This is how we do it, baby.

YAY! Logan has rallied, and did not throw up any more today (hooray!!) and also managed to keep his blood sugars up, and even ate some chicken at dinnertime.

We gave him go-gurts duirng the day to bring on the carbs, but mix them with protien so that they stay in his system longer.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and thoughts!

As a side note, I was cleaning their room tonight, and it hit me how big they are.. as I looked at some of their toys, I realized they are waaay past them. It happens so fast!

I had a relaxing time sorting the toys, and just being in their room, setting up little things for them to discover: a cluster of dragons surrounding a wizard toy, a bin of math activities, a collection of new leap pad stories, etc. Even though part of being a mom for ME will always be about Type 1 diabetes, being a mom is the role I cherish.

Today I just was pissed at this disease. How scary for a little kid to pass out! How dangerous for him! How terrifying for us! arrrhggghhg. It just makes me so mad, because life has enough worries, raising kids in this day and age.

Stupid, dumb, Diabetes.

That's right. I said it.

I think that Global Diabetes walk is coming up, I need to sign up for it, or organize a walk with the kids and neigbors or something.

I will end this post with a pictorial of our recent pumpkin farm visit with the lovely Sherri Monteith and her silly offspring- Irislyn and Sheadyn. It was a perfect fall day, and it's a ritual we like to do with Sherri every year.
This is Mr. Gray Jonathan Liteky, just as cute as he can be:

Some of the many pumpkins that drove my Libra "perfection" quest into overdrive.

Here are the children that make it all worth it: (L-R) Logan, Irislyn (Linny), Logan, and Sheadyn. Sheadyn appears to be having a grand mal seizure, but he is just happy.This is a pic of the cornfields, with a flock of blackbirds in the sky above. Plus some pretty perfect clouds. Every time the birds would fly overhead in thier big flock, Jer and Sherri would announce "The birds! The birds! Did you see that? Look at 'em! Where are they going?" etc etc. I thought if I took a picture they would stop. No. But here is the picture!

Jeremy does Daddy Duty on the pulling of two wagons full of pumpkins....Irislyn decides she can do it herself. :) Atta girl!

Logan loves everything about these "face cut out" thingies.. plus he is trying sooo hard to say cheese!

Here was our final haul! Logan's is the biggest, and Gray's is the tall skinny one on the bench. We chose one for Max, and then I got some fun fancy ones that I SWEAR I am going to do something extra cute with!

Hugs to you all, and to all a good night!

Sick Sucks in a dangerous way............

Logan and Gray were sick all last week, with fevers and various aches, sore throats and the like. One day after returning to school (Friday) Logan is sick again!
He was feeling poorly all morning, and when I sat near him to offer him some Motrin, he projectile vomited alllll over the floor. YUK!
On top of this, we were already treating a low blood sugar, by giving him juice. So I was wiping up his stomach's rejections of the morning, and panic starts to creep in. I like to involve as many people as possible in my panic, so I call Jer up the stairs.
We decide to let him rest for 15 minutes, then give him 2 oz of Gatorade.
The 15 minutes goes by, and the Gatorade stays down, so I check his blood sugar, it is at 65, which is down from the 89 it was just moments before, and far away from the goal of 150.
I give him more gatorade, and wait 15 more minutes.
Next BG (blood glucose) check reads 45, and I can't wake him up....

This prompted our first real "frosting" moment, where we had to rub cake frosting on his gums, because he was too woozy to eat. I don't like this, I don't like this.. I keep saying in my head. Logan's skin is the color of a kleenex, and his lips are an unhealthy blue from the blue frosting tube we are using to shove in his mouth.
OHH............... My brain keeps saying "MY BABY and "Let's panic more!" but I know by now not to, so I try to keep it cool.
"We might have to go to the HOSPITAL!" I squeak.
I can see from Jer's sidelong glance, that this is NOT keeping it cool enough.
"Or, not.." I try to rally- for Gray's benefit really, he is right there and worrying, too.

Finally we have gotten part of a juice box in him, and I was able to temporarily de-activate his Omnipod, so that he is getting NO insulin.. just to make sure he does not pass out

He has only "trace" ketones, so this is risky, but I think it is worth a shot. He needs some insulin to help his body clear the ketones.. so I should give it a few more minutes and then go turn in back on.

So--- the adventure continues, and I will try and update this later today.. keep Logan in your thoughts, and make a voodoo doll for Type 1 Diabetes and stick a needle right in it's privates for me.
:)

Long time, no post!

