Balance

Sometimes, LilBird surprises me by what she does catch and take to heart. I take diabetes notes in her log book on many things - every glucose reading, new foods, crazy sugars, suspected explanations for highs/lows, physical activity (and lack of it), acupuncture treatments, doctor appointments (and all the stats), treatments for lows, illness, pump changes (including battery, sets, reservoirs, new insulin), you name it and I probably have a note for it somewhere in the stack of log books I have maintained for the past 4+ years. If I don't write it down, I may not remember it. I review the notes fairly regularly, and just the act of writing it down helps me remember to change a basal rate during or following a certain activity or when the insulin is fresh or nearing its end, to do a dual-bolus for a certain food, to balance a certain food with another type of food to prevent a high or low, what time of day treating with soda is more effective than Starbursts, or when the next set change is due. I don't know that every Mother Pancreas does that or if they have their own way of keeping track, but the log book that goes with us in her bag works for me because it is all in one place. I've always thought that I do that primarily for myself. I credit all the note taking for her great A1C ("my report card"). I realized this morning, though, she watches me. She really is learning from how I manage her disease.

Cereal is her go-to breakfast. In the past year, our family's diet has been transformed from mostly Walmart food (read: CRAP, even if it was "homemade") to hardly any non-organic food. She still loves cereal, though. Thank goodness for organic cereal. She goes through spells (like many kids do) where she gets stuck on a new food and does not want to deviate. Lately, it's been 365 Organic Cocoa Rice cereal for breakfast. She drinks her kefir water and also a bit of chocolate almond milk with it. I suspect the cocoa causes her blood sugar to be higher than normal after the active insulin from her breakfast bolus is finished. We've tried a dual bolus which does seem to help it not be crazy high, but it's still higher than I like it to be. I still need to tweak the percentage and time frame; I am not giving up just yet.

For as easily distracted as she is, I cannot deny she is my child when it comes to needing to know the schedule for the day. Despite having a weekly print-out with all of her school assignments and extra activities, she still asks me every night, "What are we doing tomorrow?" She has to make sure nothing has changed. I planned an afternoon playdate for her for today that was not on the schedule I printed at the beginning of the week. When she got up this morning, she knew she needed to have breakfast by a certain time in order to have lunch before we are scheduled to leave. She stood in the kitchen, thinking aloud, "I don't think I should have cereal this morning." I immediately knew why: if she's high at lunch, she'd need to correct the high and wait a few minutes before having lunch, and that might put us behind for the playdate. I suggested yogurt and granola as I went about my morning routine of satisfying our antsy pets begging for their food. When I returned to see how her breakfast preparation was going, I found she'd set out eggs, bread, almond milk and jelly (and a plate and knife). (I reminded her to get the kefir.) She wanted a scrambled egg topped with a slice of cheese with toast and jelly. Nice balance, smart girl - much better than my suggestion!