Friday, June 27, 2014

Summer Vacation Includes An Endo Appointment

We just rolled back in from our quarterly endocrinologist appointment.

Most of the time, I don't bother sharing with the non-t1d part of my world if or when we are going.  It often causes confusion or sometimes, concern, over a day in the doctor's office.  "Eek!  Who is sick?"  This time though, as we were stuck waiting in the tiny cubicle sized room, I decided to post on Facebook, a random moment from our long wait, in the form of a video with the girls goofing off.


In a way that surprises me (and I am not sure why that is), both t1d and non-t1d families and friends related to the video that we made.  Something about the long wait time appealed to everyone regardless of t1d.

It appears that we all are stuck in waiting rooms with kids from time to time.

And apparently, all of our kids find ways to entertain themselves while they wait.

And most importantly, we all tend to try to hide our silliness from the doctor.

LIKE THEY DON'T KNOW!!!!!

After the fooling around business, our endocrinologist came in and announced our A1c numbers.  If you remember right, the past two visits were tough on our oldest daughter as she is much more aware of 'good' and 'can-do-better' numbers.  For two consecutive visits, she was at 8.2.  This not only made her cry, but after some hugging and consoling, motivated her to become more thoughtful in her approach with managing her care.  While I have mixed feelings about the responsibility requirement that t1d demands, I also have a lot of pride in the way she handled herself.  Several times, she would check her blood glucose and determine it too high for eating, correct and wait.

Let me emphasize that.  She waited.  The same kid that fooled around in the office, also had the maturity to know that she needed to wait.

And it paid off.  Not just from the waiting but other careful decisions like making pre-bolusing a habit and changing sites on day 2.5.  All of that good work led to a beautiful 7.8 A1c today.  She was thrilled!

Little sister did great too.  Her A1c last visit was 7.5 and on this visit, it dropped slightly to 7.4.  She waited to celebrate until she heard her sister's number and then jumped up and gave her a high five.  I think she was more excited to see her sister happy, than to really celebrate her own number.

For me, it is what it is.  Basically, a number.  It isn't going to be the best number that the kids see nor is it going to be the worst.  I am still reflecting on how to handle it going forward.  I want (as I always want) the kids to see value in how hard they work, the good effort that they put forward and to know that at as long as they do their best, that is all that matters.

Maybe that is much like the rest of the parents feel about life in general.

We can all relate.





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