Hi! I’m not Sarah. My name is Cherise. I hijacked her blog to let you know Sarah and Erik welcomed BabyK into the world yesterday at 3:37 PM. He is 8lbs 3 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. Sarah, Baby K and Erik are doing great. I will leave out all of the details. Sarah will post more later this week.
Congratulations to Sarah and Erik!!!
Be Blessed
Cherise
Blog Hijacker
Gifts that are received while you’re pregnant for your baby are always appreciated… Even the ones you don’t need right away. You know the person wants to help out and do what they can for you, whether it be bottles, diapers, wipes, or clothes. But then there are the gifts that are even more special… The ones that have a story behind them. The ones that really touch your heart.
Thursday, Erik came home from work with a gift from a lady he works with. He had left to go to the gym, so I took a peek. When I opened it up, the gift that I saw was very beautiful, and I had a gut feeling there was a special story behind this gift.
See, he has a lot of very nice women he works with that would do anything for him. This one lady knew we were expecting our little boy and wanted to do something nice for us. So, while going through her chemotherapy treatments, she hand-made this beautiful, hand crocheted blanket for us. Someone who didn’t know me from Eve but knew Erik took hours of time during her pain to make something special for us and our little boy.
I will forever cherish this blanket, along with the other special hand-made gifts we have received.
Hey guys.
I realize that I usually post on Fridays, and I promised one on my Google+ page about a blanket we had received (and I guarantee it will be up soon!), but today didn’t quite go as I had planned.
While getting settled at work, I received a call from my OB’s office that my blood work for my platelet count came back very low and that I needed to come in to triage as soon as possible to have it rechecked as well as to have BabyK monitored. Now, the problem with platelet counts dropping is that it’s a sign, along with puffy swelling and protein in the urine (both of which I have), of preeclampsia. And with the level being as low as it was, they were very concerned.
So, I got to triage, and tests were rerun. I was having steading contractions while I was there (which were a continuation of last night – but none getting progressively stronger or closer together), and the nurses were very concerned with my feet and hands. They still look like they are swollen beyond capacity… like if you poked them, fluid would spew at every angle. Granted, not the pretiest of thoughts, but it’s what crosses my mind when I see them.
Just to be on the safe side, they went ahead and put a line in my arm just in case I were to be admitted, which she honestly thought I would be.
After waiting two hours, we got the results back. My platelet count had increased to a safe level, and even though I have slightly dilated, the contractions didn’t warrant true labor at the time, so they sent me home with orders to rest and stay off of my feet. So, this afternoon, I have done just that. And, even though I’m still having constant contractions, they aren’t seeming to be progressing.
I also have to contact my OB’s office first thing Monday morning to see if they can work me in because the OB on-call does not want to wait until Thursday to see me. So, I have a full day Monday between OB, NST, and endo!
Thank you to all the ones on twitter who have checked on me tonight. I love you guys and I have not forgotten about you.. I was just knocked out this afternoon from being worn out.
Okay, so remember yesterday I talked about being on all these loops?? Well, I was thrown for another one this morning.
Last night, my OB called to tell me that all my blood work and my 24hr urine collection results came back great, and that he was actually shocked given my history with diabetes and renal disease (I had kidney problems about 10 years ago which from my understanding, had reversed itself with tight bg control), and that the protein levels were no worse than someone who was a healthy, non-diabetic pregnant lady…. all to which I was elated. So, the ruling for the swelling and random star-flashes is that it can be normal in pregnancy and I need to deal with it. (And no, he didn’t say it like that, but that’s the gist of it.) Then, this morning, I get a call from his nurse. She wanted to be sure he had called me back last night. She went back over the results, but said it in a slightly different way. She said that the results came back good considering my diabetes and renal history.
Considering??
What is THAT supposed to mean???