Hello to all of you friends and family, from the land of Dibaleetez!

Before you get the wrong idea, and start thinking that this post is going to be meaningful, inspirational, or reflective, let me remind you all with a photo, of what I am dealing with day to day:

Yes.






This is a photo of what I found in the Organic, environmentally friendly cereal that my kids eat.


I found a dismembered GI Joe, just floating around. (I can only imagine the battle that has just passed...)


So I guess what I am trying to say is, things are good.




Things are normal. Things are just as amazing, sad, stupid, and fun as they were before the diagnosis, so what more can I ask for?
We are raising twins, and one of them has diabetes.



As it happens, I found this evidence of heroic sacrifice, when I was checking Logan's bowl to see if my insulin dose was right on, or if we'd have to adjust. In the past, I'd have been too panicked by the leftovers to see the humor in the toy, or allow myself the moment to imagine Logan's battle sounds as the GI Joe met his milky destiny. Now, I can. :)

That is the reason that you have not heard from me in so long. Somehow, without my even noticing it, life returned to a very normal state. Diabetes no longer crowded my every waking thought and action, and, well, things were so good I didn't need to write to free myself of the internal stress. Not all areas of life are stress free, of course, it's just that I haven't held up the filter of Diabetes to every situation I encounter.



Either that, or it is so second nature already that I don't notice... either way, it sure feels a lot better.




I'm writing now, and hope to continue writing, to keep up my attempt to show and share how we manage the life we want, with the challenge of diabetes.



Since we've talked, we've camped all over Washington and Oregon, we've gotten a new puppy, Jen got a job, Jer went to London, the boys started Kindergarten, and turned 6!
If you want the short version, you just had it, and you can skip the photos and stories below. But, if you are a glutton for my particular brand of punishment- read on, and enjoy!

Glutton For Punishment Version:

Summer was a good one for us. One of the main goals Jeremy and I have as parents, is getting our kids out in nature. Hiking, camping, swimming, storytelling, firemaking, and yes, general hippie nature loving and relaxation.








Our first trip was to Oregon.. we saw the Goonies house (!) and spent days on the beach at Cannon Beach, and Seaside.




Logan loved running into the waves, while Gray couldn't resist stopping and drawing in the large, flat expanse of sand with his fingers or a stick. He would RUN, stop, draw like a madman, then RUN! Logan mostly tried to attack Seagulls.


















This is where we spent Father's Day, in Seaside Oregon::




We spent the whole day here, digging, building, eating, and playing. You can't really tell, but this is Logan playing a new game he made up called "try to dodge out of the picture before Mommy takes it". We played this game for a while, and he was cracking up!

What a sneaker!

ahhh he got me! Just a foot and a hand, he made it out of frame!

The next month, we went to Orcas Island, and scored the most beautiful campsite in the park:




Here we also boated, fished and re-enacted the trauma of "Mommy dropping the camera in this lake last year". We went to spot where it fell in, and had a moment of silence. (Well, almost silence.)


One item we always brought along our "Diabetes Backpack" which is full of emergency supplies, and backups of pods, insulin and glucose meters. We also, actually bring backups for our backups. This is how Jer and I know we can relax. Even if everything goes overboard, we've got the supplies we need.

I didn't get any pictures of us, mostly because after I took this pic of the site, we had a blast from then on, and I was too involved to take pictures. This is also the place where Gray got stung by a bee... it hid in his snuggy (blanket) and stung him as he was falling asleep! What a total bummer! The whole campground heard his wail, across the lake "It STUNG me!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" He casually said to Logan the other day.. "Oh, that's right.. you haven't been stung by a bee yet. I've HAD my first bee sting. I know what that feels like." He can be smug about the weirdest things.







PUPPY!!!!!!!!! I know I've assaulted most of you with the utter cuteness of our puppy, but here she is again:


















Her name is Niah, like "Hi,ya!"
Or

"Princess Niah Organa Puppenstuff Dirtypaws Buckleberry Undertoe Liteky"
We got her from the Humane Society in The Dalles, OR. We were told she was a Border Collie, Lab, German Shepherd mix. Everywhere she goes, she has admirers, and she is wonderfully cute and smart!

When we were not camping, I tried to get the kids out hiking! This is the boys and two of their friends, Bobby and Carmen, on the Ashael Curtis Nature Trail. We found gnome homes, humongous fungus, creeks, ferns, and conifers!

