Running and Diabetes Question???

As you may have read Cara (almost 7) has started her cross country training. No big surprise that she is going to be a runner, I mean the form on that kid...she runs like her dad.

This is our first experiment (if you will) with Cara, running and diabetes and I need to make a few changes but I'm just not 100% sure what I want/should do.

This Is What We Are Doing Now:

Cara has a nurse coming into the school 3 times a day to bolus her every time she eats.  Running is at last recces, the nurse comes in before that for pm snack.  She covers Cara's snack like normal, corrects any high bg, Cara eats her snack.  Right before she runs Cara has 7carbs (Canadian rockets) uncovered.  As per her coach they are running for about 10-15mins give or take a few.

Cara comes home and her bg is usually around 8mmols (144) .  Now usually when she comes home from school she wants a snack that I always bolus for that however when she is running earlier that day I give her 15-25 carbs uncovered. At about the 1.5 hour mark after she gets home so maybe about 2-2.5 hours after she runs even with the 7 free carbs prior to running and 15-25 carbs she eats after she gets home is going low.  She seems to be hitting the 2's a lot right before dinner.

So I'm thinking of maybe not covering her pm snack on running days at all to fix the lows? and maybe I should be running a temp basal on running day in the afternoon?

Any suggestions? advice? running is new to us so anything you have to offer would be wonderful and helpful.  Thanks!! 

My sweet 6 soon to be 7 year old little girl...

Cara is 6, soon to be 7.  She is now in grade 2 and at this age something funny seems to happen, a new NEED (as they call it) seems to develop. I NEED to be with friends AT ALL TIMES. 

Cara is no longer content sitting in the safety of her home with her WONDERFUL family that know D.  She wants to be with her friends, friends that she just spent ALL DAY with at school, that of course, have little to no D experience.

Well, this new NEED of Cara's has cause a bit of a problem for this D mama.  And this need has been nagging me for sometime.  But what can I do?  My sweet 6 soon to be 7 year old little girl dealing with such a great big bad thing like type 1 diabetes ALL BY HERSELF... 

Around this house that is not the way we deal with diabetes. O.K. I may feel that way ALL THE TIME when it comes to Cara and diabetes however I would NEVER let her know that. 

We have stressed to Cara that she can do anything anyone else is doing.  She just needs to make sure that she follows some guidelines while doing everything any other person is doing.  We like to empower her...you want to run cross country...OK then, you will run cross country!  You should have heard her poor nurse when Cara told her that she was running.  Her nurse called me up and said "Cara says something about going out for the cross country team?? and I said "YEP" (with a smile on my face because I could hear the concern she had for Cara running, just like I do.) "Hmmm, OK! what do you want me to do for her"  knowing full well that holding this kid back will do no good.  So Cara, her nurse and myself came up with a plan and I spoke with the x-country coach and filled him in. 

And that is the way we do it around here, we make a plan, we see how it works, we make changes as needed.  


But this, "you can do anything anybody else can do thing" is waaaay easier said then done. Cara, only 6 with type 1 diabetes wants to hang out on HER OWN at her friends houses.  She does not want them to come here (I tried that) she wants to go there.  And to make matters worse Cara has an older sister Kylie who also enjoys playing with her friends at their homes.  Cara sees Kylie doing it and she wants to go too.

So yesterday, Cara came RUNNING in the house. (Cara is always the first kid in and the first kid out, she just runs everywhere) 

Cara: "A is going to call and see if I can go to her house!!!!  Please mom can I go, can I go...MOOOM, MOM, MOM?" (I was trying to ignore her, maybe the need will just go away)
Me: "Well, lets just see if she is going to call and then we can make a plan" In the back of my mind I was hoping for this to be one of those kids making plans that never come to fruition things.  However the phone did ring and it was A's mom asking if Cara could come over for an hour or so.

And I said YES.

Now, we made it simple, as simple as you can.  We gave Cara an after school snack (10gs) before she left however we left it uncovered.  She had running that afternoon at school and I did not want to push my luck.  It was her first practice and I was unsure of how our x-county plan was going to pan-out so just to be on the safe side.  10 free carbs.  We packed her blue bag with everything that she needed (sugar free drink, meter case, Canadian rockets (to treat lows) and she was off. All by herself, my poor sweet 6 soon to be 7 year old little girl dealing with a great big bad thing like type 1 diabetes ALL BY HERSELF for one hour.  (A's mom of course had our number if they needed it and we live 5 minutes away) Oh boy I watched that clock like a hawk, I had the phone by my side and NO ONE was allowed to use it, I even ask my husband to leave a little early to pick her up....you know because SHE CAN DO EVERYTHING JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE CAN...BLAH BLAH BLAH.

One hour went by, my husband picked her up and she had a great time. I asked her "so what did you do"? and she nonchalantly told me she went low "like 3.2mmols  (57.6) low".

What? how did you know? What did you do? Did you try to call home?

Cara: I felt low, I told her mom, I tested, I was low, I ate 2 rockets (14carbs) anytime she is in the 3's or under we treat with 2 rockets, that's the plan) and then we played again. I had fun!  Can I go over again?

and that was that...

SHE DID IT... she did what everyone else was doing.  She just needed to follow some guidelines while doing it...and she did it.  Now of course I would have liked a phone call to be added to that guideline she followed and I'm working on that, she must call home and recheck bg after a low!!

But I'm very proud of my sweet, brave and smart 6 soon to be 7 year old amazing girl dealing with type 1 diabetes.

Results Time For Connor

The results are in for Connor...well kinda?!?!

Let me break it down for you:

TrialNet Test #1: Connor was the only one in our family of 8 that tested positive for 1 of the autoanitbodies that TrialNet tests for.  We were asked to do a confirmation blood test.

