new discoveries

I supplied the venue for an Insulin Pump information session last night at my clinic The Calgary Centre for Health. We will sometimes open up our facility to different interest groups, providing a free space to host a seminar. I had boatloads of stuff I had to get through at the office, so spending a few extra hours at the clinic last night wasn't a bad idea. There was about 20 people, there mostly parents of diabetic children. Very few people get to spend an evening with a bunch of strangers but be intimately connected through a condition. It's really kind of comforting to be in the presence of so many that know the struggle, it's an affirmation that while wandering the house at 2am looking for test strips, infusion sets, batteries, juice boxes, and hail Mary's....there's someone close by doing the same thing. The mid-day yawn and eye rub could almost be the universal handshake of diabetes.

Animas brought in Lorraine Anderson, a certified Diabetes educator and fellow pumper. The brain trust of Ward Clark, territory Manager for Alberta, the great Joe Solowiejczyk, and Teresa from the Alberta Children's Hospital were among us in attendance. The content discussed was far more in depth than just how great pumps are for managing diabetes. We chatted about matching food to insulin blousing, how to really take advantage of combination boluses, pizza bolus, super bolus, all of these great concepts that many of us have heard of but been too nervous to experiment with. Lorraine did an amazing job of empowering the group to have some "fun" with diabetes, see if you can out-think the beast. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about insulin pumping, but found myself completely engaged and fascinated by the discussion. In fact, texting the discussion with Nicole to make sure we remembered the information. It was a really great discussion and to be honest, I found it exciting...which is so lame, but it's true! The opportunity to come at Cadence's disease from some different angles. We touched on a fair bit of topics that are frowned upon by some CDE's but in this discussion, we learned the reasons why we all do it incognito. For instance, pre-bolusing 20 minutes, overriding the pump recommendations based on instinct and experience, acceptable blood glucose departures 2 hours post meal, etc. It was great. The only issue I have this morning is that pile of stuff I had to do last night....is still sitting on my desk but i'm going to try and attack it from a couple new angles.

B.

DIRONY

No, I didn't misspell the title, it is exactly that. The heart of diabetes is it's own irony. It's a disease of paradox, where everything that should be normal is in fact exactly the opposite of. There are so many ways and reasons to hate it, but sometime you just have to admire and laugh at how clever this foe actually is. It's a brilliantly designed disease. Attacks one specific cell among the millions in your body and produces system effects. It will never be held responsible, but will end a life. Takes the simple pleasures of life and changes them to stresses. It not only affects the host but everyone around them. It truly is a magnificently designed enemy.

The irony of diabetes is especially present in kids, it wages war on the behavioural, the social, the economic, and not to mention the physical. It seems that many things that are the saving grace of parenting and being a kid are the most dangerous in a diabetic kid. Confused? Here's some examples to prove my point.

If your 3 year old has a temper tantrum, most parents would let them hash it out until they settle. With diabetic parents...we have to do that and then treat with a juice or candy since all the thrashing around causes a low. We have to reward the tantrum. Awesome.

Diabetes 1 - Parenting 0.

If you are preparing a nice family meal for you kids and one of them decides not to eat? Most parents would say "no problem, but there's no food later." If you've injected your 3 year old with a pile of insulin in this case however..."okay, let's have a bunch of candy then since you're likely to go into a coma in a couple hours if you don't eat". Reward not eating with sweets. Excellent message.

Diabetes 2 - Parenting 0.

With normal families, if your kid wants to play with friends, you find no other better stress reliever than to watch your child's endless energy expended with other kids'. In a diabetic family....you stress about how much Insulin is on board, did she have enough carbs to buffer it....did I bring enough candy to get her out of the impending low?

Diabetes 3 - Parenting 0.

In a diabetic family, there's not many more uncertain things than a night's sleep. You can't sleep while worrying that you might sleep through a scheduled blood check, miss a low and your 3 year old getting in trouble. You end up getting up anyway, check the sugar and make a decision if you can sleep for another 4 hours or not.

Diabetes 4 - Parenting 0.

So many examples of how a little thing like a pancreas can take "normal" and turn it on it's head. It's not an entirely one sided battle however.

If diabetes has the upper hand one day however, and is letting the blood sugar go high....you as a parent take great sorrow in the fact that you have to put a needle into your child for the 4 thousandth time...however there is an unspoken guilty pleasure in the fact you get to fight the disease with a sharp object. Take that Diabetes!...take that!

Diabetes 4 - Parenting 4000 and counting. WIN!! ;-)

b.