We just had another Endo appt. with our awesome doctor and she said Kaiah is doing so well that her numbers are almost in the non-diabetic range.
Cliff likes to keep her there as much as possible, but it makes her MD kinda nervous! Thankfully she recognizes that we keep a close eye on her blood sugars and test frequently so we can catch her before she goes too high and too low. Sometimes we just miss the mark though.
It's the nature of the disease. We do the best we can, but the time of day, her activity level, the type of food and how long it takes to absorb, how well we are able to estimate, her emotions, illness, really anything, can make her blood sugars labile. She'll never have perfect sugars throughout any one day and so we try to anticipate what's coming next.
Ever since Kaiah's diagnosis three years ago, we made a decision to let her have as normal a life as possible, so we have! After just three months, we spent 2 weeks in Yellowstone and the Tetons, we've taken overnight backpack trips into the Mt. Hood National Forest, we've done fun day trips to go sledding or to the beach.
We've found that we can fit the testing and snacks in pretty well. But I found a few pics that show the reality of interruptions we didn't used to have before Type 1.
The first time Kaiah felt a low (it was in the 50s) we were on a hike around Lost Lake with some friends. She just got really teary and just wanted to give up on life saying she just couldn't go on. Since then, she's gotten good at feeling the lows coming on and when that happens we all just stop while she gets some fast acting carbs (a juice, some candy or some glucose tabs) and wait for her blood sugar to come back up.
She's been low at:
Disneyland
On backpacking trips
(Appropriately) on the March to Cure Diabetes
And while sledding
And I found one picture of a time when she disappeared into the "Mosh Pit" crowd at a Britt Nicole concert. It had been about a half an hour since I had seen her and felt like I needed to go down and check on her to see if she was OK. (She had just had a boat load of insulin from birthday cupcakes :)
It turned out she was fine, and she's only 8, but it was one of those weird times where I had a glimpse into the future of having to let go. Right now, her interruptions are our interruptions, but someday, All too soon, she'll be on her own with this stuff. I'm praying we train her well and that she will have someone who loves her to look out for her when we're not there.
Thankfully, God holds her in the palm of His hand and no interruptions can happen apart from His knowledge and will. And we are so thankful that Kaiah is living a full LIFE, interruptions and all!
