The School year is almost out. Josh will be out of school is just two short weeks. He made it through his first year of being at school all day long away from my care, and me having to put my trust in the nurses to take care of him. Which I might add is the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with emotionally since the day we found out he was Diabetic. It's been rough for me letting go, because I want to protect him and make sure he's being taken care of. The nurse is awesome. She just let me know that she will be there all next year. This year she's only been at Josh's school every Monday, Tuesday and every other Wendesday. The other days there is a nurse's assistant who's taken care of him since the beginning of the year, who I thought was doing such a wonderful job in taking care of him. His A1C's for Spring were a little higher than 7, they were 7.7, but under 8, which his doctor told me is normal for Josh's age. The other day I had to contact the nurse because the nurses assistant made the mistake of giving Josh 37 carbs and only half the needed insulin to cover for it and called me at lunch to ask me WHY his blood sugar was so high? When I told her that I'd left instructions for her to follow, she got defensive. I called the nurse who called the assistant, and the assistant called me back to apologize. This is why I worry so. The nurse has decided to not give snacks anymore just because. My son and the other 2 Diabetics at his school, she's decided will get snacks if they are boderline at 100, or low. I agree with her reasons. One, not Josh, but the other two are not wanting to eat their lunch, and with Josh, it's throwing his bloodsugar off. I also don't remember my daughter having snack time in 2nd grade unless it was a special occassion.
Otherwise, eveything has been going fine. Some highs here and there, along with the lows,but I'm finally starting to feel confident in what do I do now and not be so shook up when he's over 300, or drops very low. He's learning how to prime his pump, and use his Bolus Wizard. It's wonderful to see him grow and see him become responsible in taking care of himself. Remebering when he was 3, and giving him all those shots a day to this BIG BOY of almost 7, learning to work his insulin pump. It's enough to make my heart burst with Love, and Pride for my son.

In thinking about this I originally wanted to know if any parents or caregivers of Type 1 Diabetics felt burnout, but I'm going to open it to anyone with Type 1 Diabetes also. How did you pull yourself out of that feeling of I am so tired of the day in day out, testing blood sugar, either giving injections, or changing inserts for insulin pumps? I'm wondering if I am the only one who feels like this. As good as things are with the pump, Diabetes is still frustrating, and still emotionally draining me. Josh is so strong, and he doesn't give me too hard of a time,but he's starting to show signs of burnout.
He has a Dr.s Appt. on Weds, we'll see how that goes. I can see by his numbers that the Dr. is more than likely going to raise his basal rate of .02. On no carbs from 12pm-8pm, around 6pm he jumped from 135 to 265 and by 8pm he was 277. Just now after 22carbs and 3units later, at 11pm he was 182. I'll start the second part of his no carb test to see if his basal rate needs to be changed from 12am-8am, and then the final test on Tues. from 8am-12pm and then 8pm-12am. Instead of carbs, Josh eats hardboiled eggs, bacon, hamburger patties, and he loves tuna.If his basal rate is set right, with no carbs his numbers would be consistent through the 24hr test, which the Dr. told me it was OK to break it up. I find it interesting to see how with no carbs the numbers don't change.
I'll post more results from his basal test tomorrow.

I took Josh to get his haircut yesterday. After we checked in and sat down to wait. There came another little boy about 3yrs old that reminded me of Josh before he was diagnosed with Diabetes. Josh picked up a NASCAR race car magazine and was showing me all the HOT CARS! Looking at the little boy and looking at Josh, in taking care of him, I really hadn't noticed how he'd grown up so fast. What was funny, was this little boy would take 4 or 5 steps closer to Josh, and Josh would pretend to play Peek-A-Boo with this little boy! Josh would hide his face in the magazine, and then as the little boy got close Josh would peek out from the magazine and scare him a little. The boy would scream a little happy scream and run back to him Mom laughing. They did this a couple of times until Josh was called to have his hair cut.

Then the woman cutting his hair started to laugh. Everytime she started to clip his hair he'd make some type of funny sound, with a smile, made me laugh a little too. It's just so amazing to feel some comic relief from him. Instead of being a serious boy with a serious problem, he pulls out the laughs and makes his Mom smile not to mention everyone around him!

This story is also over at my personal blog , "Are We There Yet", along with other stories of my other children.

This weekend started fine with no problems. Late Sunday afternoon was another story. I'd taken the girls to get their haircut and when I get home, to test Josh's bloodsugar, he was 470. I'd just changed his pump, so my next thought was to ask my husband if he thought Josh had snuck some snacks. That's the only thing I could come up with to explain the HIGH! We gave him 3 units of insulin, and an hour later he only came down 40 points. I waited another hour, and it hardly went down at all. It took 3 hours for it to come down to 270. He was fine when he woke up the next day at 99. There are days, with no Rhyme or reason for Highs and Lows.

On a good note, I picked Josh up for his Dentist Appt. today. When I was checking him out at the office, his teacher told me, that Josh wanted to give his class a little presentation about his pump. I'll be sure and post about it tomorrow how it goes. His teacher said Josh takes his Diabetes and his insulin pump As a matter of fact. That she wished more adults had his attitude.

At the dentist, Josh did fine, but Katelyn was a little scared. He did get the attention of one of the dentist's assts. She was curious and asked me how I found out Josh was a Type 1 Diabetic. I told her some of the symptoms. Loss of weight, extremely thirsty all the time, frequent urinating, and he was always tired and dragging. She thinks her son might have Diabetes, and she had an appt. to see the doctor on Friday. I told her not to wait to get him to the docotr as soon as possible, if he is, she needed to get him to a doctor right away, Friday might be too late.

