EDITING IN THAT WE GOT THE RESULTS OF HIS *LAB DRAWN A1C*  and it was 5.2%  So Jesse is just fine and I am very thankful!!!  :-)

This is a Bayer home a1c test kit.  What is an a1c test: 

The A1C test is a common blood test used to diagnose type 1 and type 2 diabetes and then to gauge how well you're managing your diabetes. The A1C test goes by many other names, including glycated hemoglobin, glycosylated hemoglobin, hemoglobin A1C and HbA1c.

The A1C test result reflects your average blood sugar level for the past two to three months. Specifically, the A1C test measures what percentage of your hemoglobin — a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen — is coated with sugar (glycated). The higher your A1C level, the poorer your blood sugar control. And if you have previously diagnosed diabetes, the higher the A1C level, the higher your risk of diabetes complications.

For someone who doesn't have diabetes, a normal A1C level can range from 4.5 to 6 percent. Someone who's had uncontrolled diabetes for a long time might have an A1C level above 9 percent.

When the A1C test is used to diagnose diabetes, an A1C level of 6.5 percent or higher on two separate tests indicates you have diabetes. A result between 5.7 and 6.4 percent is considered prediabetes, which indicates a high risk of developing diabetes.

For most people who have previously diagnosed diabetes, an A1C level of 7 percent or less is a common treatment target. Higher targets may be chosen in some individuals. If your A1C level is above your target, your doctor may recommend a change in your diabetes treatment plan. Remember, the higher your A1C level, the higher your risk of diabetes complications.

Here's how A1C level corresponds to average blood sugar level, in milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) and millimoles per liter (mmol/L):

A1C level	Average blood sugar level
5 percent	80 mg/dL (4.4 mmol/L)
6 percent	120 mg/dL (6.7 mmol/L)
7 percent	150 mg/dL (8.3 mmol/L)
8 percent	180 mg/dL (10 mmol/L)
9 percent	210 mg/dL (11.7 mmol/L)
10 percent	240 mg/dL (13.3 mmol/L)
11 percent	270 mg/dL (15 mmol/L)
12 percent	300 mg/dL (16.7 mmol/L)
13 percent	333 mg/dL (18.5 mmol/L)
14 percent	360 mg/dL (20 mmol/L)

So--if you went by all of the information above, an a1c result of 6.6 for "Thing 1--my diabetic daughter" would be GREAT!  It would mean her blood sugar is fairly in control and she is doing good.  Hers usually runs in the 7 to 8% range, which is okay for someone her age.

The above a1c test, however, was for my 23 month old son, Thing 6.  I thought hard about even writing anything about this, because I just don't know for sure yet.  He went into the lab and had a blood draw for lab tests done today.  I will hear in about 7 hours what the results of that a1c are.  And I will know how accurate the home a1c test kits are.  I used one for me once, it was 5.5%  A week later I had the same test done at the lab in town and it too was 5.5%.  So in my one instance it was spot on.  So I'm pretty anxious to know what the result is in the morning.

Thing 6

Something new our way comes

In my last post I wrote a tiny bit about the Dexcom CGMS and my hope to acquire one.  We are 1 step closer to that goal, but it's a tiny step.  At least it's a step forward and not backward.

When Elizabeth sees her pediatric endocrinologist, Dr. H, in a few weeks, we are also going to see the CDE (certified diabetes educator) first to get a trial sensor inserted.  You wear the sensor for 3 to 5 days and then mail it back to the doctor where they hook it up with their machine to give you the readout of what the blood sugar levels did 24 hours per day.  It takes a reading every 5 minutes 24 hours a day.  The sensor they use in this trial is from a different company than we'd like to use eventually, and I hear that these sensors HURT a LOT when putting in.  If we eventually get approved for our own CGMS, the Dexcom 7, those sensors are way smaller and don't hurt nearly as much to insert.

