Adventures in Soccer

 

September 394

Eliza is playing a team sport for the first time this fall. She is signed up for soccer and playing for the Orange Cheetahs.  Since she is running a lot during the games I was curious about her numbers, but we haven’t had any issues.  We check her before the game and then midway through depending on the pre game number.

On Saturday she said she felt really hungry when we were getting ready for her game and so we checked her BG. She was 66. I gave her a glucose tab and she checked in 15 minutes. She was 67.  Another glucose tab and 15 more minutes and she was 174 and ready to play. I checked her midway through the game and she was 123 so I gave her two tiny peanut butter crackers.  We got home at lunchtime and she was 113.

She is a lot more timid while playing that I had anticipated. She tends to hang back and not go for the ball as much as I had though she would.  She did score a goal last week and that was pretty awesome.  This week’s team was no joke and not many goals were scored by the Cheetahs.  Overall it has been a good experience, but now that she is in school I think she would rather just stay home and play.  She wants to try basketball, but we are going to hold off on any team sports for a few months and just relax at home.

 

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The Stealthy Bus Snacker

october 196It’s been a while since I posted. Eliza and Jude started school so things have been busy! I like to say that no news is good news but we have been having an issue lately.

Eliza has been snacking on the bus.

Eliza is a stealthy bus snacker.

On no less than four occasions Eliza has had a mystery high blood sugar about an hour and after getting off the bus.

Eliza usually checks her blood sugar at 4:30 before dinner and we get a number in the 200’s.  Next comes my inquiry immediately followed by her revelation that some type of carby snack, pretzel, cracker, puff  had been consumed on the bus.  She paints a picture of kids holding her down and force feeding her snacks. She swears she refuses and yet they somehow make it into her mouth. I ask what she did with the free snack I gave her to eat on the bus if she got hungry. She says she ate in on the bus ride TO school.

Oh Sweet Eliza.

I am frustrated….

She is young and hungry.

She wants to feel normal.

It sucks having Diabetes.

Stealthy bus snacking is Eliza’s mini D rebellion. I get that.  I REALLY DO.

Now if they can just hurry up and make that artificial pancreas a reality that  would be FANTASTIC.

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Crumbly Granola Bars

Jude, Pete and I loved these but Eliza gave them a thumbs down.  The original name was Chewy Granola Bars but they ended up more crumbly than chewy. We will have to change things up and give it another try it a few weeks.

July 116 4 cups Old fashioned Oats 216 g

1/4 cup Almond flour  6g

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut 16 g

1 cup chocolate chips 144 g

1/2 cup dried blueberries 17.5 g

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon 0.46 g

1 tsp vanilla 0.5 g

1/2 cup honey 139.66 g

3 Tbsp butter melted

1/4 cup Sunflower seed butter 14 g

Total Carbs 554/1,004 =  Carb factor .55

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Eliza’s Crunchy Granola Balls

We adapted this recipe from Eliza’s Dishing it Up Disney Style Diabetes Cookbook. I didn’t buy this book, it was given to her at during her hospital stay and we have made several of the recipes with success.  We made their version and it was too sweet so we reduced the amount of honey and chocolate chips.  We also omitted the 1/2 cup nuts that were added in the original recipe mainly because I forgot abut them the second time around and felt they didn’t really add anything.

We measure them out with a melon baller to get them to be about the same size. We often use these if Eliza is below her goal of 110 before any activity that will be high energy over an extended period of time ie. beach, park, bike riding etc. We weigh the ball and multiply it by carb factor .51. I figured out the carb factor by adding up the total carbohydrates in the recipe, weighing the final recipes and dividng the toal carbs by the weight in grams. This makes it a breeze to figure out the carbs per ball.  We do our best to mix everything well to avoid any one ball having a ton of fruit or chocolate chips. I then place them in the freezer on a cookie sheet until frozen and then transfer them into a freezer safe container.  I freeze so that i don’t eat them all on the kids.

