Doctors and Experiments!

Well, it has left Mary Claire and migrated to Ethan. : ( I took him to the doctor early yesterday morning, and now he's on Tamiflu also (well, kinda. He won't exactly take it. We're working on him swallowing his $70 medicine, ugh.).

He finally peaked yesterday with a 102 degree fever. He was up again in the night last night (well, both in body and in temp!). He's just not sleeping well lately. We had it figured out, but now he's up a couple times a night, every night. It makes for some pretty sleepless nights (in Springdale!).

I took Clay for a doctor's appointment yesterday for screening for ADD. He was fine, and realizes it is not because he's not smart or good. He has to see a child psychologist next Wednesday to see what they think about him. I'll talk alone to her, and then Clay will visit with her. I just want to help him focus on his work and maintain his self confidence. When he gets papers home with big writing on them, he doesn't feel so good. He tries, and he's never had so much trouble before. Here's hoping it'll go well, and we'll figure something out.

I have been busy planning a Halloween party for Clay's class. I'm a little ADD myself, so I'm jumping from one thing to the next. I have water bottles to label/wrap for Mary Claire's class, paper plates to paint/hole punch/and cut for Frankenstein's head (I'll show you a picture later!), and silver cording to cut and bag in the kids' little kits. It should be fun! Tomorrow you'll get the low-down on the party. They will have a Use Your Brain! theme, and it's all candy-experiments and learning (well, they don't know they're "learning"!). I guess it's the teacher coming out in me? And my massive love of candy/chocolate?? Heehee One of my friends from high school is supplying the brainy cupcakes (just adorable!!), and we are getting ready! I hope Mary Claire's party is great too (I'll only be at the end of hers!).

If you want to join in the antics, gather the following by Saturday, and I'll have your candy science experiments posted!
Supplies:
Skittles (divided into two groups)
M&M's (divided into two groups)
Sweet Tarts, at least a couple packs of three
some type of vinegar
Wint-o-Green mints (Lifesavers brand, they are white with green flakes)

Is IT just outside your door?

H1N1 has come knocking, and someone let it in!

We took Mary Claire yesterday to the doctor, and she tested positive for the h1n1 flue virus. It was like my biggest fear of the fall had come to fruition. We were taking precautions, avoiding taking the kids anywhere, and knock, knock, it came in the back door. We found out that there is a lot of it in the second grade at her school! We didn't stand a chance. We've been hunting down the vaccine, but we just didn't reach it in time. I guess we should be thankful that she has antibodies for it now, but I didn't want them to come THIS way. I'm trying to keep the rest of us rested and fed well, so that maybe it doesn't spread.

Mary Claire is quarantined in her room (with a tv/dvd player, toys, drinks/food, etc. so as not to make her feel Too Bad), but we can't have her sneezing and breathing all over our house! She sneezed yesterday morning on her nightgown sleeve, and got it all wet (iccckkk). I just took it off, and threw it in the washer. That was before I even knew what she had.

I think the first sign was the high blood sugars that have been coming over the past five days. She always runs high, then something shows up. Well, it's here! Monday morning when I checked her blood with our new head-scanning thermometer it read 104.1. I thought it was wrong, and rechecked under her arm. It was only 101.9-what a difference!

She seems to be fine as long as I have her on ibuprofen. There is some runny nose, achiness, sore throat, fever, and of course high blood sugars. That's been the hardest to conquer. She was over 300 from last night until this morning. We checked her until midnight last night, I got up and checked her at 4am, and then at 7. I told her is was dangerous, and that if I couldn't get her down, we'd have to go to the doctor or hospital. She was begging to eat, but I just can't feed her over 240, it makes it so much worse when she's over ketone level. I made her a big plate of scrambled eggs, and she ate half of them. I gave her tons of insulin, then gave her more, just for good measure, then reset her basal to 200% (at Ches' recommendation-it seemed too scary for me, but 160% was cutting it).

Finally, right before lunch, she came down to 57. Isn't that how it always is, too high or too low. (but at least she could eat!) I could finally give her the Tamiflu dose (long story, you can see below), since I had to mix it with pudding (which has carbs...). This would be the big fat reason that people at risk need the vaccine!!

Tamiflu: Apparently it is rationed right now (just see if you get it if you are sick-lots of people aren't getting it!). Anyway, we got it (just for her, not for us!). When we went to pick it up, the liquid ($100) wasn't covered by our pharmacy insurance (did I tell you last week's story?), so we had to choose the $35 capsules (and my daughter does NOT take pills-even with bribing!). We had to break them open and mix the powder with a teaspoon of "chocolate syrup" (um..remember diabetes, Pharmacist?) or pudding (ditto, but maybe when her blood sugar comes down). We did do this yesterday, but she hated it! Even after the whole pudding cup, she said she still had that taste in her mouth! And we do this twice daily for five days. If it lessens her pain, it'll be worth it.

So, if the opportunity presents itself for you to be vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus, you should yell, "Yes!" all the way there! Especially if you have other health complications that make it difficult for you to take the medicine and maintain your health. I can't believe that some people are treating it as optional! It is HERE, is HIGHLY contagious, and can cause cerebral seizures and lung collapse (I learned from the person at our insurance company! and yes, comfirmed at cdc.gov).

