students create a gorgeous paper chain of get well wishes that was hung all around my office...what an awesome thing to do.  We also received an awesome Firetruck book that the boys have had us read about 50 times, homemade meatballs (mmmm), toys, and many, many positive thoughts, prayers, and well wishes.  A mama couldn't ask for much more than that from her co-workers :-).

Carter received his Rufus the Bear With Diabetes.  Rufus is a gift from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  Rufus has areas that he can receive insulin injections and also wears a medic alert bracelet.

We hit another milestone today.  Since arriving home from the hospital, we have had to call into the endocrinologist on call to give Carter's blood glucose testing results from the previous 24 hours.  The doctor will then adjust his insulin based on patterns that she is seeing in his numbers.  Today, our endo, Dr. Ho said we didn't need to call unless his numbers are low or too high, so he seems to have settled into a pattern.

Baby steps, right?