Kaden's Diabetes Journey

One Day at a Time...

2011-04-28T13:50:00.000-06:00

Kaden has now been completely dependent on his pump for a little over a week. This dependence has not been easy as one would have hoped. It seems we have started all over again on getting his insulin to carbohydrate ratios right once again. We had pretty much had this down with the insulin shots but now because the pump can do such small dosages we are once again fighting that battle.
Kaden is doing well with all of the changes. He has his up and down days. I can't imagine the stress he is going through as we try to get everything figured out. I know it is putting a toll on his body. Last week I had to pick him up early from preschool because he was having a "hard" day. His teachers were more than willing to help him through the rest of the day but I could tell that he wasn't going to make it. I think the middle of the night checks and everything else that had happened that week caught up with him that day.
I do have some good news to report as we have been going through all of these changes. When he went into the doctor for his regular check up his hA1c was awesome! This has been a great relief to us as parents to know that as we help him manage his diabetes we are doing a good job.
Together we face a never ending battle but we will not give up! This is just another little bump in the road and we will face many more but we will not let those bumps turn into peaks!

"The best day ever..."

2011-04-19T21:23:00.000-06:00

Kaden now is completely dependent on the his pump. We went in yesterday to get insulin put in his pump, along with more education for mom and dad. He is enjoying not having to have injections, only a site change every three days.
As we prepared in the morning for the trip to the doctor to get insulin in his pump he walked into my bedroom and said "this is the best day of my life I get my insulin". I couldn't help but chuckle at his comment but it brought me great relief thinking that today would go better than the first visit. This easiness was going to change as we traveled the two hours to his doctor though. As we got closer he became very talkative--a sign of his nervousness/ excitement. He talked about how he would get insulin and wouldn't need shots. He talked about trains and other things. We knew that this meant that he was either nervous or excited but we wouldn't know for sure until we got to the doctor's office and we prepared to change the site and put insulin in his pump.
Kaden was once again terrified of the process. We did what we could to ease his uncertainty, this time no bribery of toys we had learned our lesson. We ended up having to hold him to achieve our ultimate goal. Normally this would concern a parent but we knew that this was only temporary.
Our first day completely on the pump didn't come without some complications. We found that he was too low after his meal dosages. With this concern we called the on call nurse to find out what we should do. We ended up increasing his carbohydrate to insulin dosage, meaning he is getting more carbohydrates to one unit of insulin. This has helped some but we are almost positive that there will be more adjustment in the next couple of days before the doctor is comfortable, and we are comfortable.
This will continue to be a learning process, a never ending learning process. Tomorrow we go in for his check up with the doctor and we shall see what happens. We know that there will always be adjustments but for now I hope we can come up with a happy medium... for a little while anyway.

And It Begins!

2011-04-16T12:13:00.000-06:00

The process has now began for the insulin pump. We went in for the first of three visits yesterday and now Kaden has his pump with saline in it. I wish I could say that everything happened without a hitch but that is far from the truth.
As Kaden played we were educated on how to set the pump and how to deliver the insulin. This went on for about an hour to make sure we did everything correctly before we actually "hooked" Kaden up to the pump. When the time actually came to get him set up he was uneasy and it took about an half an hour to get him calmed down and the injection site set. He was just as nervous as we were and everything became a little intimidating for him. It came down to bribery from the nurse and instructor and from us to get this accomplished. When all was said and done he left with two toy cars and on the way home a stop at Walmart to pick out a toy from mom and dad.
As nice as this is going to make his life it is not easy. There is always going to be adjustment made to bring his sugars into check. I think the hardest part for Kaden was that although he now has his pump he still has to get shots through the weekend. We have made a chain where he can tear off one everyday until he no longer has to have injections. We down to two chains and he is getting excited for that, though he is still hesitant.
Kaden amazes me everyday. I wish I could just have half the strength he does. He is my hero and is teaching me each and every day. I know this is not easy for him as he said today "I wish I didn't have diabetes anymore". This was heartbreaking for me to hear and as a parent you want to protect them. It is hard not being able to protect him from this but I am so grateful for the advances in technology that can make his life a little easier.

I would like to share this video a friend shared on her blog as she writes about her journey. It is very touching and really shows the life of someone with type 1 diabetes.

New Happenings

2011-04-05T10:37:00.002-06:00

Okay so first of all I would like to say I am a terrible blogger. There has been some recent events that have caused me to remember that I have this blog and that I need to be more diligent on sharing our happenings.

So much has happened since I posted last and I am not going to try and tell all. In May 2010 we bought our first house and moved to a smaller community. This was exciting and nerve racking all at the same time. With moving to a smaller community we don't have the medical support team like we had in a bigger city. This isn't too bad as we live anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to a wonderful medical facility. Our main concern was what this stress was going to do to Kaden's blood sugars. Thankfully moving to a smaller less polluted area his blood sugars have been better. We have more good days than not.

Since moving to our new location we have met a gentleman who has type 1 diabeted, who was diagnosed as a teenager. He has been a great blessing for our family in showing Kaden that life doesn't end. This gentleman cares for his diabetes with an insulin pump. This has helped us out tremendously in encouraging Kaden about how "cool" a pump is. This brings me to our exciting news...Kaden is getting his insulin pump this month!!! This gentleman is so excited for Kaden and is always asking how much longer until he gets his pump. This has helped Kaden stay excited and less afraid.

Before I end this post I want to share why I have wanted to be better at blogging.