TrialNet Test #2: Connor again came back positive for the MIAA autoantibody.  We were asked to do a 2 hour Oral Glucose Tolerant Test.

TrialNet Test #3: The results just came in and the nurse needed to consult with the Doctor.  Connor came back negative for all autoanitbodies during this test.  They are a bit confused at this result and really had nothing to tell me...except they want to do another blood test.  I asked for Connor's A1c which was 5.6% and he's blood glucose was in range through the whole 2 hour test, peaking at 8.0mmols at the half-an-hour mark.

My thoughts:  When the test(s) come back negative it is a great relieve and something that has helped this mom of 5 non D's feel a little bit better every day.  However when the test comes back positive, well that is a different story.  The worrying is a b!tch (as many of us know) and to have a confirmed positive that the worrying may be justified just outright sucks.  For me this whole 1 year of testing, waiting and worrying has really given me nothing in the end...except for maybe a few years off my life (that's a joke!!) I'm sure I would feel completely different if these results ended up with some short of answers but for now there will be no more testing for my kids.

I can wait and worry and watch all on my own. We will see if my opinion changes in the end but for now that is where I am at in my situation.

If you are interested in reading more about our TrialNet journey here are some links.

TrialNet And The Worrying D

Our TrialNet Video

TrialNet Results Are In

Our Trip To London and The Banting House

I'm In It...HOLY S#!T

Today, as you see is NO D Day.  Which means I, as a fellow No D Day participant will not be talking/writing about that "thing" that I always seem to talk about except on this day...No D Day. (click the link for more details on The Ninjabetic's blog!)

Many people on this day have a hard time opening up and trying to find something other than you-know-what to talk about BUT luckily for me and maybe you (we will see if you think my story is entertaining) I made an ass of myself this weekend and I'm going to share that with you today!!

ENJOY!!

This is how the story goes...We (my husband and I) were sitting at our assigned table at my cousin's wedding when I suddenly got the urge to go to the little girls room...I HAD to pee!

Being in a hall that I have never attended before I leaned over to my husband and asked "do you know where the washrooms are?" He looked at me with a half roll of his eyes and pointed me in the general direction. (We were basically sitting next to the washrooms.  We were sitting next to the hallway that leads out to the washroom.  We have seen people going in and out of this hallway since we had sat in our seats...that is the reason for the eye roll...the reason why I asked him where the washrooms were, I have no clue? Maybe, in hopes he would walk me there! Oh, how I wished he had walked me there...

Anyways, like the grown up I am, I walked down the hallway following all the well marked signs on the way.  I open the door, take my time as I peruse the counter that is filled with some little goodies in a basket..."Huh, that is cute" (I say to myself) as I walked into the stall, I received a funny text from my cousin (on the other side of the family) who was waiting for me to hang out after the wedding and I let out a little laugh.  Yes... I knew there was someone else in the bathroom...but it was a funny text.  I placed my phone back into my purse which was hanging on the door and, well, I peed.

As I'm trying to adjust my tights I find myself looking through the small crack of the stall and I notice something very odd, something that should not be in a ladies washroom...in the refection of the mirror  I see a man's back and he is peeing in the urinal.  What the hell!?! ( I thought to myself) as my heart starts to beat faster and I can feel the heat flushing over me as I'm sure my face was turning red I started to frantically think of a logical explanation. 

First thought...maybe the mirror in the women's bathroom is reflecting a man peeing from the men's bathroom, kind of a weird set up but I will take that over the alternative!  

At this point I was 100% sure that I looked at the door, saw the little stick chick with her little triangle skirt on the door and walk in to the LADIES washroom.

I was very confused, like the feeling of time elapsing, HOW IN THE HELL DID I GET HERE kinda confuse...holy shit, what is going on! and believe me I'm not even close to being drunk at this point...I wish I was but I'm not...

I try to calm myself down, "OK Nicole," I said to myself (really I did)" just look around you, you have NEVER done this before, you looked on the door, you followed all the signs...you are good...you are OK, lets try and figure this out". As I hear the outside door to the washroom opening again as someone else is entering I positioned myself once more to look at the mirror so I can get a good look at the door as it opens...and what do I see...a fricken stick figure with no fricken triangle dress and a man walking in...OK, OK don't panic!

Now, semi-hiding out in my stall and still in a bit of denial I bent down to look at the shoes next to me and what do I see....two fricken big black men's dress shoes in the stall to my right and finally it hits me... I'M IN IT!!! I'M IN THE MEN'S BATHROOM and if I can see those big black shoes they can just as well see my beautiful new black high heels. HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT!! Ahhhhhhhhh

Now in a full out panic, OK, time for a plan (I think to myself) ...I will just wait until no one is in here and then I can sneak my way out and no one will be the wiser...Good plan! YES, wonderful. However as I being to hunker down in my stall, I soon realize, although there is never a loooong line to get into the men's bathroom there seems to be a steady steam of men occupying said bathroom and in this case a woman too...me!!

I started to think about how my husband is soon going to be looking for me. I'm so glad I was in such a panic because sometime when I think of other people's reactions to situations that I have gotten myself in, I start to giggle then laugh then hysterical laughter seems to follow and I can't stop...oh thank God that did not happen! 

As more and more men do their business in the washroom that I to am in a rush of calmness, or grossness, or both comes over me...SCREW IT...as I open my door and proudly walk those new black heels to the room across the hall to wash my hands.  I never felt so comforted by the women's washroom and soooo happy to be there.

And guess what I was not the only one who did that,that night!! There had to be something up with that washroom...I swear that little stick man liked to try on little triangle skirts!