After the trial period, then Dr.H will have to write a prescription for the Dexcom 7 and sensors.  I'm not sure how much our out of pocket expense would be.  The Dexcom 7 itself costs around $1200 and a box of 4 sensors that last 1 week each is around $425.  So it's pretty expensive.  BUT--if we can get tight control over blood sugar levels to lessen the problems associated with high blood sugar in the long run, it would be worth every single penny spent!!!

http://dexcom.com/products/plus_components

Then Dexcom will have us fill out a ton of paperwork, including a 30 day log of blood sugars.  They would be looking for at least 3 BG's under 50.  The CDE told us that it looks even better to the insurance company to have one of those be in the middle of the night.  We've only had 1 low like that in the last few weeks.  I'm not sure how I feel about that part of the deal.  Do you pray your child has a low that you don't catch?  Do you fudge numbers (dishonest)?  Do you submit what you have and pray that the insurance company approves the request anyway?

Elizabeth has increasingly had trouble being aware of her lows.  Even in the 50's.  And that day that she was 41 during softball.  She had no idea and was as surprised as I was to see it on the meter.  That really scares me and it would be one of the HUGE advantages to having a CGMS!  You can set it to alarm (loudly) if the reading is under a certain level so that you have time to react and treat a low.  I like that.  I might be able to get a little bit more sleep at night.  ;-)

Hopefully this will work out.  If it does, it probably won't be until at least the middle of July after all the hoop jumping and rig-a-ma-roll that we'd have to go through.  But in the end it would be worth it for her to have a little more freedom and security.  :-)

Scary softball game

We have 6 kids and 5 of them play in Little League at 3 different levels. One of us, my husband or I, always have to accompany my oldest daughter, Liz, to her practices & games. Then we figure out what to do for everyone elses games. Some times we're lucky and they're in the same town and we can trade. I don't like missing the little guys either!


Tonight was my chance to watch Elizabeth's softball game.

I love watching her play. I'd never learned the rules of softball until I had a kid playing softball. This is her first year since she was on a t-ball team 7 years ago! She is having so much fun and I am having so much fun. :-) It's tricky for me though, as to what is the best things to do in order that her blood sugar levels stay at a safe level for her during play.

We have been doing fairly well with balance her meal at a decent time before practice / game with pump settings, etc and she hasn't had any lows while in a game. She's had a few highs and even one that involved ketones, but that was from a site failure.

Tonight though, we had our first LOW during a game. Thankfully they had just came back to the dugout to get ready to go on the field. It had been an hour since she had checked her blood sugar (221) and I always have her check each hour. It wasn't until she sat down to check that she started feeling low. She was 41! She had dropped from 221 to 41 in one hour. wow. She was sweating profusely and pale. Her assistant coach said that she seemed to be ignoring her on the field when he was talking to her, which is totally out of character. He kept saying that he should have seen it, he should have known. But ya know...I miss them myself and I'm with her pretty much 24 / 7. It's scary to me that she didn't feel it until she had stopped the activity and sat down to rest. And by then it was a bad low. We filled her full of carbs and within an hour she was feeling great and 134. 2 hours after that though, she said those words I so hate to hear..."Mom, I feel low". She was 60, so not too bad, but low. I'm always ready for more lows after a bad one like that, so her pump was turned WAY down.

Well, not too exciting for a blog post, but it frazzled my evening and I'll be checking on her tonight for sure! Like I don't every night, right??? ;-)

This is also why I want one of these:

New Pump

We got Elizabeth hooked up to her new pump tonight. Her original pump malfunctioned over the weekend. I called Animas (the manufacturer) and talked to a tech who said it would be safest to take her off of the pump until the replacement could get here.

What a roller coaster weekend we had with that! I had forgotten how to do a lot of the calculations on my own (we rely on the pump!). I had forgotten that when you're out and about, any time you need to give insulin, you have to stop the car and your travels, lol. We had forgotten a lot of things while realizes how much we'd grown to depend on her insulin pump. And how much we've taken her pump for granted.

We saw her endocrinologist on Monday and her a1c is down from last fall. October of 2010 her a1c was 8.1. January 31st, 2011 it was 8.4 (her blood sugar had been really high due to a huge growth spurt and hormones and we were having a hard time keeping up with all of that). But Monday, March 7th (just 6 weeks after her last a1c) it was down to 7.8!!! :-)

She was so excited to get home and get back on her pump. I feel much more comfortable with her on it too. Much easier to control her numbers (if you can do such a thing) and also a lot easier to know exactly what's going on with her body. Her pump and me, together we make a darn good pancreas! ;-)