Christmas in Pictures

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you are having a restful day after!

Reyna and I must have been on the same wave length.... because during our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebration, I couldn't help but think about how diabetes didn't leave us alone.... not even on Christmas.  

Here are some photos I took of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day....

 

Technically Christmas Eve - It's 1 am.  I'm coming upstairs from having spent the last 3 HOURS working on a kitchen for Sweetpea.  J is sick in bed.  It's 1 am.  Time for blood sugar check and a site change.  I was hoping to get it over with so that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day would be free from needles.

 

For some reason the tubing wouldn't prime.  I went back downstairs and got a new set and a new cartridge.  I attached the new set and tried again.  Nothing.  In another Reyna moment, I'm sure I uttered a "For F&@!$ Sake!" under my breath.  Calling customer service at 1 am is NOT what I wanted to do.  I was exhausted and I just wanted to go to bed.  "Are we going to have to go to MDI for Christmas?"  I sure hoped not.  So I kept trying.... and finally it worked.

 

Sweetpea's trashcan.  Full of medical waste.

Checking bg a little later that night... uh, morning... showed a low.  This is Sweetpea's dresser.  Her juice box.  Bitty Babies juice box.  A used site.  And a blood stain from a test strip.  

 

But... Sweets hardly flinched and sucked down her juice in her sleep.  

I was worried about blood sugar on Christmas Eve.  Last year she was sick.  This is our first experience with D and Christmas... without illness.  Would she be high with excitement?  Nope!  Beautiful bg's... It's a Christmas Miracle!

Until she saw this when she got her home and snuggled into bed to wait for Santa.  In case you can't read it from the blurry phone pic, that says ERROR.  *sigh*  This Dexie site has been giving us wonky numbers from Day 1 - so we pulled it.  Literally.... and put in a new Dexie site. 

So much for no needles on Christmas.

At least she slept peacefully and never even knew it happened!

Santa came to our house!  He left some fun toys for Sweetpea!  She asked him for a new kitchen... and he delivered!  Gotta love Santa!  

He even ate the cookies and drank the water we left him!  Sweetpea also left him a present.  GUM!  This was totally HER idea.  And he must have liked it because all that was left was a wrapper.

Oh, Look!  Sweedish Fish!  Sweetpea was sure excited!  

Sweetpea also got a Hannah Montana guitar!  She was THRILLED!

Can you read that?  The bg on the left says 45.  I guess I didn't have to worry about highs!  And as luck would have it, we had some  yummy red fish for Sweetpea to eat and bring up her bg!  So a 45 bg on Christmas morning wasn't TOO bad!  This was only the FIRST of about 3 or 4 lows....

Getting ready for dinner.... must measure out mashed potatoes and all of the other things that Sweetpea wanted to eat!

A chocolate Santa for snack.  Why not?  It's Christmas.... AND her bg was nice and steady in the low 100's.

Santa is a tricky fella!  I had NO CLUE how many carbs so I weighed him and compared it to Hershey Kisses.  I thought I gave it a pretty good SWAG.  Apparently not as I saw a 321 staring back at me a little while later.  Oh- Well!  Correct and move on!

All in all it was a nice Christmas.  Did D leave us alone?  Of course not.  You can SEE that!  But I hope that you also see a little girl filled with excitement on Christmas morning!  I hope you see a normal little girl enjoying her presents and sleeping peacefully while visions of sugarplums dance in her head.  

Yes, Diabetes changes everything.  Even Christmas.  You can't escape it.  Not for one day.  Not for one minute.  

This year I learned that the key is just keep going and not focus on the crap that goes with D.  Not to let myself go to that place where my heart breaks because even on Christmas, I have stick my child with needles.  I have to see her blood.  I have to count her carbs.  I have to WORK to keep her alive and healthy.  No... I just tried to focus on the FUN.  To focus on how thankful I am that she IS alive and healthy.... and a very happy little girl!

Take a look and see for yourself!
(Pause the playlist before viewing our future ROCK STAR!)