Carolina, here we come?

First, I hope that everyone made it through Hurricane Irene unscathed. I must say that the worst that happened here was a power outage that caused us to move our insulin to a neighbor's house becasue we lost power for so many hours. I know that others had it much worse and our hearts go out to you!

This last few days have been something...

When our part of Irene reached us it was mainly a lot of rain. We spent the first few hours watching the rain and being thankful that our house is on a bit of a hill. A few hours into the storm, things went batty!

Around 11pm there was a tornado warning. So we brought everyone to the first floor and camped out on sofa cushions. I'm not sure if I overreacted or not but I took a case of water, food and Arden's D-supplies into the basement just in case we ended up down there - which we never did.

At 1:15 am Arden's blood glucose dropped sharply and unexpectedly and let's just say that she didn't wake up in the best mood to deal with a #BGnow of 44. I too was not at my best...

2 am, power lost.

I began to miss our WiFi at 2:08 am.

In the light of the morning I walked the house as everyone slept and found that we didn't have any damage, just a ton of leaves and branches in the yard. Still without power I moved the Apidra and other cold D-supplies to our neighbor's generator backed up house.

But it's the rest of the day that you're interested in...

Information was tough to come by regarding our pending vacation in the Outer Banks or as we referred to it for a while, "the exact spot the hurricane made landfall". Most of the information we were able to get wasn't good. Roads are washed out, no water or power to the island and no word if our house survived the storm. To add insult to injury, I found a current photo online of the ocean in OBX and the sky is clear and sunny.

We all handled the news differently...

Kelly cleaned the house and had a very zen response, I furiously tried to get information and was spouting hair-brained plans for how to get to the beach (which if Kelly's face is any indication, got annoying). The kids are taking it in stride but I wish we could give them a more definite answer as to what's happening next.

Sunday evening after a lot of raking, we gave up and headed to one of our favorite resturants to come to terms with the idea that we lost our money and our much needed get away.

Then we got the craziest news...

Somehow the amazing people in that beach town restored the power... and the water... and they fixed the washed out roads! All in a day... An entry time of 10am on Tuesday has been set for vacationers. There is only one thing left to find out, did our house survive?

and we'll find that out in a few hours...

Part one of this series is located here.

Update on Monday, August 29, 2011 at 4:01PM by Scott Benner

We are watching an interactive map that the rental company provided. They are three houses away from ours and we haven't seen any houses that were uninhabitable yet. We should know very soon!

Update on Monday, August 29, 2011 at 5:16PM by Scott Benner

We are on the list! Let the packing re-commence. We are actually, going on our vacation!

Update on Monday, August 29, 2011 at 10:55PM by Scott Benner

Bags are packed, truck is loaded.

Low Blood Glucose Isn’t Pretty

Be prepared, the following is tough to watch... It broke my heart to turn on the video camera when I realized Arden’s BG was going low.  It was even harder to edit the video.  But I honestly think it’s worth sharing if it helps more people understand what living with diabetes is really like.  I meet too many people that ask me how old she’ll be when she grows out of it.  The sad truth is when other people see Arden she appears normal so people tend not to feel the seriousness of her situation.  Short of seeing her have a seizure the following video should keep anyone who sees it from being blasé about diabetes.

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The following are archived comments from this post. You can post new comments below.

lalouque

Yowsa!   I gotta say, you might not have felt it, but you sure looked quite calm during the whole thing.  I thought giving an insulin shot to a cat was bad... you've got the patience of a saint.

Monday, August 20, 2007 - 03:00 PM

Anonymous

Just watched the Low Blood Sugar video... The "No Thank you!" broke my heart.

Friday, September 7, 2007 - 02:07 AM

Maria

I just watched this for the first time. The "no thank you" and "I'm feeling better" brought tears to my eyes.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007 - 06:48 PM

Anonymous

i have juvenile diabetes just like Arden and I can only imagine what it's like to be only 3 with it. I completely understand what you both go through in this struggle, and hopefully other people will see more to diabetes by watching this video.
keep your head up. i know a cure will be in her lifetime.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 03:00 PM

Video from the start of Arden’s Day

Wake up check her BG, administer the Levemir , Eat breakfast and administer her Novolog then wait to see if I got it right...  This was just the first hour of our day...

Day One: After the Low

Arden’s BG was 167 when we left to get her hair cut.  She had a great time even though see was so tired.  

A Recap of her low BG...  Everyday I take some time to reflect back on the shots I’ve given Arden and the results they produced.  In hindsight I should have given Arden a quarter of a unit less at 1:30 pm.  I didn’t give the proper weight to two factors.  1. She has been a bit under the weather over the past couple of days and 2. She sometimes trends lower in the early afternoon.  Then again had I gotten to the food 10 minutes sooner none of this happens and her BG would have been near perfect when I checked her at the 2 hour mark.  So it goes...

The rest of the afternoon... Here are the rest of Arden’s BG for the day: 7:18 pm she was 348 after an ice cream cone.  I gave her a half of a unit then.  At 9:15 pm (2 hour mark) she was 220 and at 10:43 pm she was 199.  I’m going to let her rise up a bit over the next hour or so and then administer a half of a unit of Levemir around midnight.  She should wake up under 200, should.  We’ll see in the morning.  Good night.

**

The following are archived comments from this post. You can post new comments below.

mom

scott  after watching all the video i can only guess how much it affects
you. i thought i really knew all about diiabetes but watching the video i saw there is so much to learn

Friday, August 17, 2007 - 12:05 AM

Day One: 2:59 pm... Arrived at home with Lunch

We’re home and have lunch with us.  Arden was acting strange in the car so I’m going to check her BG before she eats.  By acting strange I mean she was getting upset about her haircut that we have scheduled for 4:30 today.  

2:59pm...  Arden’s BG was 75 right when the insulin was peaking.  What that means is the little bit of food she had in the car saved us from her being at 50.  At 75 I have about 5 minutes to get her BG up at least 20 points because the insulin is dragging her lower and at it’s quickest.  If I hadn't been aware of what was happening Arden would have seized in about 15 to 20 minutes.  All because I made a 20 minute unscheduled stop.  I thought that a juice she had on the way would buy me more time then it did.  

3:01pm... Arden was hungry and she was eating so I let her eat and hoped that it would be enough to keep her BG from dipping any lower.  I tested her again at 3:14 and she was 79.  The food held her but wasn’t bringing her up and the peak was here.  She told me she couldn’t eat anymore because her head was shaking (some times she says her face is wiggling), shaking head or wiggling face she’s tanking and I’m out of time so I ran through all of the foods with Arden that she could have but it’s too late...  She’s now upset and agitated and beyond reasoning with.  It’s time for Strawberry Syrup.  The syrup goes down easy and brings her up very fast!  But it’s going to be a struggle...

3:22...  Test again, she is 87... I’m winning.  Can’t get her to take any more syrup besides she say’s she is feeling better.  So I’ll wait a few minutes and test her again.

3:26... she is 100 and the peak is over.  We aren’t done yet but definitely out of trouble.  The insulin is still going to drag her down a bit (maybe 15-20 points) over the next hour.  Her hunger is back now that she isn’t low but now she doesn’t want the food she wanted before.  I have 20 minutes to get her to eat before we have to leave for her haircut.  

Arden is in good spirits and eating a donut... Which will undoubtedly send her BG too high.  

I set the video camera on a desk while I was getting Arden stable. Be warned it’s going to be shocking to anyone that has never seen a diabetic child go low. The video is at this link.