Gray just keeps losing teeth.. er.. I realize this shot is not attractive or.. even bearable.
But how could I not include a shot where you can see Gray's nasal passages?
It was a have to, people.

The next magical spot we camped at was on San Juan Island: San Juan County Park. This is the little privatey beach just below our campsite-where we spent a lot of our days.. we met some great people from all over the world.

We had a community sunset send off every night. (all the campers met on the playfield and waved goodbye to the day together! Why can't we live like this all the time??)

We also camped on Whidbey Island (We got to visit the spot in the forest that we got married in!) and share the park with our friends Brian and Katie Borton.

In September, the boys started Kindergarten, and turned 6!

Starting school was a bit of a stress, as Edmonds School District has decided to "warehouse" all the kids with diabetes into one school, with one nurse. While I understand the budget constraints, this also meant that even though our kids names came up for the lottery to attend our school of choice, Madrona K-8, Logan could not go there until he is "able to demonstrate adequate ability to care for his diabetes on his own". The whole thing is so crazy making- it's a hard combination of rejection, anger, protectiveness, and fighting for your rights-
In a long story that is best told over a glass of wine, I did try to fight it, and got no results.
So, I switched districts, to Shoreline. We found the Room 9 program, which is also a K-8, multi age classroom style of school. The boys LOVE IT~

In this picture, Gray would like you to notice his Ka-ra-tay move, and Logan would like you to notice his Pokemon backpack.



Thank you.

Somehow we got in the habit of taking a photo almost every day when we leave school, so I have a million of these.







We have since been asked NOT to climb on the bike rack.



But notice our Kindergarten buddies, Sylvie and Spencer, following our excellent example.

Room 9 Community School has a lot of parent involvement, and echoes our values in terms of community, focus on nature, personal responsibility, and celebration of life. We already attended "Fall Camp" which is an outdoor school experience for students, teachers, administrators, and parents to all bond and get to know one another at the beginning of the year.

We attended small group classes, including terrarium building, clay art at the river, sewing, bike safety, and this one, a leaf walk and poem writing session:













As far as life goes, it goes on. We have friends that are dealing with less than we are, and some that are dealing with more.

We are learning to let go of our "story" about what our life should look like, and instead embrace the story of what is real. It hurts that Logan has diabetes, but he does.


It also feels good to know that we are able to experience life to the fullest, given the technology that is available to him. We have had times where we almost forget about the D, and also times where it has screwed up our whole day. (like when a pod fails, or we put the pod on the wrong spot and miss the circle of skin that we numbed with cream).

My goal for this second year of life in the land of Dibaleet eez, is to embrace everything I have learned about how to keep Logan healthy from Western medicine, and now move on into exploring alternative health approaches that will support his whole system.

Type 1 ( unlike Type 2) diabetes, cannot be improved or "cured" with diet, exercise, or any other lifestyle change. But as we move past the terror of having to deal with this, we want to find ways to keep Logan as healthy as possible, since illness of any sort is an extra challenge for diabetics.

I am in the process of finding a naturopath who works with diabetics, and I have already started our family on the switch to a much healthier diet. I've been doing this in increments, so that they don't really notice (muah ha ha)!

Okay, it's a little hard to miss the flaxseeds in the pancakes, but who cares! They like them. I think.

I think the best way to end this update, is with a picture.

A picture that tells a story.... of a family.. one that takes part in wholesome activities, and would never gamble, drink, shoot a gun, or be accused of lewd conduct.









Posts Coming soon:


The Puppy ate my favorite __________(fill in the blank)!


How does Logan manage his Diabetes at School?


Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch/AKA watch Jennifer's excruciating search for the "perfect" pumpkin!

W. O. W.

So, I guess it speaks to the power of "positive thoughts/prayers".. .because in just two hours Logan went from having Large amounts of ketones in his urine, to NONE.

So- thank you to all of you who sent your love, and of course to the brave little solider himself, Logan.

(I always check Gray's too- because it's a fun looking litumus type strip that turns colors... )

Much love to my street team!

Sick Day

Our whole family is sick.
It is awful, a yukky virus, and there are fevers, sore throats, body aches, coughs and more delightful symptoms to be had by all.
Logan's number was high when he woke up, 280, so I checked him for ketones and he was in the bad place. "moderate to large" ketones present in his urine.
If you are sick, your body needs extra energy to fight the virus, and if you can't eat enough food to give your cells energy, or if you don't have enough insulin acting to release blood sugar into your cells- your body starts burning up it's own stores (fat and muscle) for fuel. The waste product of this process is called Ketones.. and now we have them.

