Now You See Her, Now You Don't

Bean loves to swim.  Like, loves  to swim.

Even before she really knew how to swim, she loved being in the water.

In fact, the first time we went to the beach when she was a mere 18 months old, she ran full tilt towards the ocean.  Yeah, fun times!

But I digress.

Last summer, we put the girls in swimming lessons in preparation for our trip to places that are hot enough to have swimming pools.  (I won't mention FFL because it makes me sad that we aren't going this year.  But, again, I digress.)

Since we were in the summer session, we were able to be on the wait list for the school year lessons and we got the call in April that there was room for them....yeah, it's a popular and hard to get into program!

We have continued into the summer session and Bean is doing great.  Bug, on the other hand, STILL won't put her head under the water....ugh!

So, now that we have a ridiculous amount of back story, on to the point.....


Bean uses the Dexcom G4 Continuous Glucose Monitor.  We call it Wilma.  She's amazingly wonderful for so many reasons.  However, she doesn't seem to like the water as much as Bean does.

We get spotty, at best, readings from an unobstructed (unless you count the water) five to ten feet.

reading about halfway through the lesson

six minutes later

um...where'd she go?

duh, Wilma, she's right there!

one minute later

oh...there she is!

Yeah, good times!  Especially when Wilma has had no trouble in the past picking her up from a good one hundred feet away in an auditorium.  Sure, there weren't any people in the way, but I was in the back row of the mezzanine and she was on stage...far, far away!  And, yes, I am freely willing to acknowledge that that instance is totally the exception, not the rule, but COME ON...she's RIGHT THERE!!!

Now, since the lesson is only 30 minutes and she tests her BG before and after, it's not really a big deal that Wilma isn't keeping up with those 6 or so readings.  However, it stresses me out when I know that swimming can take a pretty hefty toll on her BG.

see what I mean?!?!

Thankfully she doesn't always crash like that!  Most of the time she holds pretty steady, with just a small dip that tends to even out nicely.  But, not always...obviously.  It is D and exercise and constancy isn't a strong suit for D in that area!!

And, honestly, if this is Wilma's 'issue', I can live with thirty minutes of spotty coverage twice a week!

"I Should Get Bean One Of Those"

The other day, Ubergeek and the girls were hanging out, watching TV...one of the many things they like to do together. ;)  (OK, just to balance out the couch potato vibe, they did bike to the playground and play for over an hour this afternoon!)

They were on some channel other than Disney (amazing, I know!) and of course along with that comes a variety of commercials.

On this particular commercial break, an all too familiar "I've fallen and I can't get up" frail old lady voice rang through the speakers.

As the cute grandma spokes-ladies chatted about being able to live alone and press the magical button on the oh-so-fashionable necklace to summon help, Bug turns to Ubergeek and says, in all seriousness, "I should get Bean one of those necklace things so she can get help if she's low when she's alone."

Yep, she's awesome like that when it comes to D stuff and Bean.

But, when it's just sister-stuff, Bean has to fend for herself because Bug always comes out swinging! :)

Summer, Summer, Summer Time!!

We have been enjoying the lazy days of summer around here.

Granted, I've been sick for the past three weeks and Ubergeek hasn't been feeling the best either, so we're more than happy to laze the days away doing nothing.

Bean and Bug have been enjoying the freedom of going to be whenever....when the sun doesn't set until well after midnight, it's hard to convince them that it's time for bed!  We've been trying to make it a reasonable bedtime of around 9, but that doesn't always work.
They have also been enjoying sleeping until whenever....like this morning Bean rolled out of bed around 10:30 and Bug had to be convinced to get out of the bed at 11:30.  (She had been awake, just not interested in getting up yet.)

With the lazy days comes some D related laziness, too, unfortunately.

Bean has been getting her own breakfast, some days, when she remembers that she should probably eat.  There's no issue with a 9 year old getting her own breakfast.  In fact, I'm all for it!  However, she doesn't do the significant pre-bolus that I would do on school days.  Nor does she always remember to crank her basal to offset the massive spike that always comes with breakfast.

So, there are mornings that she'll test, dose, and eat, but an hour later she's sky high, pushing 300 and can't understand why she's in such a fowl mood.  (Uh, duh!)

And there are mornings...like today....that she'll 'forget' to eat something because she gets involved with some project and then I'll check with her and she's "SUPER hungry" and "feels REALLY low" and then she'll test at 57!  Um, DUH!  You should maybe eat something BEFORE you start feeling this low!

So, it brings me to this.....We NEED a Schedule!!!

As much as I would LOVE to laze away the days, it just can't happen.  There needs to be a set-ish bedtime with a set-ush time to get up.  I'm not talking craziness here....just something a bit more structured than 'whenever the heck you feel like rolling out of bed.'  And, I know it will do me good, too.

Plus, there's learning to be done!  Bug needs to be challenged and do some Kindergarten prep.  And Bean desperately needs to fill in all the holes that have been slowly growing over the past two years.  She's doing OK, but it's a very easy slip from OK to way behind and I just won't let that happen because she's way smarter than she's shown at school for one reason or another.
I'm not totally blaming that on D, but it has a LOT to do with it.  If her BG is low, she can't learn well.  If her BG is high, she can't learn well.   That creates lots of holes in the learning process.

So, starting tomorrow....or maybe the next day so there's not too much pressure on us because it is summer after all!!!....we will begin our more scheduled, structured days.

Wish me luck!!