So, I go from feeling wonderful about this pregnancy.. that somehow I had done something good and that my body really was able to handle pregnancy just like any other woman and that it didn’t affect me that bad and I may actually be around a long time for this kid, to feeling an instant rush of panic. “OMG, so I’m just in the good range for a diabetic? I’m not in the good range for a normal, healthy person? So that means I actually do have raised levels? I’m probably at risk for having to go back on pills for my kidneys once again not because of lack of control but because I decided to have a baby in the midst of having a body-wrecking disease????â€
Then she tells me my A1c… 6.9. The highest since becoming pregnant. I swear, if anyone had walked into where I work at the time, they would have seen a 9 month pregnant woman doing everything she could not to lose what little bit of hope and happiness she had. Everything seemed to pile on me at once, and I felt like I had been a failure somehow. Had I gone through this pregnancy trying to do everything possible to keep this baby protected from what my disease could do to him just to have it all slip away in the last month?
I know a lot of this has to do with the hormones and just the general uncomfortableness and wanting this baby out of me. The pregnancy is coming to an end and I’m going through the transition of loving being pregnant to, well…. NOT loving it, dealing with the worry of how things are going to go and how I’m going to protect him on the outside, and the realization that I’ve only got less than two weeks until this transition occurs. The overwhelming knowledge that very, very soon, there will be a baby – my baby – in my arms.
After having my little down-fit, I called the OB office back and requested that the results be sent to my endo’s office. I know they usually do, but I wanted to be sure he got them because I trust his judgment of my diabetes care over my OB. I wanted to be sure he had them so I could discuss them with him when I go for my appointment Monday.
I am also going tomorrow morning for my 37 week (well, almost 38 week) OB appointment. I’m going to see if they’ll go ahead and schedule the induction date then so we can have a definitive date to mark on the calendar of BabyK’s arrival… that is unless he decides it’s time to come before then and I magically go into labor between now and the date set. That way Erik can know when to take off from work and I can schedule a few days off before to make sure I have everything ready for the hospital stay and be sure the house and BabyK’s room is 100% (or as close to it) ready for him to come home with us. I’ve said since the middle of the pregnancy that I felt sure he was going to be a July baby… and we still have 11 days left for that to happen. But with the way my primary OB sounded last night, the induction is still going to be set for the week after I turn 39 weeks (I’ll be 39 weeks on Saturday, July 30th). I’ll be sure to update tomorrow as to what the on-call OB says.
I’ll have to say that this last leg of the pregnancy journey has really thrown me for a loop… or, well, several of them.
1) I knew that with pregnancy comes swelling for about 80% of the pregnancy population. And knowing my luck, I knew I’d be smack dab in the middle of that 80%. Case in point:
My feet – last night
And not only are my feet swollen, but now my hands and face. Picking up and using a pen is the weirdest feeling I have ever felt because I feel like I’m wearing snow gloves and trying to hold on to a pen. The last time I was able to remove my engagement ring, I didn’t even attempt to put it back on because it just won’t go.
Even my face is swollen. I hadn’t realized how bad until I skyped with a friend last night after it had been a few months and she told me I didn’t look like myself. Which confused me because I thought, “why not? it’s just my feet and hands that are swollen…†but then I looked back at some pictures from before the swelling started. And I have to admit. I look quite… puffy. I’m hoping to hear back today or tomorrow from all the blood work and 24hr urine collection from the OB’s office. Hoping and praying that it’s good news and all of the swelling is normal, and not a sign of pre-eclampsia or kidney problems.
I guess I didn’t realize just how much can change in your body when you’re pregnant, and even more so depending on what stage of pregnancy you’re in, which leads me to my second point of loopy confusion.
2) When I was preparing for pregnancy, I lived in this dream world that I wanted to get things under control for a year, minimum, not only to make me healthier to be able to carry a child, but so that I would have more of a clue of what goes on in my body and be prepared to handle things and hopefully make pregnancy easier. Boy was I wrong. Yes… it was good to make my body healthier, but the goal of it making a diabetic pregnancy easier? That’s a whole other story. Because no matter how long you have been diabetic – 2 years or going on 23, such as myself – nothing can prepare you for diabetes + pregnancy other than it itself. Almost everything, save for eating when you’re low and taking insulin when you’re high, is thrown out of the window. Foods react differently throughout different trimesters, insulin doesn’t work the same way month to month, week to week, day to day sometimes. Highs and lows can feel completely different to you than they did before. It’s truly not something that you can “prepare†yourself for. You have to go with the flow. Which brings me to my point of #2.