I called the hospital, by this time his numbers were at 375, and we doubled his correction factor for his insulin dose- so far he is feeling okay, but I will need to keep checking his blood sugar and ketone levels every hour or so until they come down.

Poor Loganator!!

:(


As if being "regular sick" isn't bad enough!

Baby steps..

In the right direction!

Today is a celebration of the very first day Logan went to preschool (or .. anywhere besides Grandma's house) without a parent!!

Wait, I take that back. He has had two three hour playdates at Bobby's house (bless you Mary Kay!!!!!!!!!!!)

But- this was the first "day" he spent at preschool without ME THERE!!!!!!!!! I am not sure if you are getting this.. I DROVE AWAY IN MY VAN. THE BOYS WERE NOT WITH ME.

Hee heee!

I had a great time with my soul sistah, Sherri, -we planted seeds, made lists, garage saled, and talked without any interruptions- wow!

I packed him a 10 gram snack, checked his blood sugars before I left, then came back at lunch to check his blood sugar.

That part was a bit rough, Logan wanted to leave with me. But after some encouragement from Linda (their teacher) and a willingness from Dani (the other teacher) to call me after he ate, so I could walk them through the PDM... I left.... again. :)

(Quick dancing break- .... okay, I'm back.)

Another celebration- today was our first outside pod change!

The boys are playing with Shelby our turtle in the sandbox, and I just brought out what I needed, and changed the whole pod WITHOUT INTTERUPTING THIER PLAY. Can you imagine??

Well, if your kids don't have diabetes, I guess you can imagine.

But if you are giving shots, or are new on the insulin pump- it is hard to imagine that kind of freedom.

(Yes, Mom, I kept the pod sterile, and the site was wiped with alcohol, too.)

One more celebration of the Gray-ish sort.. Graybug lost a tooth!

The tooth fairy came, streaming a trail of glitter to Gray's bedside, leaving gleaming coins under his pillow.

So what can I say but a huge thank you to all of you who have seen us through this far.. and a big thank you to my friend Katie, for helping light a gentle, but very bright fire under my ass to get the kids back in preschool.

Thank you to Linda for being willing to learn the ins and outs of diabetes, so Logan can participate at Tessera. Thank you to you too, Dani- for looking me in the eye and saying "um, I would be willing to learn whatever testing needs to be done, so you don't have to come back at lunch."

I can't really express how much that means to me. Not the extra time away, but the willingness to work with this crappy disorder, and make it easier and less scary for Logan, and for me, to have mornings like today!

That's MR. Dibaleeteez to you.

Howdy!
We have news, sports, and even fashion from the land of D!

News:
We just finished up another round of Children's Hospital visits, one for Gray and one for Logie, and we have some great news.... and some waiting to do.
First for the great news: Loganberry Jam is doing so, so well on his pump! Dr. Sanda said Logan is in "the sweet spot" with his blood glucose levels, meaning, he is in a good place for his age.
He also told us that Logan is the youngest person in his practice to use an Omnipod, and we were the only family that has sent his downloaded information from his PDM stores about his blood sugars, carb intake and insulin use..
I was proud of us!
(We asked the Insulet corportation to send us the infrared "reader" to download Logan's PDM onto our computer, then just emailed the info to the Endocrinology Dept. at Children's Hospital, so it was super easy and made us look good, apparently.)

Logan's weight is up to 44lbs, (he was a skinny 37lbs at diagnosis) and he has grown at least an inch- so his body is rocking and rolling with his new program.
One of the main goals for the clinic visit every three months, is to measure and record Logan's "A1C level", which is... measured in percentages, and his is now down to 7.7, from 9.1 at diagnosis. Is it just me, or do I feel an afterschool special about A1C numbers coming on?

Fade in to middle American kitchen, fruit bowl on counter, tousle haired boy walks into the kitchen, and grabs an apple.
Boy: "Hey Mom, what gives? You said my A1C was down, isn't that bad?"
Mom gives a smile, kneels by the boy, and puts her arm around his shoulders: "No, Jimmy, having a low A1C number is GOOD.. you see,a nondiabetic person will have an A1c between 4% and 6%. The closer a diabetic can keep their A1c to 6% without experiencing excessive hypoglycemia, the better.
Jimmy: "Huh?"

