Sickness in the house.

Darling D has been off sick from school since last Wednesday. I don't think that C has had that many sick days in  over 2 years at school. D seems to be getting a bit better (has a bit more energy) but I can't send her back to school until the gastro symptoms have cleared for a while. Not luck so far.

I feel like a outcast because I don't want to spread "the love" (germs). I haven't gone anywhere except pick up and drop off except one immovable appointment. I had to call in a Grandparent to mind D, so that F & I could go to the Diabetes clinic. More details of that in the next post.

I have also had a milder bout as has DH. So tired.

I should have checked

Remember that last week I posted here about feeling a bit paranoid about if DH had given F her medication. Well yesterday DH gave F her breakfast. After he left for work I wondered if he had given her the drops. I decided to trust him and not to check up with him as he assured me if he gives her breakfast he will give her the medication.

Fast forward to lunch time. I test her and get 12.6. Yikes. That is not good. I then called DH to check and short answer is "no". I try not to freak out but also emphasise importance of F getting all her doses.
Her reading a dinner was slightly high but within "normal" range. Not as bad as skipping an insulin dose. That resulted in a "HI" reading by lunch time. I think that means above 28.0. EEK!

Welcome to Holland

Late last year I took DD#3 to a birthday party at a play centre. While I was there I got chatting to a father of a boy with Down Syndrome. I asked him how they were dealing with things and one of the things he said was this little story "Welcome to Holland".
I was struck by how much it reflected my feelings about F being diagnosed with diabetes. It just wasn't what I thought signed up for. Once difference is I have never been asked what it is like to parent I child with a disability. Diabetes isn't a disability but it can be all consuming on the same way.

Celebrating Holland - I'm Home This decribes a bit of how it feels as you get used to the diagnosis and meet others who have had to take the same detour.

Since F has started on the new treatment of Sulfonylureas it kind of feels like we have been allowed to leave Holland to visit Italy as planned.  But for these outings are for really short periods of time and Holland is still the place we keep going back to.

Late Blooms

I received my Valentine's Flowers today. Thankfully I wasn't expecting them last Monday. I wasn't expecting anything more than the lovely Lindt Connaisseurs I got when I woke up.

DH was sure I would know as I was with him when he spotted a florist and decided to head on in but I was focused on finding out if Big W had copies of the Wicked CD. It was a long shot. They didn't.

This is the third time something has gone wrong with the delivery of flowers for us. Once they arrived a day early, once they was left outside our hour to bake in the western sun and this time the just didn't arrive. DH had to call to find out what had happened. They asked him what he wanted. So I got a lovely bunch of gerbras today.

I am a party pooper.

I am not usually a party pooper. But this week end I am in our house. The plan for the week end was for camping. We didn't go at all last year. I think we had a few things on with some health issues if I remember correctly. But basically it's been a long time since we went as a family.

I just couldn't do it. Usually I'm not really keen on the camping experience because of all the packing but enjoy once we go. This time I just couldn't do it. I did a grocery shop for "camping food" to prepare but the closer it got to needing to pack everything up and leave the more uneasy I felt. I even had all the diabetes essentials sorted, so that wasn't the problem.

DH and DD's are very disappointed. DH has been really looking forward to the weekend and some fishing. He even came home early so we could get away straight after school. Hopefully I can psych myself up for next weekend.

Need to check.

I have had to call my DH at work at least 3 times in the last week to check if he has given F her medication with breakfast. I am paranoid about her missing a dose and ended up with high BGLs.
The thing is I'm the one who has fogotten to give her the glybenclymide at least twice. I did give it to her later. And then moved the next dose back a bit. I think DH has only only missed it once.

I forgot to even pick it up last week. I have too many things that I try to remember rather than putting it on the calendar.

I must also remember that F's new medication isn't a licence to eat everything in sight. Her BGL before dinner last night was 11.2. She had eaten lots of lamington fingers after pulling the packet off the table. Her lunchtime dose obviously couldn't cover that amount of sugar.

Forgetfulness

Last week I forgot to get the medication for F. It only has a shelf life of 7 days, so I need to go to the hospital each Friday. Thankfully we now have backup tablets (after the flood I wanted to be prepared) so we used those over the weekend.

This week I wan't to make sure I didn't forget, so after school drop off we headed straight to the MAter. Oops, I forgot that I told them I would pick up after 12:30pm.

So I took E to Day Care and headed home. F and I pottered around home for a few hours and then went back to the Mater. I am thankful that she is doing so well on the medication but getting to the hospital each week is a drag.

Meeting the teachers

I finally met C's teacher yesterday. The first week the weren't put into class groups but worked in year groups intead. Last week I focused on getting D off to Prep and picking her up, so I hadn't made it up to the year 2 classrooms.

Monday I  instructed C to wait for me at her classroom but she thought I was taking too long and came to the Prep block. Independent girl. So she seems nice and didn't try to rush me off even though she needed to get to the staff meeting. I had forgotten about that until I saw her rushing off the the staff room after we left. Oops.

Recording medical history

As with any type of history it is most probably better to record it as you go. But I am currently trying to reconstruct the path to F being diagnosed with diabetes. And then finding out about her rare type of diabetes.

I had certainly never heard of Neonatal Diabetes but I remember asking one of the diabetes educators if there are other types of diabetes. Ones not caused by an auto-immune response but with something going wrong in the pathway to producing insulin. Little did I know how close to the truth I was. If she was born and diagnosed 6 years earlier we would have never known. The discovery was only made in 2004/2005.
I so glad we sought answers and that the answer was KCNJ11 - R201H. And being treated with sulfonylureas instead of insulin.

Worried about Yasi

I have been thinking about North Queensland and the cyclone that is tearing through their towns.
The floods were distructive but in a totally different way.As I have been going about my normal day I have been thinking about those preparing for the cyclone and feeling guilty. I have been feeling guilty that I am not affected. Even after seeing the devastation brought by the flood waters and being brought to tears I am having trouble contemplating what is happening.
One of the things I am thinking about as well is all the people with diabetes and knowing how extra prepared they need to be in a situation like this.
I can only pray for the safety of those in the midst of the storm.

Totally Wicked in a brilliant kind of way

DH and I went to see Wicked last Thursday night. We had bought tickets for our anniversary, which was while the flood waters were going down. I kept checking the QPAC website anxiously after our power was restored to check the lastest show cancellations. But our night did not get cancelled. We got to see one of the first performances in  Brisbane. I think Cats in Adelaide last year (also for our anniversary) was one of the last shows.

Wicked was great. I have only been to a handful of musical productions but this may be the best I have seen. The Sound of Music was good but mainly because of the familiar songs and known story. Wicked entertained me with any such history. I sat there smiling for most of the show, I was just enjoying it so much.

It was back down to earth though when we got home. DD#3 E had been sick and continued to be sick into the night. I ended up sleeping part of the night on the floor in D & E's room to not miss any further messes.
DH, DD#4 F and I have all been sick in various forms since and I hope the other girls miss out.