One Month Into Type 1 Diabetes (7QT)

One Month Into Type 1 Diabetes 
(Seven Quick Takes-style)

(One month ago today, our almost seven-year-old son, Aaron, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes)

[1]

We finally clarified with Ruth that Aaron doesn't take injections of "insulation."  Now she knows it's "insulin" and I've spied her creeping toward her unsuspecting dollies to administer their very  own insulin injections (beware of Dr. Ruth With the Fisher Price Syringe!)  

[2]

These two books I plucked from the library have been immensely helpful.  I actually READ them, as opposed to the fourteen thousand individual sheets of paper gifted us by the hospital at discharge.  I'd recommend both of these books for other new-diagnosis families.

100 Questions & Answers About Your Child's Type 1 Diabetes

- Platt, Olshen, Waterman 

American Diabetes Association Guide to Raising a Child with Diabetes

- Jean Betschart Roemer 

[3]

In addition to the fourteen thousand papers, we came home from the hospital with SO much stuff.  It was like a diabetes-care missile had been launched into our kitchen and detonated on the counter.  Debris everywhere.  

I quickly Googled "Help!  How do I organize all this stuff?"  and I LOVED this idea...  which of course I can't find now weeks later.  It was a photo of all the "gear" stored in a silverware tray, tucked into a kitchen drawer.  I wish I felt like that would be a safe option here, but I still have young children that randomly rummage around in kitchen drawers hoping to find I don't know what... candy?  scotch tape?  key to the liquor cabinet?   Even Clare grasps about in drawers that she's not tall enough to see into.  So the brilliant idea doesn't seem like it will work for us yet.  For now, we've settled on this... 

3 plastic drawer set - top: calculator and ketone strips; middle: insulin pens, alcohol prep pads,
and pen needle tips; bottom: lancets and finger-pricker thing, glucose meter and test strips;
tippy top: carb counter reference book and emergency glucagon injections (still not sure where to keep those... car?
 linen closet? any ideas?) 

Still a little cluttered, but at least not explosive.

I'd love some other suggestions on this topic... if anyone out there has a good system...  Comments?

And for on-the-go organization, I think I'm going to try to make something like this... because it doesn't make me feel Organized Happy to have a gallon-size baggie of needles slip sliding around in my purse :(  

https://www.etsy.com/listing/75982404/xl-medi-pouch-travel-organizer-medical?ref=shop_home_active

(Let's be honest.  I might just end up buying one - it's the time-saver option for busy moms who want to watch Netflix in the evenings instead of experiment with sewing plastic.) 

[4]

Things we're getting used to  (1) The stench of insulin. (2) Googling things like "will artificial sweeteners really cause rat bladder cancer in my T1D child?"  (3) Aaron having some meat on his bones again!  (4) The stash of Smarties (kept solely for the purpose of treating low blood sugar) mysteriously disappearing.  (I plead the fifth.) 

[5]

After first receiving a Photo and Negative Scanner (No Computer Required!) in error, we finally got this little gem from Amazon...

The EatSmart Digital Nutrition Scale.  It's easy to use and has been very helpful especially when figuring produce and bulk nuts/grains.  Let's say Aaron is going to eat a banana... you put it on the scale, use the guide book to find and enter the corresponding code for banana and then you will have all the nutritional information you ever wanted on that particular banana.  Chow down, my friends!  Chow down.  What's that?  You didn't want a banana for a snack?  No worries, put a bowl of neon orange goldfish up there.  Using the nutritional values given on the package, the scale will tell you exactly what is in the amount you are going to eat.  

I am also hoping that using the guide book will allow Aaron  to learn alphabetical order by osmosis, er, I mean, daily practical application.  That's it.  

[6]

Speaking of daily practical application...  Aaron has repeatedly been saying, "One of the cool things about diabetes is that you get to measure and count stuff and add numbers.  I get to  use a lot of measuring cups and numbers."  Yep.  That's my boy.  (It might wear off but for now, I'm happy.)

[7]

Have you ever gone to a standard dietary website hoping to get some tips on low-carb snacks for your child?  Standard diet and healthy living websites are not written for Type 1 Diabetics.  Guaranteed, the first snacking tip you are sure to get on any typical nutrition website is "Cheese is from the Devil."  That's tip number one.  Tip number two is "Meat and Eggs will be the wretched cause of your eventual demise."  How does that jive (my husband just read this and said the word is "jibe")with the what the endocrinologists cheerfully remind you, "Eggs and cheese are your carb-free friends.  Snack, snack, snacky snack snack!"  (Ok, I added that last part.  They don't really say snacky snack, but they should consider it.  It would add some levity to the whole nutrition situation.)  I really need to investigate some more "free" snacking options, because according to the diet websites, Aaron is doomed to end up in Gehenna with a string cheese in one hand and a Slim Jim in the other ;)  

[7.5]

Jokes and sarcasm aside, Aaron is doing wonderfully!  So invovled in his care, so responsible.  Such a delight.  Love that kid!

For much more entertaining and insightful Quick Takes than I have provided here, head over to Conversion Diary to see what Jen and many others are "Taking" on this week.

Happy weekend!