Friday, February 5, 2010

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to the Endo we go.

We made the trek to the endo yesterday. It takes about an hour to get there…with no traffic.

First, we drove down the 101 to get to the Golden Gate Bridge...

Then we got mugged by the City of San Francisco as we were forced to pay $6.00 toll for the honor of crossing said bridge...


Then we drove into the city, pass the Palace of Fine Arts and then took a right at Divisadero...



Then we drove up the wet your pants hill, (which these pics don't do justice for,) and passed all the fancy houses until we took a right at O'Farrell...



We sat for over an hour getting info about the Medronic CGM for J. We learned how to read the info, and how to troubleshoot the alarms. Unfortunately, when you put on a new sensor you can’t get information from it for a couple hours. Once the sensor has time to adjust to your body, you can then check your sugar and calibrate it…THEN it will start giving you numbers.

And when that first number popped up…NIRVANA! It was magical. I can’t even tell you the excitement that filled the room. B was nearby and was in full covet mode.

“I want one!!! When can I get one!!!”

“If we get one it will be for all of you boys honey. You’ll get to wear it sometimes!”

“No thanks, I’ll take my own.”

It so far has been about 20 points off from his finger stick blood sugar readings. It alarmed this morning on a low…AND… Woke. J. Up.

Nice.

We were told at the doctor’s office in no uncertain terms, that we should NOT test J's sugar less this week. (What ev’!) If Lawton alerts, and J’s CGM says he isn’t close to low…I can skip him and check the other boys.

One catch.

I want to look at his pump ALL THE TIME.

“What does it say now J?”

“J, where are you at now? Are there arrows going down or up???”

I had to back off last night…I was beginning to annoy him. And the novelty wore off pretty quickly for J. He was jumping up and down in the beginning…and then later when asked how he liked it by my Mother in Law, he was like, “It’s alright.”

He’s only been getting readings from it for 16 hours, and already I have gleaned some pretty interesting info. J wakes up in the low 90’s every day. (Sometimes as low as 60’s) I haven’t worried too much about it, Lawton usually wakes me if he gets to the 60’s…but last night I was able to see that he is fine until about 5:30am and then he crashes. In one and a half hours he dropped 80 points. Very interesting!

So there it is, a half day of info and me likey. I kept thinking about how nice it would have been to have this when J was a baby. When he napped I could have looked at this and gotten a better Idea if I needed to risk waking him with a check or not. I don’t know if this is a successful system for really little ones…but man, wouldn’t it be awesome if it was????

We get to keep this until next week. If we are fully committed to using it, our doc will pull the necessary strings for us to get our own.

So far…it’s a go. (((silent squeal of happiness)))

19 comments:

  1. It is exciting, isn't it? It's like magic. You used to wonder and now you don't have to. It's particularly blissful overnight.

    But it can be a lot of information to digest. Due to some sensor failures, Caleb took a little break. It was a nice relaxing, alarm free break. I had learned a lot from the months of CGM information, and he was cranking along with the best BGs ever.

    He is back on it as of yesterday. Interestingly, in just a couple of weeks, it seems the "in between" finger stick times got a little more jagged than I had expected. But the good news is, it only took a little tweaking to fix - well at least I think so. I guess I don't know yet since it's only day two. Knock wood - he seems to be chugging along well today.

    Best of luck with it!

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  2. Lawton and a CGM.....what blessings!

    I can hear you snoring now. :)

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  3. Lorraine: The doc told me the same thing. She said most of the kids with the CGM don't wear it 24/7. They use it a couple weeks at a time and then take a break. And begin again when they need tweaking. I love this idea, and I especially love that when he needs to take a break I can stick it on another one of my boys to dial them in. :)

    And ya Tracie....I'm totally looking forward to sleeping even better. Too bad L's sugars were out of whack last night. It is always something...

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  4. I knew you would love it! We LOVE ours! I definitely check Zane a lot less than we did before. And I LOVE having it when he is napping!