He gets it from his mother

Making it through Tuesday was a huge relief. It was the busiest day, and we lived to tell about it. : ) Baby steps. : ) Having both big kids (are they big now?) in basketball for the fall is going to be hard, especially in addition to the other stuff they are already involved in.

Clay had gotten a good update last Thursday about his behavior in class, so we told his boy scout den leader that he could go camping this weekend. He had a mandatory meeting on Tuesday night (which it took me and Ches to sit through a little bit each to fulfill the requirement since we had other obligations also). Ches finished up the meeting with three kids, so he deserves some kind words! : ) But then yesterday, I got an email from his teacher that he's not been so great this week. He's having trouble listening/paying attention again in his class, and in his reading teacher's class.

I was aware that he has trouble listening, and I was just convinced it was his hearing. This summer we got all of that corrected after his ear drum was the consistency of "wet toilet paper" and severely retracted, and now his hearing is much improved. Well, it may not have been the problem, but I'm glad it was resolved. I've now made an appointment for him to see our pediatrician next week to see about testing him for attention deficit disorder. He had trouble concentrating and staying on task, not to mention listening to his teacher.

Insurance and Powder: Big Messes

Where do I start? . . .I guess with the beginning. I remember why now why I started to blogging-to get it all out. Which was first, the chicken or the egg? That's how I feel today.

Mary Claire woke up with a blood sugar of 441 this morning (remember 100 is normal), I rechecked right away, and got 386. She'd gone to bed at 92, and at her last check (11:30 last night) she was 189. A little high, she got a correction, and we thought she'd be fine. We were so wrong, and we are often wrong. You don't get a whole lot of encouragement with a horrible havoc-wreaking disease like diabetes. It's so hard.

We gave her more insulin and checked to see when her last site was (to judge site "life" and insulin life), and it was just Saturday at 11am! It hadn't even been 48 hours (they are supposed to last 3 days). She really didn't want me to change it, and was begging me (and after all the tears on Saturday, I didn't want to either). We checked her again at 7:45, and she was still 411, so I gave her more insulin. Her body becomes so resistant to the insulin when she's that high. She was starving, and it makes me hurt. I didn't eat breakfast (partly not to eat in front of her, partly out of sympathy). I finally talked her into some scrambled eggs (no carbs), and she ate them. We worked on some math she had to correct, and she cleaned her room. I took a shower, and painted her fingernails, all in the name of wasting time, right?

She was finally down to 118 (an exciting number!), and ate some mini-wheats hoping the fiber would hold her over. Well, since it was close to nine, her bolus ratio change, we were nervous about how much insulin to give her. Before 9am she would get a 2.6 (2 units and 6 tenths), and after 9, she'd get 1.3, BiG difference! Well, right before I left to take her to school, she was 52! Ahh, does it ever end? I gave her some fruit snacks, and she had a little root beer. When we got to school, she said she still felt low. She was 72. I gave her two peanut butter crackers, and went with her to class.

She had a substitute! On a day like today. I almost took her back home, but she needs to be there. I did lots of talking to the sub and back to the nurse (worried for her!). I haven't heard from them, so she must be okay.

My next hurdle was the pharmacy (there should be a limit on what I can handle in one day!). I called in two refill on Saturday, they called back and said they only had one box of each. I told them I'd wait till Monday so they could fill them (otherwise I'd have been back on Monday anyway) to avoid two trips to Fayetteville. Well. I got there, and they wanted over $300. Ha! Our pharmacy insurance changed, and they were denying the claim. Mike, the pharmacist, called them, I waited for too long, and told them I would be back later. I ran over to Sam's to get a couple things, then back. No more luck. He hung up on them after a 10 minute hold, so he gave me one box of each and told me to call them. I was grateful for the box of each (but now I have to deal with them? what do I say? what do they want? what's the problem?), but not looking forward to the second trip I was trying to avoid.

I called Ches (as I was not so well by this point), and he called. They didn't believe we could be checking her blood this often (10-12x day), so they wanted to fax the doctor a form to fill out before they'd fill her prescriptions. Then they told us it would take 24-48 hours, so I'm really glad we got those tiny boxes now! I'll make it two days on those. I also had to call the doctor's office (in Little Rock) to forwarn them and to let them know I need them to fill it out asap so I can fill my prescriptions!

What a day, and all before lunch. I'm tired. I put Ethan to bed, and he's getting into his drawers now (and spreading wipes, powder, Lansinoh lanolin, lotions, etc. all over his room!). I've been back in once, but last night was a doozy! He powdered his dresser, bed, carpet, and self. Ches vacuumed it up (he was feeling generous!), and now we're watching so it doesn't happen again. I was going to move all the stuff to their bathroom, but there's not room. She has all the drawers full: hair stuff, bows, washcloths, hand towels, etc. I'll have to think of another place and meanwhile, keep an eye on him!

Pray for our insurance to do it's job! And for them to understand it's so very hard to keep an eye on a small child with diabetes, and harder if our hands are tied with limited supplies.

: : And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 : :