Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Where Do I Begin...

...to tell the story of how stressful life has been. la, la, la, la la.....

Let's go back to this time last week, shall we?

I had taken Tuesday as a 'clean the bathroom, get caught up on laundry' day and subsequently my lower back paid the price on Wednesday.

That evening, my stomach decided to join the party and starting at 10pm, I was hunched over the toilet.  My lower back absolutely loved sitting on the girls' step stool while my guts wrenched themselves out.

Thursday, I was able to keep down some crackers, so I limped my way to Bean's orthodontist consultation (good Lord, don't even want to start telling that story).  That night I was plugging in a CD player and tweaked my back again.

Friday morning, I could not move.  No sitting without excruciating pain.  No standing without tears streaming down my face.

Saturday, ditto, but with both girls home and Ubergeek working.  Fun times!

Sunday was a bit better.  I could at least sit for a while and walk to the bathroom without screaming.

Monday brought some much needed relief in the form of a chiropractor appointment.  Not perfect, but way, way better.  I was able to walk into school to pick up Bean...major progress!

Tuesday, was better; not fabulous, but I was able to get everyone ready without having to lay flat in between tasks. Bean had a field trip and with Ubergeek scheduled for training at work, I was 'it' for the must have D chaperon.  Let me tell you, riding in a school bus is NOT great for the lower back!

When we returned to school after an enjoyable performance of 'Peter and the Wolf,' I was returning the glucagon to it's proper place in the nurse's office when I got a call on my cell from Bean's teacher.

"Are you still at school?"  "yes"  "Her PDM is alarming."  "her PDM? really?"  "Yep"  "OK, send her down to the nurse's office because that's where I am."

Sure enough, her PDM was beeeeeeping for all it's worth, with a screen of numbers and warnings like 'remove pod now' 'call customer service' 'holy crap, this isn't good!!!'  (OK, so not that last one, but it totally should have been there!)

I call Insulet support and they walk me through trying to bring the PDM back to life.  We change batteries (by the way, NOT supposed to use lithium batteries...news to me!) and ended up having to totally reset it with a paper clip.  Yep, total reset, as in all of the bajillion settings were wiped out.  I stood there reprogramming everything while Bean headed out to recess....a girl's got to have her priorities!!

In order to do boluses, we had to do a pod change.  Not a big deal since it was 'the' day.  So, when Bean came back inside, we filled, primed, stuck, and click, click, click, POPped.  She went on her merry way, with instructions on how to 'straight bolus' for her after school snack. (The PDM wouldn't calculate boluses for the amount of time we have her insulin set as 'active' since the time was reset. Just a fun little feature when you reset things.)

Things went fine until it was time to test for dessert.  Bean was struggling with her math homework, so I compromised and told her she could have dessert once half of it was done.

Strip in, finger poked, 'beep' for the blood, 'beep, beep' for the number....no, wait, that's a 'beeeeeeeeep.'  Aw Crap!  There's that screen again.  I called Insulet, because there was talk of replacing the PDM if we hadn't been able to get it to reboot in the conversation that afternoon.  (Loved that the representative's reaction was "NO WAY! It's doing it again?!?")  We did the whole process again and it came back.  We also made arrangements for a new PDM to be shipped...fingers crossed that it would get here on Friday since they don't do Saturday deliveries without special instructions, blah, blah, blah.

Again, we had to do a pod change.  Not super excited about tossing a less than five hour old pod, but at least the PDM was alive again.

As soon as the POP inserted the cannula, the beeeeeeeeeep started again.  ~ insert colorful language in my head ~  Reset the PDM, no phone call this time because I just couldn't bring myself to call again after only  five minutes, activated another pod, and Bean FINALLY got her ice cream!

Fast forward to the 1:30AM check....strip in, finger poked, 'beep...beep,beep' and number. 33something.  Ugh.  Pushed a few buttons to process the bolus, hit 'confirm' and, yep, you guessed it, 'beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!'  Go ahead and insert some more colorful language.

There way no way on God's green earth that I was going to reset that damn PDM again.  So, I trudge downstairs and dig out a syringe and draw out the insulin Bean should have gotten.  Back upstairs to a sleeping Bean who is not too happy about a shot.

Morning comes way too early, and I happen to have a sub job for today.  I go in to wake up the girls and Bean's first words are "Can you test me first, I feel looooow."  40, yep, low.  Apple juice while laying in bed and a retest in about 10 minutes shows a much better 73.

I get Bug dressed, noting that the rash I had seen while getting her ready for bed was still there and was a bit more pronounced.  Ubergeek's two cents was that she 'finally' had Fifths, so it wasn't a big deal since you are no longer contagious once the rash appears.

We head out to work, childcare, and school.  Not as successfully as planned.  Bug doesn't have Fifth's, she has Hand, Foot, and Mouth and couldn't stay at her childcare place.  Remember the part about me having to chaperon because Ubergeek had training....yeah, that made things challenging.  Bug staying at school with me wasn't really an option either. The grandparents were unavailable so there was no other choice but for Ubergeek to skip training.  Thankfully he has a very understanding supervisor and it wasn't a big deal for him to just work on other things from home today.

Back to Bean....the one who had to have a shot for breakfast and for all other food consumption and corrections until the PDM arrived or we were able to borrow one from our CDE.  Not a happy camper to say the least.
Thankfully, we have an AWESOME CDE that had a loner PDM ready for us with the latest settings she had for Bean within two hours of us texting her this morning.

Bean was THRILLED when I met her in the nurse's office to do a pod change (anyone counting? that's number 4 in about 19 hours!).  I believe Bean uttered several "Hallelujahs" during the process.

Her numbers have been remarkably fabulous today (yeah, I know, I just jinxed it!) and the loner PDM is doing it's job without issue.

It's been a LONG week....and a LONG post!!...and now that Bug will be 'out of contact' until this wonderful Hand, Foot, Mouth thing runs its course, it will continue to be....oh, well, what are you gonna do?

Time to get the girls ready for bed and pour a nice glass of Resling and relax....at least that's the plan!!! ;)

5 comments:

  1. O.M.G. my friend....you need a vacation...far away in a tropical island resort somewhere. ughhh that is one heck of a week! BIG hugs!!!

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  2. Oh...my heart is palpitating just reading your post!! That is much too much for one week, my friend. Yikes!!!

    Big hugs to you!

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  3. Dear Lord my sweet friend! I am stressed out just READING this! Praying that all this is behind you... Methinks you deserve a break!

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  4. What an awful week...makes me even more excited to pump. :) I used to love excitement and thrive on the ups and downs of life...Now, since D, just give me a nice even plateau. THAT makes me supah dupah happy.

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  5. Boo - sorry to hear about the bad week. Hate those weeks. Have our tickets for camp. I'll be in Anchorage for a week with my six year old, we'll have to get together. I am excited also for the step out walk, it falls the same week as Shrek the musical and I was totally going to skip the walk for that, lol. But am glad they both are on the same weekend! Wahoo

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Hey, Thanks for sharing!! Your comments make me :)!!
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