Sometimes I look at pictures of my happy, healthy, care free little boy before diagnosis and it makes me sad. Sad that he lost that innocence, sad that he has a huge weight on his shoulder, sad that he he's different than kids his age, sad he has to stop and think about insulin and blood sugar before playing, sad that he has developed anxiety from all this. I always try to look at the silver linings, but man.... Sometimes diabetes just fucking sucks. 

Three years

This was taken three years ago tomorrow. Three years ago today I heard the words "Ollie is a very sick little boy" from our pediatrician.

Today is a day of mixed emotions. I am SO thankful for Dr Mumbauer, our pediatrician. I have heard more horror stories of children misdiagnosed as having a virus or the flu and they end up in a DKA coma (google Kacie Terry if you don't believe me). These stories circulate probably weekly in the DOC (Diabetic Online Community). I am SO thankful for Doug. Everything life throws at us, we grow stronger.

However, I still hate diabetes. I hate that it has robbed my son of a "normal" life. I hate that he rolls his eyes when I tell him he has to check his sugar before he can eat. I hate that he cringes when his pump is inserted. I hate that he has poked his finger over 6,000 times (that's a rough estimate of 6x a day, some days are more, none are less). I hate that he asks me if they are still working on a cure (I don't hate that he asks, I hate that he thinks about it and has to ask).

I feel like I should end with some motivational "we will continue to fight" but it's not fighting anymore, it's our daily routine. Some days are worse than others (Hello, February 22), but it's all our New Normal.

You might be a D parent if...

You hear a Lowe's employee talking to what looks like a supervisor and they say "keep an eye on Billy. He's had 2 cartons of orange juice already" and you and your husband look at each other and question if they're talking about a diabetic.

This is a pic of my wonderful D warrior about 2 months before his diagnosis in 2013. Since then he's had approximately 8000 shots and 17,000 blood sugar checks. 

Yesterday we started his insulin pump. While the idiots at UVA Pediatric Endocrinology are a giant thorn in my side, I know this is the best thing for him.. He hasn't been over 200 in 24 hours and has acted like the sweetest kid (see my irony there?) 

It's Diabetes Awareness Month. There's no better day to blog than the day after the Night of Extreme Lows. 2 or 3 juice boxes in, a kid who overslept (this is the kid who always wakes up by 7 and was still asleep by 7:30 and finally rolled out of bed at 7:40) and didn't want to eat breakfast or go to school. Somehow he still made it on time. I feel horrible for him.



Also, keep our insurance company in your thoughts.. we're trying to get a Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitor approved and they keep denying it. So, if they don't approve it soon, I'm going to be forced to go all D Momma on them.

If you can figure out where this quote is from, you just answered the question "Where are we going?" tomorrow (see what I did there, we're going tomorrow and Mr Tom Morrow... Ahem, moving on). And actually, tomorrow we're just going to my parent's house to spend the night to leave on Monday morning, then we still won't be hitting there, we're heading to the beach first. THEN a week from Tom-Morrow we'll hit there. So, guesses? :D


What does a diabetic pack on vacation? Juice. Lots of test strips and a bathing suit or two. Extra insulin.

Oh, and probably more juice. 

Pump class!

So, at Ollie's initial Endo visit last year, they told me they wanted kids to be 8 before they got an insulin pump... So I begrudgingly waited. However, last week I was reading about kids of all ages on pumps and Endo's telling parents they had to only wait 6 months to a year. Saturday, Ollie was starving all day (I'm assuming a growth spurt) and had NINE shots. I talked to him about a pump and decided to call the Endo and insurance company and see what we could do. I also got the number of another pediatric endocrinologist just in case ours made me mad. Poor Doug called our insurance company and got a giant run around and no real answers to our questions. I called the Endo's office and left a message. Of course I was at clinicals and missed the call, but when I called them back they just said "ok, our next class is in September, we don't run them over te summer. We can sign you up for that one if you'd like"... I was honestly shocked I got no resistance from them. They also said they'd help us with the insurance company. I'm excited for our next chapter! Ollie's already decided he wants a green pump....