Diabetes Applications for the iPhone

A few of these apps make T1 daily life much easier to manage! In fact, Cham and her school nurse use the Diabetes Calculator everyday at lunch when calculating her insulin dose. I'm sure there are many out there, these are just the few that we got uploaded immediately after her diagnosis.

Diabetes Personal Calculator: This app allows you to enter settings for your insulin to carb ratio for each meal, your correction factor, and your target BG. If Cham is lower than the target, it tells her how many carbs she needs to eat to return to target. If she's higher, it gives the suggested insulin adjustment to help bring her down. We love this app!!

Go Meals: This app has pretty good listings for restaurants, foods, homemade foods that you can add, and it allows you to build a meal with "Today's Plate." We use it if we forget our Calorie King book and we're out to eat.

Diabetes Buddy: This app is like a journal and we used it constantly at the beginning of her diagnosis because it has the capability to send BG levels via email. We would track her levels every time she tested and send them to the nurse if we had issues or questions about how to adjust her insulin. It has other cool features like daily activities and carbs you can enter, and it has a section to enter your medication (units of insulin) so you can remember units for each meal. This is something we are trying to get Cham to use independently so she can track her own levels and doses.

Birthday Parties with the 'Betes

Here are some lessons I've learned this first year with Cham's T1 and her attendance at parties. Whether it's birthday party, a holiday class party, or a friend get-together, I now have a few tricks up my sleeve when it comes to these events.

1 - Call the host. I have put myself in the habit of contacting the host to ask what they plan on serving so that I can look up the carbs ahead of time and I can inform Cham of her options before we get there. This typically avoids any negotiations with her because she knows what is going to be there, and if she doesn't like some of the items, I bring her a bag of chips or sliced apples to help add to her meal if she needs them.

2 - Prepare for Unplanned Negotiating. Cham sometimes thinks that she doesn't want the slice of cake, but will change her mind at the last minute. I always tell her, as long as I have already planned it into your insulin shot, you can have it. Unfortunately, she sometimes pouts after her shot because she's regretting not adding the cake. This is when I bring the slice home for her to have with dinner or as a snack if we're still at the party when she needs one. I also tell her to go run around, play, swim, or whatever to earn the extra carbs (for every 30 minutes of strenuous exercise, she earns 15 carbs). If she had the pump, this would be a no brainer - we could simply bolus her when she added more carbs (another reason why we are debating the pump).

3 - Increase insulin a bit. Knowing that Cham is about to eat high fat, sugary foods at a party has taught us to add just a bit extra insulin to her injection. For example today, she wanted the chicken nuggets (9 carbs), BBQ dip (11 carbs), Cheetos (15 carbs), and caramel dip with apples (19 carbs), which brought her to about 54 carbs. Our iphone app (love this diabetes calculator) told us that she needed about 5.2 units - we rounded up to 5.5 units because of the nuggets and dip. We probably could've gone to 6.0, but I feared a "low" because it was a outdoor swimming party and I knew she would be burning carbs.

4 - Expect the "HIGH." No matter what, we always seem to run high on party days. They are very difficult to tackle and we have only come out on top a few times (BG at target). We just do what we know to do, and let it go if her numbers are ridiculous. (Here's where we sing the Annie song...Tomorrow, tomorrow, I luv ya tomorrow, you're only a day away!)

The "LOW" down on Blood Glucose Levels

When Cham's BG level is low she has several key phrases that she uses with us to let us know.
1 - "Mom, I feel low." - When she can verbalize it, I know she's at about 60 - 70. She can feel her BG level drop and knows to test and treat it with carbs.
2 - "My legs feel jiggly." - When she says this, I know she was busy doing something else and wasn't paying attention to her body. She's let it go on too long and is in the 40 - 50 range.
3 - "My head hurts." This is a new symptom that she's developed recently, and it occurs mainly when she's swimming and her level drops. I think it has to do with being in the water, then getting out, and her body recognizing the need for carbs.
4. "I'm hurting." When she states this, I know she's pretty low, because she starts cramping and she has no other way to say it.

Sometimes, she gets really irritable, whiny, and cranky. This type of low occurs when she's playing in her room, chilling in front of the TV, out to eat and can't get what she wants (big ice cream sundae) and after dance, at times. I feel like it creeps up on her and when it does this, she gets overwhelmed with this emotional response. We call it her "alter ego," because she is most definitely not herself. The first time she threw a fit, I thought she was being bratty, so I griped her out. After we understood it as a low, from then on we just say one phrase..."go test." It's crazy how just giving her a juice box can return her back to us. Seriously, it's like the juvenile version of Jekyll & Hyde.

To pump or not to pump?

So I've researched a variety of pumps, requested tons of information, and even have a demo for Cham to try after we talk to our doctor. We currenty manage her diabetes with injections three times per day and are looking to reduce the amount of times she's poked each day. I'm still torn about the idea of her being "tethered" to something, especially since she's a dancer, and spends roughly 3 hours per day in a leo and tights. Where will she put it during dance? Will she feel different wearing it to school? She is, after all, the ONLY person with T1 at her school. Will the pump just make it worse? I read about the depression that can occur with some after they've worn one for a month or two. It supposedly "sinks in" that they are dealing with this for life...or until there's a cure. At the present moment, she's all about it and wants to try it. It's her T1 and she has a right to manage it as she pleases. The mommy in me wants to keep her happy, but what if the pump makes her unhappy? We go to the doctor in August and our plan is to ask if she feels Cham's a candidate for the pump. Until then...prick, poke, repeat.

Summer "HIGH" lights

Cham's had a great summer despite the 'betes! Yes, vacations have sent her father and I into insanity mode due to the flux of her BG levels, but she recovers and prevails every time.

We found out from More than Cards that one of her card designs was chosen as an "alternate" and will make its debut on the website in August. We are excited to be able to order cards with her hand-drawn design soon!

Cham has been a dancer at the same studio since she was three. She is now ten and has been on the Competition Team for her studio for the past three years. We traveled to Chicago for her team this summer and they did really well! I can't tell you how frustrating it is to have to eat out most meals and depend on restaurants for carb counts. Most of the time the waiter/waitress looks at you like you're some crazed dieter when you ask for the nutrional guide. It surprises me, more often than not, when the manager of the restaurant doesn't understand T1 and suggests low-calorie plates or items, when I know I've said "I need the CARB count."