Summer recap...

It's been awhile since I've updated ya'll on J.J. and how he's doing. Having spent the past 5-6 months "nesting" my body is finally saying "rest" until this baby shows up. So I have some time to share a few thoughts on the diabetes front.

Summer on shots went incredibly well. J.J. says he never wants to return to the pump. He absolutely hates it. But we tell him, that might change sometime when he's older. We saw the endo the beginning of September and his A1C was the same as it was in May and if we compared his A1C to the previous summer on a pump it was almost a point lower. So.....control isn't the issue.

He started giving himself shots this summer as well. We draw it for him, but he gives it to himself.

Not having the pump has relieved some of the night time stress my husband feels. He does seem to sleep a little better at night. That's not to say we don't still have night time issues. Our nemesis time of "day" has always been overnight. But at least he can get longer chunks of time to sleep.

One issue we encountered this summer was J.J. trying to purposefully go low so he could get a "treat". One day I saw him repeatedly checking his blood, then disappearing, then checking etc. I finally asked him what was going on. He said he was so frustrated that he was in the 200's and he's been riding and riding his bike in hopes of going low. I was like "Whoa, dude....seriously?"

We talked to our endo about it a little bit. The problem is that we don't offer sweets for snacks. He gets sweets, but not on a daily basis....when he gets a snack we direct him to fruit, or graham crackers, or something healthier. But when he goes super low we offer fast(er) acting carbs...candy, juice, popsicles...etc. He wants those things DAILY...as any kid would. The endo was pretty good at talking directly to J.J. and letting him know what he was doing was not good at all. She suggested we offer non-fat milk....a little less "appealing" to him and would encourage him to not PURPOSELY go low.

Well....shortly after this visit J.J. began to go frighteningly low after EVERY meal....without even exercising!!! It began to concern me that he may be developing a secondary condition like celiacs or gastroparesis...where the stomach is really slow to empty. We were increasing and increasing his carb ratios but still seeing the lows. So far we've seen some improvement, but it's still in the back of my mind. His next appointment is in January, where they'll do a full blood workup...celiacs detection being one of them. For now we'll just keep a watch on his symptoms and the lows and if they get worse we'll have to go in sooner.

While at camp J.J. met up with a boy who was caring for his diabetes himself. It was interesting to see how quickly J.J. was drawn to him. I know someday it will be really nice for him to find a friend or two with diabetes.

Well, that's the summer diabetes recap!!