Pumping it up!

 Late post, but Libby has been pumping since November, we are loving it! Better than injections for sure, as a matter of fact last week when we moved from Northern Arizona, to Queencreek Arizona we had a bit of a mix up with the pump supplies and we ended up having to go back to doing shots, for five days, until we were able to get our supplies. Oh man! It wasn't fun. But anyways, long story short we love pumpin  it up! Libby loves to tell people she is pumper and do the pump it up dance! I can't say that I'm sleeping at night but I can say that I do get a bit more sleep than I did before. Her lows have evened out with her highs.... she was tanking all the time before and her A1c of 6.0 reflected it. Her A1c came in today and was 7.2, I am much happier with that :) We are happy campers! We say Booyah a lot, there are a lot of high fives, and we do the my blood sugar rocks dance a heck of a lot more, mostly just because we are amazing dancers and need to keep in practice... Libby has a mean booty shake. I think she gets it from me. So that's that! We LOVE the pump! We can't wait till John is able to get one! One day...                                                                                                       

The first site we did on her tummy, I like the tummy but it seems like the best spot for us is her arm, we have tried bum and thigh but they always come out for some reason. I am happy to say that Libby is able to totally sleep through her site changes!My favorite part is playing "where's my site" when Libby wakes up, it always takes her a little bit to figure out where i put it :)When I can't do it at night, she is pretty easy going about it, she just likes to have a friend to hold, like "Mr.Cuddles" her teddy bear, then she's cool :)
I made this > pump pack a few weeks ago, I think it turned out fine but they get so dirty and wear out so fast with how active she is, I might have to swing for a good one soon.

Here are some other fun Pictures of Libby and the other girls :)

  Libby giving her baby sister luvs, she told me the other day that she wishes Scarlett was ugly because when she's cute she pinches her cheeks too hard, lol this is true!                                               

Baby Scarlett waking up all happy from a hap with Awesome hair! I love her :)

Libby with her cute friend Issey rocking Happy meal hats

 

 

 

Silly girls!

This is how we do it!

Show em how its done Libby! Put those grown men to shame!

First John wipes her finger with an alcohol swab

(Libby always chooses the finger... pinky is her favorite)

Then John gets the lancet ready, and says

"1, 2, 3... poke!"

if you don't say it, Libby gets mad! Sometimes she asks us to say it in Spanish, hehe :)

We squeeze a drop of blood onto the end of the test strip and wait...

sometimes it seems to take freaking forever....

183....

we were hoping for better, but its not terrible.

It's not like a TV commercial advertising a glucometer, and showing a perfect 107, this is real life and we are sporting a 183 today!

Now Daddy does his blood sugar, he is not as tough as Libby... see the face?

Ok this was a total coincidence! I don't think it's ever happened before!

John and Libby have exactly the same number!

Now John carefully measures Libby's insulin. We always talk about the dose with eachother before we give her a shot, and explain our thoughts. Sometimes between John and Libby it takes us ten minutes before we finally dig in to our plates. We try to be as exact as possible, and we typically weigh all of her cereal and fruits and some other things.

And another "1, 2, 3 poke!" She doesn't even flinch, she is such a rockstar! She loves when grown men nearly pass out at the sight of the needle

Good Job Libby!

 We Always congratulate her on how tough she is! And we let her show off whenever there is a chance. I used to sneak off to the bathroom to give her a shot when we were in public, but now I let her show the world how tough she is! People are amazed by her, and she loves to hear what a brave girl she is!

And through all the pokes and difficulties, she still manages to smile and Love us anyways

SHE IS AMAZING!

We Love you Libby Lou!

