Birthdays

When I was a child, back in the days when my parents were the ones planning and hosting birthday parties  and my sisters and I were the ones who got to enjoy it, birthdays were a bit different than what they are today. My grandma would bake a big chocolate 

cake, topped with chocolate topping, not the chocolate frosting you would  buy in the store that has mainly sugar and not more than traces of chocolate flavor, I am talking about a home made one, with real chocolate and butter and real heavy cream. I would help spread the chocolate and then, the highlight of any chocolate cake, spread the sprinkles. There was only one kind, these little ants like shapes that come in five (I think) basic colors. Actually,  we also had brown and silver sprinkles but these were used for fancier events and most kids (including myself) liked the colorful ones anyway. For the birthday party itself you would usually invite your whole class and the kids would show up at your house for some music (from a tape recorder), snacks (chips, juice and the all times favorite chocolate cake) and some games. In my school we would usually wrap up friends with toilet paper (the first pair to successfully wrap from toes to head wins), compete who blows cotton balls faster and try to get a candle tied to our hips behind our backs fit into a bottle on the floor. We all had a great time at a VERY minimal cost (and some extra left over mess though). But ever since I was a child, standards are constantly on the raise. Hosting a birthday party at home is possible given that you thought the whole thing through and are ready to renovate your house afterwards or better yet leave it like that for the next party. Alternatively, you could rent some inflatables or get someone to do some activity with the kids or you can go by the Do it yourself route but given the high expectations that's quite a lot of pressure to deal with. Some parents deal with it very well, especially when the weather permits and the kids get to play in the  back yard. Next on the agenda there's the food, chips - not enough anymore, in most cases it's pizza but I have also seen bagels with cream cheese and some fruits and vegetables, more expensive but a great and healthy alternative. And then the cake. On rare cases you get to see the good old chocolate cake... Nowadays it's usually something fancy, well decorated and shaped and in many cases unfortunately not as tasty as the old dated alternative.

I admit, I have been following these latest trends for several years. But one of my friends was brave enough to challenge the current main stream with the good old chocolate cake and the good old make it yourself games.

The kids had a BLAST, the cake was DELICIOUS and all gone within seconds, they all licked their fingers from the leftover of fresh home madechocolate  topping and I was glad yet surprised to see that these old tricks still work. However, some of the parents' responses weren't as favorable as the kids' (as if that at all counts), as one of the mom questioned the ability of todays' kids to enjoy simple old fashioned activities and another mom thought it was only a budget issue. Well maybe we are the problem here, kids are kids, and with all the sophisticated and pricy games we all own and have in our homes, including mine, the number one game of all times is still an empty carton box! And if you ask the kids, that old-fashion birthday party was a huge success.

Pod dress-up

So simple yet brought up a big smile on my girl's face when we took the brand new ladybug Pump-Peelz out of the envelop and wrapped up a new Omnipod's pod before putting it on. Even the cannula insertion was a breeze at the sight of that funny ladybug.

For a while now my daughter has been complaining about the raised fingers of curious kids and believe it or not curious adults that can't hold it in and just want to know what this is (the pod). When she was younger, and with an old fashioned insulin pump, I used to patiently explain diabetes and perks to who ever wanted to know, but now she is old enough to choose her own way and she doesn't like to be asked. She also doesn't think that diabetes can be explained in a few minutes to a stranger standing in front of us in the supermarket line or at the bus stop. Besides, we were the ones who taught her not to speak with strangers. But now, even if she does decide to respond, the answer is easy, it's a ladybug, and instead of her being the girl with the white pod on her leg, she is the girl with the cool ladybug sticker. Thanks to PumpPeelz. 

