I diagnosed my daughter with type 1 diabetes when she was 2 years old. One week prior, she'd had symptoms of a viral infection, but certain signs and symptoms persisted. She was exhausted, extra naps during the day, and she looked listless. Fatigued. She complained of thirst and hunger throughout the day, and throughout the night. We had 8 sippy cups on her dresser so that we prepared every evening for her nighttime water requests. Later we connected zero weight gain from her 1st well child check to her 2nd one. No weight gain in a year. Her height & head circumference were fine, however, so after re-weighing her at her 2 year well child check, we assumed it was nothing. So on one particular night, at 10:30 pm., after about a week of these symptoms persisting, when Liv was lying there awake and restless, and I suspected diabetes but wanted absolute proof, I tested her urine for ketones. It was positive for a large concentration of ketones in her urine. We dressed her and her
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Serum glucose graph??
It's not helpful when we can't read our daughter's sugars off site....that's the whole idea of the continuous glucose monitor....a graph that gives a general trend for sugars over the past three hours, six hours, 12 or 24 hours. Texting my girl now....please hook up the monitor~ It's incredibly reassuring to be able to read her serum glucose while she's at school. 'Info unavailable' on the graph is NOT helpful........
Autumn Salad
Amazing combination of healthy fresh food. I'm fortunate in that my type 1 daughter will try my recipes and enjoys making food herself. She inspires me, I hope I inspire her. This salad has freeze dried strawberries, fresh pears and mandarins, avocado, mesclun, beat strips, three varieties of nuts, and our favorite, furikaki. A balsamic vinaigrette tops this off. This sort of lunch, or snack, or dinner, is complex and filling. And it's incredibly pretty and seasonal!
Salad!!
Salads have become an art in our home! How many colors can you add..... Most of my family members are not huge lettuce fans. So we just decreased the lettuce to everything else ratio. Three varieties of nuts, strawberries and applies, sweet chilis, furikaki. Sometimes we add turkey or chicken or proscuitto. We use a light Italian dressing or a homemade vinaigrette. Tomatoes, greens, garlic and basil are straight out of our garden. We have three young hazelnut trees, not big producers yet but we are trying. This salad has pistachios, pine nuts and almonds. Have you tried furikaki?? It's amazing! Check it out on amazon.com. We use it on salads, on rice, fish, stir fry..... it's worth trying. I'm blessed that my type 1 girl appreciates the food we grow in the garden. She loves making salads. If I make a salad for lunches, she'll eat it for breakfast too. This sort of meal is excellent for anyone's blood glucose.
It's time for a new insulin pump!! Liv's had her first and only pump for five years now, and we got to select which one we wanted from four options. It's not an easy decision to make. And after making our decision, we changed our minds. Initially we wanted the T-slim, with the Dexcom glucose monitor. The Dexcom sounds too good to be true, she wouldn't have to check her blood sugars because the monitor does that for her. I can't wrap my head around this. I don't think we are ready to trust a monitor completely to keep her sugars within range. But we were going to try it, the T-slim pump has amazing features and the screen functionality was huge. I loved it. Liv loved it. But then there's Medtronic. And even though our dietician told us that most athletic high school aged kids preferred other models and companies, we've been with Medtronic to date and it's been a good experience. There's also something comforting about Medtronic making the pump
It's been awhile. My type 1 girl is in high school now, ninth grade, gearing up to play high school basketball. We're excited for her and how life will transform for her these next four years. I do miss our middle school staff and nurse, it's really been a blessed experience with them. They looked out for Liv, they changed classroom policies for kids like Liv, they responded immediately when she needed them. I'm forever grateful. As far as our strategy to teach Liv healthy eating habits, we've managed to create quite the chef out of Liv, she makes the best spicy tuna sushi bowl I've ever had. This is a kid who appreciates good food! She's always down to try a new recipe, and she is learning how metabolism works and how this affects her blood sugar. We document our recipes on Instagram at @yummykitchenchemistry. Because it IS all about the chemistry, how what you consume becomes different elements in your body ~ to use as energy, to store as glycogen or fat