Today his bloodsugars have been fine 99 in the morning, 142 for lunch. Makes me really think why this weekend he was so high!

On Mondays I'll be posting my Menu for the week, but for today I'm just posting what we're having for dinner tonight.

Lemon-Mustard Pork Chops with Rosemary, Asparagus and New Potatoes. The recipe calls for Veal, but I'm substituting Pork Chops. 29 carbs.
Strawberries and Yogurt : 17 carbs.
Total Carbs. 46

This is how we started our morning at
8:am Josh was 67 , 45carbs. 2u of insulin
11:am was 304 , 1u correction of insulin
12 pm 65 carbs, 2u of insulin
2:24 pm b/s 114, snack 10 grams carb.

About his school, we were having some problems with the Nurses Asst. I'd filed my 504, and gave specific instructions how to take care of Josh. I explained to her about snack time twice, and I just assumed she understood. If his blood sugars are from 100-150, he can have 10grms. of carbs without having to cover with insulin, but if he has 20 grms. of carbs, he needs 0.5 units of insulin. Simple enough. I even explained what to do if his blood sugar was over 150 and what to do. Everything was written down for her, and she assured me she understood. The next day I went in to check on him, his blood sugar was 304. Made me think, OK, I need to change his pump. She tells me she gave him a snack, what she didn't tell me, and Josh did was it was a granola bar, with 20 grms of carbs, and she didn't give him anything. After talking with the Nurse, since I didn't visit Josh on Friday, he told me that there would be a new Nurse's Asst. tomorrow. So we'll see how she does. I'm really thinking about homeschooling him, just because I understand that he's protected by laws to be taken care of by the school's but I feel, he's my responsibility, and if we're fortunate for me to stay home, I'll take advantage of it, and home school him a couple of years, until he takes a bigger part of taking care of himself.

This year in review of Josh's first year with his Insulin pump is over due, and I'd have to say, through the bad days even, the pump has made life so much easier. Just some quick updates. Within the last couple of months he's gotten so use to knowing his numbers, that when he knows his BS is 246, he knows he needs .5 unit of insulin, or when he's around 100, he needs a snack. As a mother watching over and taking care of a Type 1 Diabetic, this just amazes me. He's doing better with feeling when he's low, but he can be around 300, and not even feel it, but his A1C continue to be good around 7, so I couldn't be happier. I have a few more posts about issues at school, and some decisions I need to make, either I need to have him change schools, or to homeschool him for a couple of years, until he can take care of himself, but still under my supervision. I've had some issues with the school, that I'm hoping have been solved, and we can start the rest of the school year doing better. Long story, but I think things will get better I hope.

Why do weekends seem to go by so fast? I started feeling the pressure of the Holidays. We did a little baking. Marissa made us brownies. Which were gone in less than one day. Then Marissa, me and the baby did a little shopping. For Katelyn, I first wanted to buy her some Disney Princess Dressup clothes and shoes, but couldn't resist buying her a Pink Purrincess Kitty doll from Build-A-Bear with a Fairy dress and wings , and the good news I would save $15.

What was really nice was getting to spend time with Marissa shopping. Being that she's almost 13, growing up for most of her life I worked nights, and felt like we really didn't spend a lot of time together. So it was so cool, picking outfits out for Christmas Eve and just having her try on jackets was alot of fun.

On Sunday morning my Mom invited us to Church for their Children's Christmas Pagent. Can anyone relate to getting 4 children ready for a church service by 10:30. Thank Goodness, doughnuts and juice were served between services, because I did not have time to make a nice breakfast. Hearing the Christmas story of Jesus's Birth really made my soul refreshed. I felt my heart soften a little. Not that I have a hard heart, but with my son's illness, I realize I do harbor some resentment towards God for allowing this to happen to a child, and our family. I almost wish he'd of made me Diabetic, so my son wouldn't have to suffer. I came away from the service glad that I've known all along , this is God's way of getting me to trust him and have faith in him, that he is taking care of our family.

After that I took the kids to see Santa. I must have this inner timing of year after year, for the 3rd. year in a row, we get there and then 1/2 an hour later Santa takes a break, and we end up waiting another 1/2 hour. The kids were all right waiting, not an easy thing for a 3yro and 6 yro to do. Josh surprised me, last year he didn't want to have anything to do with Santa, this year he just jumped in his lap and started talking about wanting an XBOX360, and a Basketball. Well, I can get the Basketball. Katelyn was more than a little scared, she didn't sit on his lap, she kind of sat next to Santa and told him she wanted a Pony! I'll have to go buy her a My Lil Pony. My husband found a mini Donkey online for $700, he was just teasing. You know what I like about this picture, they are both smiling. Last year, they were both annoyed about having to wait so long to see Santa.

I've still got plenty of baking and shopping to do. If you have time stop by Tuesday night, I'll have some Fresh Baked virtual goodies for y'all. Everyone have a good Monday tomorrow!

Are you all finished shopping? What do you have left to do?

I know it's been almost a year since I've posted here. I've been blogging, about what our family has been doing on my other blog Are We There Yet, and I wanted to keep them separate, but I just realized how not only is it a Small World, but a Small Blogosphere. I stop in and visit Sandra every once in a while, to see how Joseph is doing. I also read Perfect Post Awards, and just noticed she was nominated for a November Perfect Post. I came to realize, I haven't posted over here, because it's my way of repressing my feelings of Josh having Type 1 Diabetes. He's been on a pump now for a little over a year, and the school nurse complimented him, that out of the other Type 1 Diabetics at his school, he's the healtiest looking one. Made my day.
I'm going to try and blog better over here.