Cut the Cord

For the first time in 4 years my daughter went to sleep without her insulin pump. She would normally wear it in a Spibelt around her waist. In fact, she got so used to wearing it that she woke up in the middle of the night looking for it. These runner waist belts became part of her wardrobe, she had them in every color and design to go along with every outfit. But last night she was almost pump free, well, at least tubing free, and that goes a long long way for us. We got the new Omnipod! We decided to finally cut the cord, or at least that's how Omnipod calls this operation. I wanted this pump for her from the first time I learned that insulin pumps exist. But it was too bulky and big for a tiny 5 year old and had insulin delivery features that did not fit my daughter's insulin requirements that were at time of diagnosis very little. The doctor suggested we would either go forward with a different pump or wait until her insulin needs grow, so we went with the first choice (unlike height, insulin needs is not something you wish would grow) and settled on the one single pump we had as an option at the time. Only four years ago and with all the technology advancements it sounds like prehistory. So many new and exciting developments in the insulin delivery/blood sugar measurement avenues, yet not a single tiny bit of something that brings us any closer to a cure. I had a dream one night, I was picking up my younger daughter (which I don't have and am not planning on having, but bear with me here) from a play date and started chatting with the other girl's mom. She told me she once had type 1 diabetes and that she was cured, thanks to one latest discovery, and that my own D daughter (my older daughter in the dream - my only girl in real life) would also be cured once she's able to take advantage of this discovery when she is 21 years old. Sounds more like a fairy tale than a scientific breakthrough but I woke up from that dream with a new hope. My daughter is now 9 years old, so we have a few years to wait until 21, in the meantime we should do our best to give her the best possible, currently available, treatment. And so when I heard that Insulet came out with a new Omnipod which is 33% smaller I made the call. My daughter wasn't sure she wanted to change. Why replace something familiar that works with something new? We had this discussion over shoes when she was 3 years old... 'Give it a try' I said, if you don't like it you can always go back to the old one. I couldn't say the same thing about the shoes though. I just really wanted her to see that there is an alternative to the old fashion pump. Instead of tubing connected to the pump it has a disposable pod that contains the insulin and stays on the body (with a cannula). It is controlled by a remote-like device called PDM that looks like a very old version of a smart phone. Once activated, the pod delivers insulin for 72 hours according to the PDM's program. The PDM is then used for old fashion blood sugar monitoring and for bolus insulin delivery. My daughter likes the fact that she doesn't have to carry anything on her (especially when she dances or goes to sleep) except for the pod, and doesn't need to disconnect the tubing before taking a shower. She also likes the user interface of the PDM and its personalizing options, her PDM now carries the name of her favorite singer when turned on. I like the new and refreshing sense of freedom, I like the fact that the infusion insertion is completely automatic so she can do it by herself and the ease of use. It's nice to have a new toy but it's all part of doing the best we can until there's a cure.

 

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Diabetes Free Week

When my daughter had one of those nasty stomach bugs and the nurse called from school asking that I'd pick her up, I was mostly worried by her numbers.The first sign of illness in a diabetic person as we know it is sky high blood sugar numbers regardless of what they ate or the amount of insulin last taken, and so not only that you have to deal with the fever, and any other nasty symptom, you also need to make sure the blood sugar is not crazier than crazy.
Now stomach bugs is a completely different story. Usually you can't keep anything down, not even fluids, and even the slightest thought of food makes you want to throw up. That might lead to some dehydration but when you add diabetes on top of that, the next thing that happens when you don't consume any source of carbs is the drop in blood sugar. "Have you checked her blood sugar?" I asked when I came in and the nurse said it was in a perfect range, which is already unusual by itself. "But she had already bolused (a short for taking insulin by shot or via pump, in our case it's an insulin pump) for her lunch but she couldn't finish it" she added. That would mean that we should expect a hypoglycemia episode within about half an hour unless she eats some carbs. Any carbs would do so I suggested she'd have some candies but she couldn't even get near her favorite gummy candies (Fruit Snacks), and that alone was a sign she was sick.
So I rushed to school to pick her up and my immediate mission was to keep her blood sugar up. We got back home and like I thought, her blood sugar was dropping. No luck with food and so that was the first time in almost 4 years that I had to take her pump off and not because she was going to the shower or to a gymnastics class. But even when she got back to eating; a bowl of pasta and a chocolate chip cookie (which luckily she had forgot to bolus for), her blood sugar remained in the perfect range without any insulin. I know that type 1 diabetes is not a relapsing/remitting condition but for a full week there my daughter was almost diabetes free.
As a scientist I know that this is not something you can grow out of and that there has to be a reasonable explanation for the sudden magical ability of a type 1 diabetic to deal with sugars; like reduced absorption in the intestine to name the most straightforward one. But as a mom I believe that miracles happen, I have to, otherwise life would practically be impossible. "Maybe I don't have diabetes anymore" she said after checking her blood sugar on one of these miraculous days, a bit serious and a bit joking but mostly hoping. For about a week we could get away with anything, her blood sugar levels were the best ever regardless of what she ate, even better than the honey moon phase (a topic worth discussion by itself), we were starting to fantasize on perfect A1Cs... But after a week, exactly when she started feeling well again (digestive system wise) her first number over 200 showed up and shortly after the numbers we had gotten used to seeing in the last 4 years came back as well. So the vacation was over, of course. As a scientist I was left wondering about the mechanism but as a mom, even though I should know better, I couldn't avoid the disappointment.

OBGYNs 2

So eventually I found my match. An OBGYN who doesn't add his share to my already preexisting amount of stress, who can live in peace with me not wanting any kind of medications if there isn't a medical justification to taking them, who can appreciate the fact that i had delivered two babies without epidural and that I am planning to do the same thing this time again, without trying to talk me out of it. He even added few words of encouragement! So, now I could finally start to enjoy being pregnant and trust my instincts , instead of feeling like I am being managed by a battery of physicians and nurses. Well, these people will still be part of my follow up appointments but they will be on my side and I get to play the lead.