Eliza’s Crunchy Granola Balls

Old Fashioned Oats 3 Cups

Honey 1/2 cup (original called for a cup of honey)

Nut Butter 1 cup (Eliza likes Peanut Butter)

Chocolate Chips 1/2 cup

Dried Fruit 1/2 cup (we us dried blueberries usually)

Ground Flax Seed 1/2 cup

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Eliza’s Berry Blast Smoothie

July 009

July 010Eliza’s Berry Blast Smoothie

Frozen strawberries 100 g =   4 carbs

Frozen blueberries 45 g  = 5 carbs

Banana 28 g = 6 carbs

Milk 1/2 cup = 5.5 carbs

Ice

Total Carbs: Approximately 20

I  measure everything on my scale, mix it with my Cuisinart Smart Stick and split it between the kids. I have also used canned coconut milk (carbs may vary) which I prefer. It really depends on what we have in the house.

Smoothies = Smiles!!

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6 Months Post Diagnosis

June 24th marked 6 months since Eliza was diagnosed. I have thought a lot about writing her diagnosis story, but I am just not ready.

On June 24th I thought a lot about this…

Christmas Morning 2012

Eliza Diagnosis

Eliza’s Hospital MemoriesEliza Diagnosis 2

Unplanned Milestones

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Sick Daysbg

but I also though a lot about this

having her here to love and squeezeJune 133

New Friends

diabuddies

2013-05-11 08.08.58

a promise to not let D slow her down

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and of course I hoped and prayed more about this

elizaJDRFShe wants to have a party on Christmas Eve this year…and I am right there with her.

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Gravitas

In the past few weeks I’ve had a recurring nightmare that I have forgotten to give insulin. I don’t remember much of the actual dream but I wake up completely disoriented with my heart pounding and usually scoop up sleeping Olivia into my arms trying to clear my head and figure out what it is I’ve forgotten and who it is I have forgotten to given it to. Slowly, I  realize that Olivia is in fact alive and fine and that it isn’t Olivia who needs insulin but Eliza. I quickly go over everything in my head: dinner shot- check, Lantus-check, blood sugar checks-check and my heart rate returns to normal and I can go back to sleep.

Until it happens all over again the next night….

Diabetes doesn’t sleep and it certainly appears to have found its way into my subconscious mind. I’ve always been an anxious person but aside from endlessly worrying that we’ve given Eliza Lantus instead of Novolog, hence the Lantus double-check, I haven’t been nearly as nervous as I thought I’d be about D overall. I can just hear my husband laughing.

Even though I rarely think about it during the day, the gravitas of caring for Eliza is clearly weighing heavily on some part of my mind at night.

June 270

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Diabuddies

Eliza attempted her first sleepover last night. She is blessed to be friends with a little girl named Quinn who lives down the street and who also has Type 1.   She was a bit nervous but wanted to try and sleep out for the night. She packed a bag and waited excitedly at the door.


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Pete went over at 8 o’clock to give her Lantus. The girls were having a great time playing.  They are both so amazingly full of life.diabuddiesShe made it to 10 o’clock and then decided she wanted to come home so Pete went to pick her up. Even though she didn’t spend the night out she had a blast with her friend.

I don’t know what it is like to have Diabetes.  I am so happy that Eliza has a friend who knows what it is like. Eliza says she feels like Quinn is her…and I know what she means.  I wish that none of these kids had to live with D but it makes me happy that they have each other.  I hope someday they can all celebrate the discovery of a cure together.

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Free Snacking

Eliza enjoys having certain free snacks between meals . They do not affect blood sugar and she can have up to 3 free snacks daily. Free snacks are any food, drink, condiment, or seasoning that contains less than 20 calories and 5 grams or less of carb per serving. One of our favorite free snacks is 1 cup Trader Joe organic popcorn popped in coconut oil.  We make a big batch to use during the week.June 041 June 042 June 043

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Bittersweet Milestones

We are five months post diagnosis and Eliza has started checking her own blood sugar. She really had no interest in doing it herself until she started hanging out with another little girl on our street who also has Type 1. She checks her own sugar and is few years older than Eliza. One morning I was in the kitchen and Eliza decided to check herself and did it start to finish with no help. She has been checking herself frequently since then.  Although it is bittersweet, I am so proud of her.

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