Diagnosis

This is Libby the day she was rushed to the hospital. Her dad is a type 1 diabetic and was diagnosed at age 14, so I knew that it could happen to any of my kids, and have always kept it in the back of my mind. When I noticed Libby's excessive thirst and urination I started to get worried and had her blood sugar tested. The meter we used only reads a BG (blood glucose) of up to 600 so at first it didn't register. My heart sank when the meter read "hi". Hoping it was a mistake we tested again and it read 565 this time. Shaking, I rushed to the doctor's office and they called an ambulance right away. Some friends took my other kids home and my car full of groceries to unload (Thank you Alice and Kristi :) ) I had called my husband John (Libby's dad) and, bawling my eyes out, told him my worst fear, That Libby had a bg of 565 meaning she had type 1 diabetes and he had to meet us at the emergency room.

Libby, usually bubbly and spirited (a.k.a doesn't stop talking), seemed in a daze. for the first several blood tested she just stared into space and didn't whine much. I think it was when she realized that we weren't going to stop poking her that she started to put up a fight. John and I were in shock and just sort of stared at each other for those first few hours in the ER. John got frustrated with a few of the doctors who acted like he was an idiot. I now look back and understand why he was mad. They would give her a juice box and then act confused when her BG was 400 again. After several hours they admitted her, I was already exhausted, and 6 months pregnant.

They put us in a room and started teaching us how to take care of her. They wouldn't let us go home until they were confident that we knew what we were doing. John has had Type 1 for 16 years now, his younger brother has had it for 22 years, however, the rules have changed a lot since then! So while I did already know quite a bit about diabetes, I didn't know nearly enough, and John has taken care of his diabetes on his own our whole marriage, I had no idea he was even doing. I won't say that he was stubborn, just used to his ways. He has actually come a long way since Libby's Diagnosis, it has helped him a ton. He now has to set a good example, and has had to learn to use a new method of carb-counting. He does really well now and even asks me for help often, as I have to be very precise with Libby and have become a great resource for carb values.

Libby was definitely the favorite patient at the hospital. She came back to life after her blood sugar was stable, and was her old, funny, talkative little self. She was dressed as tinkerbell for most of our 4 day stay, with her hair in a bun and wings strapped on. She would "fly' around the hospital whenever she could and had the hospital staff smiling all the time. We were blessed to have very good nurses, and and excellent endocrinologist (Dr. Barela) and a dietician who we adore named Jennette, she was definitely my biggest help those first few nerve racking weeks at home.

I will never forget those first couple weeks at home and how scary they were. I would spend ten minutes or so just trying to figure out how much insulin to give her at each meal. I was probably testing her BG at least ten times a day, and through the night. We would have to hold her down for every shot and that was hard for all of us. Then she got sick and sent her BG into the 300-400's and sent me into a panic. But, I started to get the hang of it and we got into a groove. We did, have some scary moments including a BG of 26 when Libby was passing out and her eyes were rolling back into her head. I had to literally shake her into consciousness to get her to drink juice. Our first Sunday at church was a learning experience also! I learned that Libby likes to fall asleep when she is low, the opposite of what we want. Wouldn't it be nice if she could just come to me and say "Mom I'm low". She does do that now, but all it means is "Mom, I want candy".

She thinks she is so clever. Shortly after she figured out that she had to have a shot to eat anything good, she would try to trick John and I all the time by telling us she already did her shot, by herself. Hehe, she is such a cutie. And she knows how to melt your heart by saying things like "I have diabetes and I'm not afraid of shots" and she likes us to say "1, 2, 3, poke!" for every shot and BG test. She also knows how to break you heart by saying things like "I wish I was a little girl again" or "I don't wanna be tough anymore"

So Libby is our little hero. I am learning more and more all the time. Right now Libby is on insulin shots, 4 or 5 a day. Hopefully everything goes as planned and she will have her very own pump within the next few months! But for now, shots it is! She is a tough little cookie and I am proud of her and excited to blog about it! Hopefully I'll make more posts every week, I've added a link to our walk for the cure team page, we are Team Libby Lou and would appreciate a donation of any amount. Just find the link on the right side of the page!

The First Post

This is the story of a little girl and her diabetes. Her name is Libby Lou and she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in Nov. 2010 after she had just turned three on October 8. Libby is our little hero! This blog is devoted to her journey with Type 1 diabetes.