Tag: DKA

I said the same thing to each of my children once they obtained their license;  “if you tell me you are going to be home at 12:00 midnight and it is 12:01 am and you have not called, I will think you are dead in a ditch someplace.  That’s drastic I know, but that’s what I will think.  So if you will be late…….call.”

Now I’ll be the first one to tell you that the statement is both drastic and over the top, but for the most part it worked (well almost).  Boundaries.  Our kids respect them once they are laid down.  Should they not be followed, there was a ‘price-to-pay’.

Good thing about getting a license is that once you taste the sweet nectar of driving, you hate walking.  Taking the keys away was a quick way to get a point across. Interesting how much that statement becomes exponentially higher when your child is dealing with diabetes every minute of every day, isn’t it?  When our kids with diabetes ‘miss’ a curfew, well that seems to have a whole new meaning doesn’t it?

Well not really.  It shouldn’t.

If one of my kids, dealing with diabetes, needed to stay someplace longer to deal with a low, or a high; we looked at it no differently than “I lost track of time”.  Call.  I don’t care the reason, call.  Once you are feeling better and you go to start that car, call and fill us in.  Once a pass, twice they saw me irritated, and three times they lost privileges…..or something like that.

I always lived by Richard Rubin’s rule of giving choices.  Rarely were any of my kids surprised that they were ‘punished’.  It was just not my style.  Now doing something really stupid is a different story, and I’m glad there were not too many of those in our lifetime.  But in our house it was explained that you needed to do A, or B would happen; and always I would ask, “Do you understand?”

If our child stayed someplace to treat a high or low and did not call, they did not hear it from me regarding their diabetes.  When they arrived home they heard it from me about not doing what I asked; which was to call.  Not because of their diabetes, but because they did not do what we agreed upon…..which was to call.

It’s not our kids’ fault they have diabetes.  They need to live life as…..well kids.  Richard taught us always to be careful, and that indeed there was a way not to mix the two when it came to discipline.  It wasn’t about eating something they were not supposed to eat, it was about disobeying.  Set the boundary line, give choices.  There are differences.  Act so you don’t need to react.

How do you handle such situations?  Share, please.  These things are never easy in this world of diabetes…………………are they?
I am a DiabetesDad.

Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.

A man stands at the bottom of a stopped escalator.  Not a long escalator, mind you, just normal-one-floor type.  His face is red with anger as the escalator comes to a stop.
“I cannot believe this, I’m so late.”
There is a little boy behind him who says, “A broken escalator is just a staircase.”
With that, the man walks up the stairs.

I saw it again the other day.  A mom was pretty upset that her child’s insulin pump broke and the torment began of waiting until another one arrived.  I read with…..well…..a little disbelief to be honest with you, as she was so perplexed on what to do.  I’m reading this thinking to myself; “Uhmmmm…….give your child a shot.  What’s the biggie?”

Two immediate thoughts were that one, I’m getting older.  When we started in 1992 pumps were not in use as they are today.  My second thought was a bit perplexing.  Have we ‘gone-the-way’ of the Dodo Bird (extinct, ask your parents) on the basic needs of daily management.  My friend Richard Vaughn can share, more than I, what it was like ‘back-when’ to deal with diabetes (his diabetes journey of 70ish years is one of the most inspiring you will ever know—keep an eye out for an upcoming book).  But even since 1992 in our own lives, the times, as they say; ‘are-a-changing.’

I have heard for some time now about this thing called an artificial/bionic pancreas and how it will be the closest thing to a cure.  For the record, the same was said when insulin came along, when ‘long-lasting’ insulin came along, when the insulin pump came along, and when the cgm came along.  I get what is meant by such sayings, each of these management tools were/will be a giant step forward in making the management of diabetes ‘just that much easier’ according to many.

But these are all tools that can ‘go-derailed’.  We have to be ready when that happens.  We have to be versed on what to do.  An expert does not just have the ability ‘to do something’, they also have the ability to ‘right-a-course’ when it starts to go wrong.  When it comes to the welfare of our children, nothing less than expert will do.

Don’t be afraid to get back to the basics when it comes to diabetes management.  Make sure you know what to do ‘when the lights go out’.  It may be a tad inconvenient to go back to shots should a pump malfunction, but if your entire stomach turns at the thought of that issue, you may want to take a refresher-course on what to do.  If your child sees panic in your eyes and/or senses fear in what you are doing, guess what is going through their minds?  Most assuredly, at some point your escalator will stop, it will be so much easier to know how to walk-them once that happens.  It’s all how you look at things.

I am a DiabetesDad.

Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.

When I was much younger, I was a huge cartoon lover.  I used to watch and see how often, during a chase scene, the background repeated itself.  I could tell you a really good cartoon (usually WB) from a real ‘hokey one’.  There were a few constants in these cartoons that I have come to realize over the years.

One observation is that many were not very politically correct.  I often wondered if the powerhouses at studios knew exactly what they were doing in this regard?  Another observation was that cartoons were pretty violent in some cases.  In all of this, I have often wondered how today’s world would look at the cartoons of the past.