    It amazes me that they are not approved for these little ones when I think we benefit the most. It has definitely improve his and our quality of life!

    And I remember our first day with it! We wanted to (and sometimes did) look at it every 5 minutes. My husband and I would say, what does it say now? What way is he going?

    So awesome!

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  5. J.e.a.l.o.u.s!!!
    I wan't one too :)
    But wait, that would require me to switch to the pump. hmmm?

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  6. SWEET (no pun intended) on the CGM. We tried one with Joe when he was 4 and he hated it...I think the insertion bothered him, even though we used EMLA...ohhh how I want one. ENJOY!

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  7. Reyna, you said you have a blog??? Is it private??? Can I come and visit?? :)

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  8. Meri I m so happy for you and now the really hard work begins huh ? just kidding . take a deep sigh of relief . wow all that driving you do ? I would be beat from that alone .

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  9. I am so super jealous! I WANT one! Well, what I REALLY want is one that I can have on ME all the time telling me her bg! Oh, dreams...! You know, it wasnt a big deal when we got the pump but with all these crazy numbers I could really USE one! :) Enjoy!

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  10. Very nice Meri! The numbers aren't always accurate but I sure love finding the trends so I can tweak sydney's basals!! That is the best part! We just stuck Syd's back in today. Although I do wish it came with a remote thing so when I'm laying in bed at 3 a.m. wondering what her numbers are doing and knowing I should either kick Loren til he gets out of bed or get out of bed myself and check her myself. I would love a remote thing so I could just look at it and see from my bed what she is doing. ;)

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  11. I had a bad experience with CGM :( Probably cuz my expectations were too high...though...I do have to admit that I couldn't stop staring at it even though it wasn't accurate.

    Hoping to try again...one day...

    Glad you guys are having fun with it. But Lawton ROCKS more ;)

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  12. That sounds so amazing. I want one -
    But, I want it to be like the one Shamae described. Can I have teh remote in my room?? Oh yea --- that's Lawton. Oh well, I guess I want one of those too!!

    Very, very happy, happy for you and the boys!

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  13. We had a few bad sensors (readings were way off) so we decided to go on a CGM vacation for a bit. Then after only a week Adele asked to start using it again. The last 2 sensors were very accurate and really came in handy when Adele came down with a cold. Her numbers never really crept up since we were catching it before it got out of hand.

    And yes it is quite an amazing feeling when you first start using it and can see the numbers. It's like removing the blindfold after soooo long !

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  14. BTW thinking of your post in the car...and thinking I loved your title...you could even have named it "HI LOW, HI LOW...IT's OFF TO ENDO WE GO"...haha. Sorry, I crack myself up sometimes

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  15. Great to hear about the CGM Meri. I think it's interesting about the 'use it for a few weeks' theory, I haven't heard that before but it sure is a great idea!

    I love your honesty - I SO would be peeking and asking to look all the time - how can you contain yourself, right?! You are such a good mommy when you showed some restraint :0) I'd be like ' Kiddo, you wear the sensor, I'll wear the device, cause you know who is gonna look at it more often' - hee hee hee

    And I applaud you for driving an hour to the endo appt. :0)

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  16. Meri...Of course you can visit my blog...I just started a week or so ago...it is sooooooooo THERAPEUTIC. Also, what else am I gonna do with myself when I am up at all hours of the night...haha. My blog is betabuddies.blogspot.com

    Have a great w/e...enjoy your beautiful family.

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  17. I definitely still check frequently because I have the same issues with the two numbers lining up, but it is nice knowing if I'm going up or down. Hope things smooth out for you!

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  18. I'm so excited for you guys!
    I love my cgm. LOVE LOVE LOVE.
    I have to point something out though, much as I hate to do it.
    Desi beats the cgm's down arrow every time...so Lawton might too...don't neglect the J-man if Lawton alerts. You might find the same as my situation with Desi.

    I love my cgm soooooooooo much.....:) yay technology (when it works)

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  19. How close to Tiburon do you live?

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