Life with Diabetes!

A couple of weeks before Kai was diagonosed I had the opportunity to go to girls camp! It was an amazing experience as always but I also learned one thing while I was there, that Diabetes is a HORRIBLE disease. One of our young women has type one, previous to camp and I hadn't really seen it effect her at all. At girls camp my eyes were opened to how much diabetes rules your life. Her numbers were all over the place, she had to call her parents every night and they were very worried and concerned with her numbers and were going to come get her if she couldn't get it under control. Well I who knew NOTHING about the disease kept asking her "What do you have to do to keep your numbers in the target range?" I asked her over and over and she just looked at me and never gave me an answer. I was so confused about this disease and a few of the other leaders there who thought they knew alot about diabetes kept saying she needs to do this or do that. All I knew is that I was literally horrified at how much it effected her life, she had to stop whatever she was doing ever two hours and check herself, she could only swim for a certain amount of time, etc. I remember telling my friend Cameo that I was so shocked seeing how this disease really worked. It really affected me.

Then a few weeks later I took Kai in to the doctor because she had some weird stuff going on like drinking water like it was her last chance to drink and peeing all over herself. As soon as they or actually Jared said she had Diabetes all I could think of was my young woman and how horrified I was about diabetes.

Well it turns out my horrifiedness was correct. This disease RULES your life. We really try not to let it control us and what we do but it definitely rules.

It has now been about 7 months since she was diagnosed and I think there is only one word that describes this disease and that word is "Sucks!" That is what the diabetes specialists kept telling us while we were in the hospital after diagnosis and it is sure is true.

We have learned alot about this disease in these past months. I have learned the answer to the question that I kept asking my young women, and the answer is .........................................................................................................................................................

there is NO WAY TO KEEP YOU IN A TARGET RANGE, at least not while you are young. There are too many factors affecting blood sugar: exercise, food of course, some food affects you right away and other's like pizza take hours to affect you, hormones, sickness, and even the air temp changes your sugar.

I also have learned that most people think they know about diabetes but mostly they are wrong.

Probably the biggest misconception: that diabetics shouldn't eat sugar!! Yes sugar affects the blood sugar but it is not the sugar it is the CARBOHYDRATES! So any food with carbs in it affects you. Therefore pasta and bread, vegetables, fruit, milk, yogurt, etc all need to be counted.  Kailie can eat as much Sugar as she wants as long as we keep track of how many carbs are in it and then give her the right amount of insulin to cover those carbs. Of course I try to limit her sugar, I didn't even let her eat the stuff until after her first birthday but Ironcially enough she has had alot more sugar since being diagnosed.

How to do we attempt to keep her in a good range. We count all of the carbs that she eats, which can be tricky and takes a lot of work. We use alot of measuring cups everyday! 

The most frustrating part is that what works one day usually doesn't work the next day!

For me I have to take Diabetes just one day at a time. I cannot even think about the future. Thinking about it overwhelms me. It kills me to think that Kailie will never ever get a  break or "vacation" from this disease! Jared and I never will either even if at some point down the road we do take a trip without her, I will probably just be stressed about her the whole time.

Every night I stay up late to check her that check is what really affects the me the most. It kills me that she has to have this disease! She is so little and so sweet and  has a long life ahead of her and now she has the burden of this stupid disease! You know how when they are little babies and every night you worry about Sids and in the morning you are so relieved. I have that feeling every night. I can't imagine that it will ever go away. Night time is the scariest for me. During the day we check her every two hours so we know nothing to bad can happen but nighttime is when she can go low and die.

A typical day in the Theler house:

5:00-7:00 am- Jared checks Kai's blood sugar

8:30-9:00-Kai wakes up, I check her blood again and then give her two shots of insulin

Wait twenty minutes before we can eat

Eat-having measured everything

Wait an hour after shot to take a shower

11:00 Check her again-give her a snack

1:00  Check wash her hands everytime and then check her blood again

Then give her another shot of Insulin

Wait 20 minutes-eat

Make sure she eats enough plus a little extra because her blood sugar almost always drops when she naps

2-4 take a nap-I usually have to check her at least once during her nap. If she sleeps really long that usually means she has gone low

*When she is low she is super shaky- I hate it. Today as soon as I picked her up from her nap I could tell she was low because she was super shaky! It is scary and sure enough she was 60!

4-wake up check her numbers

6-Check again-give insulin shot

Wait 20 minutes-eat dinner-wait 1 hour before taking a bath

9-check again-give snack go to bed

11-12- I check her and give her another Insulin shot if needed. 

Depending on her number- one of us will wake up in the middle of the night and check her again and sometimes even give her another shot!!

That is a very basic description of our day, then add in the usually stuff plus having to record everything she eats and how much insulin she gets and it makes for a very busy day!

Pretty much most of my posts on this blog are all happy and how much fun we are having but I don't really show the reality of how much diabetes effects our daily lives. It is overwhelming and stressful but at the end of the day we don't really have a choice. 

The only thing we can do is just take it one day at a time!!

The most amazing part about all this is how good Kailie is! We are so blessed to have a mostly good natured little girl who although she hates and says no no no no everytime I go to give her a shot, she still allows me to give them to her. Poor thing, I can't even imagine what she must be thinking every time her momma or daddy goes to give her a shot that causes her pain! I just hope it doesn't cause her to not like us!