The boys of summer are here!

Spring training has officially begun, both for those making a gazillion dollars to chase a ball, and for my little all-stars as well.  Oldest and Youngest are playing this year - Oldest is back in the Majors with the Red Sox again (this time, I think it will be a much better experience than last year) and Youngest is playing coach-pitch AA league for the Angels.  We originally signed him up for T-ball, but who knew??  They eliminated T-ball last year!!  He has two good friends on his team, and the coaches seem to be really great with the kids, so I expect this, too, will be a good experience. 

Of course, watching the games will be a tug of war between pride and hysterical, painful laughter. They are so cute, and so bad right now!!  They will get better, and it will be fun to watch the growth.  Oldest has a new position, too - team mentor!  He is volunteering to help coach, and has found his calling for sure!!

Middle still has absolutely zero interest in baseball, but Uncle Tony is here from Minnesota for the big Scottsdale Arabian Horse show, and Middle now has a serious interest in horses.  Of course, those of you who know me know this is music to my ears, this is a child after my own heart, etc, etc...  He will take a real riding lesson (Thank you Groupon) at the end of March and we will see how he likes it. 

Middle's numbers continue to be a source of everything from curiosity to stress.  We will see how is A1C levels look the next time we go see the endo (note to self - must make that appointment) but it is my guess we are in better control now than we were three months ago.

We all love the OmniPod pump, although there is always room for improvement and I have a small list of things they should consider when going through a design overhaul (bigger viewing window so we can see if the cannula is under the skin is one).  I cannot imagine going back to doing multiple daily injections... for instance, I went to check on him when I got up this morning and he was a bit high (221) and I was able to get his PDM and give him a bolus without waking him up.

You might wonder how I knew his blood sugars without waking him to test - but remember we are also card carrying members of the Continuous Glucose Monitor set, and Dexie as we call it, has made a huge difference in our lives. 

While I hope for a cure, I also hope for advances in technology that will allow kids like Middle and the others I know to have an intuitive machine to help them manage this disease.  We can keep him stable, but it is an ever vigilant fight; no matter what else is going on, we are always asking the question "how are your numbers" and adjusting either our meal plans, or our daily plans, or our sleeping plans to ensure Middle is safe.

The whole world of diabetes care is not getting easier, necessarily, but it is getting more routine.  My fear with that, and all things 'comfortable' is that is when bad things happen.  But, puberty is right around the corner I'm afraid, and that will bring with it it's own snake-pit of issues, so may as well enjoy the little bit of quiet before the storm hits!

I'm afraid to say it...

that we are out of the woods with Matthew and this dang cold.  I will say, however, in an attempt to not tempt Fate, that he has had a run of better numbers for the last  two days.  I will take what I can get! 

It seems that living with Diabetes, you are in constant "reaction" mode.  It would be really wonderful if we could go "proactive" here, but then something like a flu bug, or a liver that spontaneously spurs into sugar production get in your way and smash your good plans all to heck.  So, we react.  Matt seemed to be an endless sponge of insulin-need while he was sick, so we tweaked his Insulin/Carb ratio (the IC ratio) and his correction factor.  Now that the cold is gone, we evidently need to tweak them back.  (He spent all day yesterday low because his IC was too high.  Or too low.. not sure how to explain that, its like do you turn the AC up, or down, when you want it colder in the house.)

His Dexie (the glucose monitor) needed to be charged last night, and no one wanted Matt to sleep without it.  It's funny how you become dependent on something you didn't have before - me with my iPad, and Matt with the Dexie.  We lived for over a year as a Diabetic family just hoping and praying the nights went well.  Now, Steve wondered how we would be able to sleep without the knowledge the alarm would let of know if something went awry.

So I breathe a very small sigh of relief that we more or less successfully navigated this first small bug.  Amazing testament to Matt's immune system that this was the very first bug he has gotten in 15 months, true.. And keeping fingers crossed that we don't have any larger test looming out there on the horizon!!

Good number, and healthy children, please!!