What a difference a week makes. While Hannah is not 100% sure about the CGM, especially the removal and reinsertion, she is amazed by the info we have gained that we couldn't have known without it.
It makes me wonder how PWD did it back in the dark ages when all you could do was pee on a stick and guess how much insulin you needed to inject. Mind blown over how technology can give us the tools to learn and tweak the dosage schedule to gain control over the invisible monster.
Zach ( Hannah's oldest brother, a biochem major at Marietta College, for those of you who don't know us in real life;) ) just finished a pharmacokinetics course in a toxicology class he is taking and it explained the process of micro-bolusing the dosages of medication in order to utilize them most effectively...he even drew us pictures. Those of you know know Zach have no problem imagining this process, right?
The crazy cool real life application is that by the changes we are making, we've watched Hannah's mountain range graph settle into a pretty little sine wave, for the most part.
That being said, we have learned that she was in trouble in the night, perhaps for a year or more. While this makes me very sad, I am excited to know we are on it now and the adaptations are effective.
In the week she has used the CGM, she has dropped her average bg by 20 points, putting into the range that will keep her a1C right where she wants it. We are rejoicing over that little victory....in one week's time.
The thing that people who don't dance with T1D every day don't know, is that there is no ' hey, whatever. We'll just wait and see what happens". No, if you are a PWD dealing with type one, especially a woman, particularly a young woman, you have to simultaneously live with hyperawareness of each moment while meticulously planning ten years in the future.
Most teenagers are worried about what they're going to be doing next weekend, or if they are long range planners, where they are going to college and what their major will be...a t1D kid is fretting all of those things as well as preparing physiologically for future babies and jobs with a health insurance plan that will cover the things that are required for them to stay alive. On some days it is a challenge to feel like a seventeen year old instead of a 45 year old.
While a pump is still not on the agenda, the CGM seems to be a welcome addition to the daily arsenal in our war. There is still anxiety over reinsertion here at home....
Let me be real here, for a moment.
This grind is scary. I cheerlead and praise and encourage....
and I cry, and pray and rant, too.
The Dexcom sensor inserter looks like a mini cookie press
When the FedEx guy showed up at our door with a box of these, we put them on the dining room table and looked at them without touching them for a good long while.
Nobody signs up for injecting a 2.5 inch needle into their stomach to thread a plastic catheter in for keeps, and then pull it back out again. Can't even grit your teeth and do it quickly, at least at the onset.
And then, you get to do it all over again next week, same time, same channel.
So. If you think of us come Monday morning, say a prayer for peace, calm nerves and encouragement. Because we are such newbies at this game. We talk a good game, put our game faces on and do what must be done. But when no one else is around??? We are afraid.
Just sayin'.
This is freaking hard. Scary. Overwhelming. Frustrating.
But it is also helpful and will hopefully enable a lifetime full of health and joy and dreams come true.
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