Diabetes care with a toddler is a new learning experience everyday. We have to watch her behaviors to tell us about her sugars more than anything. We unfortunately cannot ask her how she feels - we can't get a straight answer from her at the current time. She has quite the vocabulary, but shes 21 months old - so recognizing that her blood sugar is high or low just isn't something that she is able to do. We are proud of all she can tell us however and we are understanding her body language pretty good.
At this point in time we are tweaking her insulin levels based on her sugars and our main goal to avoid severe lows ( which are like 40 and under) we've had her at 66 at the lowest since shes been on this pump - so we are succeeding!!!
We have been looking at her numbers and her average blood sugar since the pump has been 210. Our goal sugars are supposed to be between 80 and 200. So we are BARELY above our goal range!! Which is awesome!! We are doing awesome and hearing our diabetic educator reassure us of that is so much more amazing than I can even describe. We like to KNOW we are doing good things for Elsie - and we were told to look at the QUALITY OF LIFE - not necessarily the numbers. Looking at it that way were are able to say that Elsie no longer wakes up in the middle of the night thirsty because her blood sugar is high. She wakes up if she ends up uncovered or her binky falls out of her mouth! She sleeps through the night most nights than not. We've NEVER been able to say that since she was born.
It hasn't been easy to deal with a child ( a toddler ) with diabetes but it is thankfully a manageable disease! We were able to take our sick child into a hospital and leave with a child on their way to better health. She will always have this disease ( unless a cure is found ) and we will always be thankful that medical science was able to create a hormone that her body is no longer able to make. With that we are able to give her this hormone and fix any imbalance in her body. We are LUCKY that were didn't get a diagnosis of cancer or anything that we couldn't make her feel better for the rest of her life. She has an amazing prognosis and we couldn't be more thankful for that!
She is such an amazing girl and smiles through the worst of days - and she shows such a strength that we could only be so lucky to have. She is such a brave little girl - and she is the sunshine of our lives and she is the reason we smile each and every day. SO thankful for a healthy, beautiful, and strong little girl!!
Take Care,
Sarah, McKenzie & Elsie
