Saturday, April 12

My son's honeymoon

Oh, Diabetes ... you are a strange and mysterious creature.

I started a post a couple weeks ago about Peyton's "honeymoon" phase - a part of his diagnosis where his battered pancreatic cells are forming their last stand and pushing out some of its homemade insulin. This means he has been requiring little-to-no fast-acting insulin with meals, and only 2 units of his basal insulin at night. Less shots, less meal monitoring, happier Peyton.

But like all honeymoons, this won't last forever. This stage is unpredictable, and as we recently learned, a little touchy.

Peyton had been in this stage about a month before we took off for a MUCH needed Spring Break getaway to Gulf Shores, Alabama. And because he's such a seafood lover, we were optimistic that we could maintain his honeymoon stage during that trip. He was eating high protein and loving life.

But maybe we got lax, because on the way home his blood sugar kept spiking after meals. We did give him the insulin he needed to eat, say, a sub, but we weren't having the same results on the backend. At this time, we also started a pen insulin delivery system (which includes smaller needles and fewer supplies and is easier for travel). Not sure if it was the pen adjustment, being stuck in the car and completely inactive, or a week's worth of richer foods catching up with him, but we had 2 days of extreme uncertainty when it came to the numbers.

And I had feared this also meant an end to the honeymoon phase.

Some patients, I've read, almost prefer this time to end because the crazy unpredictability may end with it. But I decided I'm not ready. I guess the fact that we haven't been checking him all the time or we haven't been giving him a shot with every meal almost helped me forget the diagnosis altogether. And I guess that felt good. And I guess it made me less fearful of the future since I felt like we were pressing pause on reality altogether. (Now you see why they call it a honeymoon?)

And just when I was accepting our new reality, we turned another corner. Apparently a couple of days of routine eating was all it took. Peyton's pancreas made another run for it; it's pumping out insulin again and he barely sits still now that the weather has improved, so now we're running low because we have no idea what his body needs these days. (yes, it feels as chaotic as this run-on sentence does.)

And welcome to Type 1 Diabetes.

Peyton, of course, is rolling with it and is not frustrated and handles himself really well - making judgment calls on how much he needs to boost him back up and what kind of snack might be good for the moment. He's amazing.

And here's what else was amazing - our trip!


I do believe I was in a bit of mourning this week after all the fun we enjoyed on what was a really excellent combo of family time and friend time. Not to mention a life in bathing suits, not snow suits, and bare feet, not boots. Time disappeared and we were constantly asking each other what day it was ("who cares!"). The weather was more than we could ask for, which meant beach time every day, lots of swimming, boogie boarding, skim boarding, kite flying, Blue Angels show watching, long walks, sand baseball and volleyball, fabulous seafood dinners out, and kids having the time of their lives with good friends.

And lots of sunburn. (I am not complaining, though!)

Feeling extremely blessed by the whole trip ... especially our time with friends and each other.

Luckily we transitioned back into Wisconsin just in time for a week of great weather. That made coming home so much easier.

I still have a suitcase to unpack, so I better get at it. Live big this week!

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