I know, it's hard to make this crap interesting, but since I am going to be reporting his A1C numbers to y'all, I thought you should know what it means. I will try to make this as painless as possible...
A1C roughly translates into "what's your sign" for the diabetes world. It is an indicator of how well you are managing your 'betes. It is a blood test done that measures the average blood glucose experienced by your blood cells over the last three months. It's a very important test for two reasons:

1. The A1C never lies. Teen diabetics can lie,or manipulate glucose monitors (have non diabetic friends test their blood, thereby inputing perfect numbers into a glucometer.. smart, huh?) But the A1C test will tell the truth of the matter over the last three months.
2. The closer your A1C number is to a "normal" person, the lower your chances of diabetes related health complications. The goal is to keep blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible. This helps to minimize the complications caused by chronically elevated glucose levels, such as progressive damage to body organs like the kidneys, eyes, cardiovascular system, and nerves. Ew.

The thought is, the more you love yourself and are aware of diet, exercise, insulin, stress, hormones, ratios, pod failures, etc- the "better" your A1C will be and THE BETTER OF A PERSON OR PARENT YOU ARE!
"Hey baby, what's your A1C?" is a totally played line in diabetic bars, and is what all the diabetic soccer Moms are busy comparing notes over.

Mom #1: " My son just scored three goals in one game!!"
Mom #2: "Yeah, it's too bad about his A1C though- MY JOHNNY has an A1C of 6.2!!"

This is the subculture of diabetes that I am getting to know, and for some people, asking about their A1C is verboten, and considered a very private matter.
Anyway, Logan's is 7.7, and Dr. Sanda says that it is just perfect, it is still coming down, and we have his whole life to get it closer to 6, but while we are learning about diabetes, it's better to be a little higher, so you run less risk of low blood sugar problems (passing out, etc). I think it's so cute how my kids call him Dr. Santa.. he is the farthest thing from a roly poly white man.. he is Indian, very slim, young, and very intelligent. He is also very warm and supportive of parents.. I feel so lucky he is our "Endo" as they say in the world of D.

Now to the waiting part: Graybug has been complaining of lots of tummy aches, and we had to get a blood draw from him to rule out a yukky disease called Celiac Disease, which basically means he is highly allergic to gluten. We will find out in a week or so- and if it's positive, we move forward with that, if it's negative, I will take him in for allergy testing, to see if his stomach aches are caused by food. It could be anxiety, too- I just had to rule out the worst possibility first, since siblings of kids with Type 1 are at high risk for this disease, as it is another autoimmune disorder. The good news is, I was able to contact Trial Net, and have a researcher meet us there with tubes to fill, so we can find out how many (if any) markers Gray has for Type 1 Diabetes.

So yes, I took an anxiety pill. I was fine after that. It did take me, my mom, and two nurses to hold Gray down for the blood draw, so it was fairly traumatic (for me) but he got a beanie baby from a nurse, and promptly announced "That didn't hurt!" at which point I couldn't decide whether to faint from relief or kill him for his dramatics. I decided to kill him later. Muah ha ha :) I was relieved just to have it OVER WITH.

We won't get results from that one for about 8 weeks, so you can bet I will be posting as soon as it comes in.

SPORTS:
We went to a "Diabetes Community Event" at Pump Planet, where all the kids got to jump on huge bouncy things, we all were served lunch and snacks and there were all kinds of information tables set up with diabtes specific info, and trade slingers passing out new finger pokers, new kinds of pumps that come in colors, etc. I chatted with the Omnipod rep and found out some great new news:
In 1 year, the pod will be 40% smaller! Wahooooo!
In 2 years, the PDM will be able to read signals from a seperate Continuous Glucose Monitor.
In 3 years, the pod itself will have a CGM right in it.. so no need for two "sites" on the body!!

I love LOVE LOVE Omnipod! I can see now how things will just keep getting better for Logan, and I am so happy and grateful. Logan slept in our bed the other night, and I kept waking up and seeing him smiling in his sleep- just to be sleeping between Mom and Dad, while Gray had a special night with Honey and Papa. I don't have to have my heart break for him each day now, I get to see hope in his future.

FASHION: Okay, there is no real fashion, other than the pirate wrist band that I use as an arm band around the pod to keep it protected on his arm. Maybe I should design some cute arm bands for kids using pods?

That's all the news that is fit to print as we go to press- I will be checking back in as test results come in, and updating you on the absolute cuteness of the boys!