We’re told that insulin resistance is a big deal in pregnancy. I know, because mine kicked in right with the third trimester. I’m now taking twice as much basal insulin and, depending on the time of day, 3-4 times as much carb insulin. But I knew to expect this. What I didn’t know to expect, was that right at the end, when your body is starting to get prepared for delivery, your insulin resistance can actually slack off a bit.
Wait.. What?? you may ask!
You read that exactly right. I didn’t realize what was going on until I had a hunch and tweeted and researched Google for a while, but apparently your body knows it’s getting close to time and for some reason that I still don’t understand enough to explain correctly here, you become less insulin resistant. Which would honestly make sense. I mean, come on girls, how many of you can track your pending visit from Aunt Flo by the change in your glucose levels due to the change in hormones?? This is true for pregnancy as well. As you get closer to the end, your hormones change yet again, which is why you tend to not be as insulin resistant, I’m assuming.
So, to get to why I even started on loop #2, it’s because for the past two days, my blood sugars have been low to normal… and I haven’t increased my insulin as I was supposed to. It seemed that the day after the OB fussed about my blood sugars starting to get a bit out of hand and having my endo make some change suggestions, the next day, I had to reverse the increases because it seemed to be too much. And now, I’m on as much insulin as I was when I was getting the high readings that the OB fussed about, and am having to treat lows every few hours…. sort of like a slight visit back to the first trimester again, just without the drastic drop in insulin need.
Which is why I abso-freakin-lutely looooooooooove being on an insulin pump. I have full respect and admiration for those who attempt pregnancy without one. Because without it, I honestly don’t know how insane I’d be. Watching and controlling are insanely intense now, but I can imagine with shots, it’s double that. Being able to make changes on the fly with an insulin pump, I think, are crucial, and I think it would just be added stress and aggravation to have to wait to make changes with shots. Not that it’s impossible… but not something I’d make the choice to do.
3) Aaannd, as far as we know right now, if BabyK doesn’t decide to come earlier or if tests don’t show he needs to come earlier, I will be induced the first or second of August… which makes it only 2 weeks away. Then, I’ll be in for the biggest loop of my life… being a diabetic MOMMY! Which presents a whole new bag of loops, confusion, challenges and victories all in itself… and I can’t wait to write and share mine with you guys!
I had to do my first solo Minimed Guardian sensor change Friday, and I took the opportunity to take some pictures.
While I know there are ways to extend the sensor, my skin was getting itchy and sort of painful, so I decided it was best not to try my luck and go ahead and switch things out. After I got up and showered, I went ahead and placed the new sensor in my upper thigh, which, once again, gave me no trouble using the Sen-serter. (Shhh! I actually like the device! No gearing up to do a manual insertion – it does it for me!) I made a make-shift Band-Aid to cover it using IV3000 and cutting a square to cover the sensor out of the paper and making a sensor sandwich to cover it (sensor, paper, then IV3000) but make it easy to remove and not pull the sensor out when I was ready to do the switch.
So, at around 1pm, I started to do the process of switching everything out. I was so used to Dexcom’s way of going into the menu to stop the old sensor and then start the new one when you were ready, that I went completely confused when I didn’t see a similar setup in the Guardian’s layout. I went back and referred to the manual and the online tutorial, but those ( I thought ) only applied to inserting your first sensor… not how to do a replacement “new†sensor. So what did I do? Yep – I called Minimed Customer Support and asked them to walk me through the process. I have to give them an A+++++ on this because the rep I spoke with was very understanding, patient, and very eager to help me and even double-checked with me to be sure I understood the process completely. He went above my expectations. He not only walked me through, but he made sure I understood the process well enough for the next change out as well. That’s what I call great customer service!
I knew that the area had been itching that night before and that morning, but I figured it was just about that time that I get rashes from glue adhesives and it would be fine as soon as I changed everything out. Well, when I took everything out and off, this is what I was left with:
Not only did I have a rash from the glue, but somehow, my skin had been cut between where the clam-shell transmitter and the butt-end of the sensor meet. I’m hoping this won’t be a recurring thing with the sites and it was just that I had placed this one on my side. Granted, the user guide does state not to put the sensor in an area where your body moves a lot, so putting it on my side was not the best idea. But with being as pregnant as I am, we weren’t sure where to put the sensor during training since my stomach wouldn’t be safe right now, and I didn’t really want to strip down to put it in my leg either. So just a word of caution.. do what the book says… no insertion in “bending†areas!