A friend from where we use to live just found out her 4 year old has diabetes. Anyone who has received this diagnosis knows this is not easy to hear. As I have talked with this friend I a cannot help but think about the day we received our diagnosis. I remember being on the floor just sobbing and praying for some answers. I know my prayers where heard that day. I may not have received the answer I wanted but I learned how to care from my son. My son's life was saved that day. I was seeing my son, basically, dying in front of me. Thanks to technology our kids can live long happy lives. They aren't any different from any other kid their age. Their bodies just need a little help just like we need help sometimes.

I am so grateful for the support I have received from family, friends, and the medical staff. If it wouldn't have been for them I would have felt so alone. There is so much great support out there for those who are dealing with type 1 diabetes. We are not alone!

Potty Trained!!!!!

2009-05-19T23:33:00.000-06:00

I have to say that this was much easier than I had anticipated it to be. I have heard that boys were harder to potty train than girls, but I think he was easier to potty train than his sister was. I also had to throw in the fact that he is diabetic and has to go more often.
I do have to say that I used bribery. There was no food involved in this, just charts and the promise that after a month of going potty we would go to his favorite place to bowl, Fat Cats. I told him that we could go bowling there again when he went potty. Well the next day he started going potty. We had no accidents whatsoever, well just the ones caused by mom and dad not getting him to the potty fast enough. He was devistated when he had those accidents. He does still wear a diaper at night to sleep in only because he can't make it through the night staying dry and I got tired of getting up every hour in the night to take him potty. I know the night time part of it will come in time but I am not sweating it right now. He makes it through the day and that is what matters to me.
It is really nice to have him potty trained because instead of going through 200 diapers a month. I am now on the 4th month of those 200 diapers. We had just bought another case of diapers at Sam's Club when he decided to go potty. It sure has saved me money not having to buy a case every month. Now I will just buy a package at a time since he only uses one to two diapers in the night.
Kaden goes in again on the 27th for his regular check up to get his A1C checked. Hopefully everything is good there. It is something I always worry about as the time gets closer. I will try and get back to write about this upcoming appointment and how it went.

Doctor Visit

2009-01-21T21:34:00.001-07:00

Kaden went into the doctor today for his 3 month check-up. Everything went well. His A1c was in the normal range for his age. Yeah! At the last visit his A1c was high, not a good thing. We had dealt with insulin that was bad. His body had not been reacting to his shots so two vials later we had insulin that was working but it had already done its damage to his A1c and had to make some changes. The changes the doctor made paid off because he was good again. It is a relief as a mother to see that you have got him in the range his A1c is suppose to be in. Now if I can get him over his cold so we don't have those sick day high glucose numbers.

It is amazing what the stress of a sickness can do to glucose numbers but it can be expected. The doctor wasn't too worried and wants me to try to up his lantus a to a 1/2u more. We will give that a try tomorrow and hope it doesn't crash him. It is no fun to get up in the middle of the night with a 2yr old that has dangerously low numbers and have to stay up until his glucose numbers are back in the safe range. We both are grumpy and tired when we get up in the morning.

Kaden's Diagnosis

2009-01-19T22:38:00.001-07:00

Kaden was diagnosed on December 7, 2007. He was 19 months old. Kaden had been sick for awhile but we were oblivious to the signs of diabetes. There wasn't a history of it so we didn't look for signs of diabetes. At first I thought it was a reaction to his immunizations and his flu shot that he recieved at his 18 month well child check up. He continued to get sicker as the month progressed and had lost a considerable amount of weight. He looked like he was being starved, which in a way you might say he was. He had got to the point that he wasn't eating and all he did was drink fluids. Due to the increased amount of fluids he was wetting through diapers. We started trying different brands of diapers that would absorb all of this fluid. After several phone calls to his doctor and being told it would pass and he just had a bug, due to the time of year, the clinic finally had me come in for an appointment on December 7th. My son was dehydrated and lethargic. The P.A. sent us to have blood tests done after he examined my son and expressed his fear of it being Juvinile Diabetes. I thought that there could be no possibility of it because there was no family history. We waited at the clinic for the devastating results. His glucose levels were over 800. Normal is 100-200 for his age. We were then told to go immediately to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT.

The drive to Primary Children's seemed to take forever. Family members and friends were called as we drove the 25 minutes to Salt Lake City. I know as a mother we are suppose to be strong for our children but with each phone call the tears poured. It was not the best driving conditions either. We were recieving our first big snow storm of the season.

Once we got to Primary Children's we spent hours in the ER as they worked to bring his glucose levels to a safe level. Once this was achieved we were moved to his room on the fourth floor. They had him taken care of that night but Mom and Dad weren't educated in taking care of him. We spent the next three days getting a crash course in caring for a diabetic and how to use his new life equipment.
I wish I could say that since his diagnosis we haven't had any problems and everything has been fine but I would be lying. Every day is a challenge. We have days where his numbers are perfect and days when they aren't so perfect. We ask ourselves what we did wrong on those days that he has not so perfect numbers but know we did exactly what we were suppose to. We now can almost always tell when his numbers are off by his attitude. Pretty much when he is having a temper tantrum we know to check him, 9 times out of 10 it is his glucose levels. He is becoming more aware of how he feels when his numbers are off and asks to get his blood checked.

I am going to put in my disclaimer now. In no way is this blog going to be giving medical advise. This is all my personal experience as being the mother and care giver of a diabetic child. I hope that I can help any parents of children that have been diagnosed in feeling that they aren't the only one with ups and downs.