Another observation I had about cartoons is that there was always the antagonist in every one of them.  Bugs Bunny had Elmer Fudd, the Roadrunner had W.E.Coyote, even Tweety Bird had Sylvester.  The one character involved in their day that they would be so much better……..without.

Now you may wonder, at this point, what in heaven’s name this has to do with diabetes?

My thoughts dealing with cartoons made me think of something that got this crazy head of mine spinning……as many of you know, my head does that at times.  There really isn’t one aspect of this disease I’m very fond of to be quite honest; but like Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, and the Road Runner I certainly had one thing that would get on my nerves more than anything else.  And it was this……..going out.

It always seemed to me that Kaitlyn would always have one of her worst glycemic reactions when we were getting ready to do something special.  Going to the Ice Capades, going on a trip, going for a night out….it never seemed to fail that it was at this time that diabetes ‘would pull a number’ and she would have some sort of serious reaction.  Her little body would become so rigid and she would begin to scream.   Her body would become so stiff that we could not even get her to sit in the car seat; it was that bad.  Of course it did not happen every time, but I surely remember the episodes.

It was a horror show.

Her face while she was going through this will haunt me all of my days.  Never once was this an inconvenience, this was watching helplessly as we tried to get control of a situation that would result in either Kaitlyn having no memory of it at all, or through her sniffles and tears; apologizing.  Just kill me now, was a constant thought.  I hated that she was put through this incredible ordeal.  I cannot imagine what was going through her two-year-old-little-head.  I never forgot it and each time it occurred,  I drove myself that much more to learn more and more about this thing called diabetes.

The other thing I remember about these incidences was that Jill turned into Super Ninja Mom.  She would spring into action with the reactions of a cat that so many moms learn over time dealing with diabetes (some dads too).  I may have been okay at it, but Jill perfected the course of action that left me in awe each and every time.  She would balance not only Kaitlyn’s reactions and needs; but also while keeping an eye on her older brother who was probably all of five or six during these times.  Almost like assisting an absolutely gifted surgeon, my job was to do, get, be, whatever I was instructed without question.  And I did.   A million times I have stated that our kids have the perfect mom………..and she did it all without expression…..leaving her tears only to when she thought no one knew…..but the tear stains on her pillow were evidence that at some point it hit her; and it hit her hard, and certainly more often than she led on….. and to this day.

Those were challenging times through the first few years when things went haywire and  Kaitlyn was unable to vocalize what was happening.  In all of diabetes, these were the toughest to handle in every aspect.  What was/is your ‘one’ thing that bothers you more than anything else?  I wish it was like the cartoons, but it’s not.  It’s real.  Never was there a time when we could smile and say, “De-de-de-That’s all folks”.

I am a DiabetesDad.

Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.

The world around us.  Asking for advice is a wonderful thing.  At the touch of a finger you can seek a number of responses from novice to professional.  Advice. Inquiry.  Fact.  You want it, you can find it right online.

But when it comes to education, do we need to move beyond the outreach of a ‘post’ on a FB page.  Do we need to do more?  When it comes to education, do we need to think that we are reaching the masses with our message merely by sharing with people on-line just in our community?

I think not.

A message must cross the eyes of the audience we seek at the exact moment we post it, or shortly there after, or the message comes and goes without reading; for the most part.  If the message resonates with many, it gets shared and shared again; thus increasing the number of eyes that share in the messaging.  Sort of a tough haul to rely on what works and what does not……yes?

Getting the message out.  If it’s an important educational item, you must ask yourself who is seeing the message?  Clearly it has been a pretty important priority of mine for people to understand the warning signs of diabetes, and specifically type 1 diabetes (T1D) of late.  It has been a passion and I know that I am surely not alone.

But we MUST TAKE this battle outside the confines of the web pages or we will never be successful.  People need to hear the message that they can download posters (www.getdiabetesright.org, is just one of many, the one Kim May and I created— and there are more) and use them to get the word out there…..have you delivered even one?

You can down load the letter created by the NASN (National Association of School Nurses) and bring it to your school nurse (and beyond) to warn others that THE flu/virus symptoms evident may just not be just that……have you passed out one?  Click here to see it, print it out, and share it. NASN Document School Nurse Letter.

If we share, only to share with each other, the arrows turn inward; we need them to be outward.  We need to reach out beyond our own community.  We ‘get it’ already (we can only hope).  But it’s those who are on our sports teams, in our schools, and in our communities that may not get it……we must get the word out to them.  We must educate them.

This is my passion and that is nothing new; but this holds true for any passion you have also that relates to our diabetes world.  When you ‘preach’ to those who know, stress without a shadow-of-doubt that you are ‘preaching’ to them to do more than merely read message…..but to pass the message on to others; and as best they can.

In community sites, community FB pages, school FB pages, other areas that do not have the word diabetes in it.  Get to those sites with your message.  Download a hundred posters and give them to the boy/girl scouts and or school groups to hang in a community.

It’s important to be in touch with each other, but when it comes to the education of things we already know, let’s work to reach those who do not.  Talking amongst ourselves is usually a good thing…..but educating others is about as powerful-a-gesture as you can/will ever make.  One person hears something they do not know, you-just-might-save-a-life.  Take an action-step today…….it will make you feel good.

I am a DiabetesDad.

Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.