BUT! On to the sensor itself. Setup went just as the first insertion. I recharged the transmitter, clipped it into the sensor that had been on my leg waiting for 5 hours by this time (I wanted to be sure to get it plenty “wet†and see if it helped with readings right off the bat), and tapped it down with IV3000. In the monitor, instead of having a menu option of “stop sensor†to stop the old one, you just go and tell the Guardian monitor to “start new sensor†and it begins the 2 hour warm-up period.
After the two hours, I calibrated and stayed pretty well on-track with no problems. I will say this though. Not only is it important to calibrate when your bg is steady and all that good stuff that they tell you, always clean your fingers. I know this should be a given, but I am very guilty of not making sure my hands are clean when testing. And how often do we fuss and complain about variability in CGMs verses meters when we’re probably testing with not-so-clean fingers? I know some of you out there are not as slack in that area as I used to be, but I have now made it a point to try to make sure I clean my fingers before testing, especially if that number is going to be used for calibration…. because what’s the point of calibrating if you’re going to give it a bad number anyway?
I’m scheduled for my second change out today. Debating on trying to extend it or change it. I’ll let you know on that one later.
And, just in case you wanted to see them, here’s some more pictures of what the sensor looks like (granted, this one is used, so please ignore the dried blood in places… I tried to clean it but some got left behind):
If you look really closely at the sensor wire, you’ll see that it’s coated… I’m assuming that’s the difference between why you can take acetaminophen with their sensor and not with the Dexcom? Hmm.
-Sarah
What resembles marshmallows on sticks?
But with baby marshmallows on the ends of the big marshmallows??
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MY FEET!
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| From Beach2011 |
Now granted, my legs aren’t the skinniest around either, but they’re also a bit swollen.
But with all the swelling and uncomfortableness, I am still enjoying being pregnant.
That or I’m really trying to convince myself of that. I really just want BabyK to bake as long as needed to be sure he’ll be as healthy as can be when he comes.
It’s also said that “a watched pot never boilsâ€â€¦ so if I keep dreading it and wanting it to be over, he’ll never come.
So I’m going to try to keep my mind off of “labor†things and just keep watching the calendar for August 6th, not before.
35 weeks and 5 days. We are getting close to the “endâ€. Saturday, (by the pregnancy calendars), I’ll be 9 months pregnant, and will have yet one more month to go. BabyK will be technically “full term†on the 16th… which there is a full moon on the 15th, so we may have a baby in the middle of this month, or he may hold out a little longer. My next OB appointment is on the 14th, so I guess we’ll see if the moon’s increasing gravitational pull is having any affect on him!
BabyK is still rolling and squirming at times, and even has his own pattern going. He stretches in the mornings, pushing his butt up into my ribs and his hands into my lower side. Then his feet go pushing my upper side under my rib cage out. Then he’ll squirm a little more and he’s still again. He’s not as active during the day as he used to be, but when I’m at home at night in my recliner, he rolls and twists and does whatever acrobatics his little small room will allow him to do. I love feeling him move, but boy! Being short-waisted also makes it a bit more uncomfortable since when he moves, he doesn’t really have far to be able to move or stretch up and down. If I could, I would grow two or three inches to give him some room, but I know that’s not possible. It would be nice though!
Things are getting uncomfortable. I feel like a huge watermelon myself, not just the belly. My feet and ankles (and sometimes, hands) resemble something out of a fun mirror house where things are made to look either super skinny or really fat…. mine being the really fat one. There’s no shape to them at all… just two big balls of water with little tiiiiny appendages that I used to call toes not too many weeks ago. And while it seems gross, and it is but I’m kinda weird this way, if I press on my foot (that is when I can reach it), a huge dimple stays there for a while. It’s kinda cool looking but horrifying at the same time… “Is my foot really that swollen that I can press a 1/2 inch dimple into it?? Wow!â€.
Infusion sites are starting to react weird. Not sure why, but really are hit and miss now. The ones that are misses, are ones where I can place it, do a bolus, and it will leak. I’m wondering if I’m swelling that much that it’s affecting them. I’ve even resorted to not only utilizing the slow-delivery function on my pump, but also doing a combo bolus for every single bolus that will deliver the insulin over 0.1hrs (I’m assuming that means it will take 6 minutes to deliver? 1/10 of an hour…? Right?) to see if it will help. So far, it has.
The Guardian gave me my first really-off reading this morning. It said I was holding steady in the 90s, but when I checked, my actual bg was 235 (stupid Hardees breakfast!). Now, I have had this “offâ€ness with the Dexcom, so I’m not saying it’s a bad system. Then again, what bg monitoring system is a perfect one? NONE. My thing is if you don’t expect perfection, you’re not going to be as disappointed, and you actually appreciate and rejoice more when things do work out to be just the way it should be. Crazy, I know, but that’s been my way of thinking almost my whole life. I get too stressed and depressed otherwise.
I know that we are nearing the end of this pregnancy, and while it will be a relief to not be on as much insulin, I am starting to worry about how things will go after he comes. As with this whole pregnancy, my diabetes has been a whole new ballgame. Diabetes is a baby itself… one that never grows up. I know countless numbers of you out there have been down this road before, and that gives me some peace of mind. So, while I am so ready for this pregnancy to be over in terms of I really want to hold him and hug him and kiss him and all that stuff, I’m also not wanting it to be over because I’ve finally gotten comfortable with knowing what pregnancy does to me as a diabetic and knowing how to handle certain situations. But as with everything in the diabetes world, nothing is constant. Nothing is easy. It always changes – pregnant or not. And rolling with the punches one day at a time is the only way you can do it and stay sane.
I have jumped ship from the Dexcom world to the Minimed one.
After doing my trial run with the Minimed Guardian, I have to say that even though it does have it’s drawbacks (slightly bigger size, inability to be calibrated during rate of change), I did like the system… a lot. So we went ahead with insurance approval and I am now the proud owner of the Guardian system. I do still have my Dexcom system available to me, but strictly for backup purposes.
The system came via UPS yesterday and I was set up and trained yesterday afternoon (I love my endo’s office!). While it is very easy to set up, the most difficult part was just finding a place for insertion. I can’t use my belly (obviously not a good choice at 8 1/2 months preggo), and I can’t twist around to put it in my lower-back/lovehandle area, so we put it on my side. It may not be the best place as far as sleeping, but it does work there with no issue. One restriction that Dexcom has and Minimed doesn’t with placement is the direction of placement. I have read the owner’s manual and I can’t find where it matters which direction the sensor is injected in, just as long as it’s not within 2 inches of a pump site and 3 inches of a manual injection site, whereas Dexcom, you have to place it (or you’re supposed to place it) horizontally… which can make for a weird insertion in the arm.
Another thing I liked with their system is my skin doesn’t react the way it does to Dexcom. I usually have a rash coming up by the end of the week now with Dexcom, and I didn’t have that issue with the guardian.
When I went for training, it was a little more involved than the Dexcom, but that’s because it has more features. Things like the predictive alerts and area under the curve (AUC) were explained to me, as well as how to use the Guardian system as a logbook for pumpers or pen users. My endo’s nurse even gave me an UltraLink meter that can wirelessly send my bg to the Guardian for calibration if I wanted to try that as well (which I did, very neat!).
My next thing will be purchasing a supply bag/case. While this doesn’t require you to carry anything but the monitor with you, I’d still like to keep a small backup kit with me with sensors, inserter, and transmitter tester and charger inside along with extra pump sites, batteries, glucose tabs and strips… you know, all that stuff you’re supposed to keep with you anyway. I never did before, but seeing as how I’m going to be a busy mom soon, I’m sure it will be nice to have one place to have everything with me for a quick change out if needed without having to worry about where all my stuff is. (It’s kinda sad that my purse will probably be the size of my kid’s diaper bag by the time I’m done.)
I can’t wait to be able to upload and view my reports from the first sensor. Even though my Ping pump keeps everything logged for me, I’m using the logging function in the Guardian as well to keep a log that will upload with the CGM report and give a full, comprehensive view of what’s going on. I’ll share that with you guys next week.