High Blood Sugar vs The Tooth Fairy

  Last night was stressful.

At 10:30, Yvette, my Anxiety Monster decided to claw at the insides of my brain. Yes, I have named my anxiety. She is cruel and can pop up for any reason at any time of the day or night.

  Once Yvette prevented me from leaving the house because I got so worked up over holiday traffic on Airline Dr that I decided something terrible would happen if I was to attempt a shopping trip. So instead I laid in bed for an hour and cried about everything that was wrong with my life.

Yvette is a terrible drag.

  Anyway, Yvette started to freak out about Ryan's blood sugar. It had been high at lunch but not so bad before dinner. I even checked his ketones when he got home from school and they were negative.

 Normally, either the husband or I would check him around two in the morning just to be sure that everything was ok while he slept. We do this about three times a week as instructed by the PICU doctors and almost every child diabetes book I've read.

But since Yvette insisted, I checked him at 10:30.

It was 399.

For those that don't know, a normal range for a child Ryan's age is 80-120. He hasn't really been in the normal range often since leaving the hospital and I hope to resolve this issue once we visit the pediatric endocrinologist on Thursday afternoon. That being said, 399 is still very high.

So Yvette fist pumped in victory and I tried not to panic.

I woke him up and gave him water, persuaded him to use the bathroom, and then 20 minutes later checked him again.

386.

I gave him more water, paced around the house, and played a Facebook game for  20 more minutes before another finger prick.

370.

At some point during the water drinking and the blood checking I thought about the fact that Ryan had lost a tooth that morning.

As most parents and former children know, losing a tooth is huge to a kid and their prime source of income. It's a big deal.

Ryan had lost his tooth...literally. We have no idea where the little chiclet ended up. My guess is that he swallowed it either in his sleep or with breakfast. I told him it was no big deal, we would write a note explaining the situation to the Tooth Fairy and surely everything would be fine.

So as Ryan lay in bed with sore fingers and a full belly of water, I wrote a letter and stuck it into his tooth pillow after making sure my words suited him. He is a very lax editor and agreed that what I wrote down was good enough. Probably because he can't really read.

  After realizing that his sugar was steadily dropping and remembering the Tooth Fairy letter, Yvette and I decided it would be ok to go to bed. And by go to bed I mean lay in bed and stare at the ceiling for a while.

  Eventually I did fall asleep just to wake up late the next morning. I rushed around trying to get Ryan's insulin injections done, his breakfast in front of him, his school uniform on straight, teeth and hair brushed, shoes on his feet (can't forget those shoes),  and make myself presentable enough to drop him off at school without all the teachers talking about me after I left.

As I was brushing my teeth it hit me. I had forgotten to put money in the tooth pillow.

  Luckily, Ryan never remembers to check his pillow the night after a lost tooth and since he hadn't mentioned it I knew that it had slipped his mind this time as well.

  I should have been a Navy Seal... or a spy......... or Jason Bourne.

I snuck into my wallet, found a buck, crept into his room and replaced the letter with the dollar bill, tucking the letter in the back pocket of my jeans. As I was in his room I called to him, "Hey, Ry...have you checked your tooth pillow yet?"

He excitedly ran into his room and looked in the pillow, pulling out the money that I had placed inside seconds before and looked up at me with an expression of sheer amazement.

It's going to suck when he finds out that I'm the fairy but hopefully he will one day appreciate the super stealth skills I have genetically passed on to him when he has his own children to deceive with magical winged tooth thieves.

To prevent my mother from calling me and saying WHY DIDN'T YOU CALL ME?! HOW WAS HE THIS MORNING?!...I am happy to report that his sugar was 190 this morning, which is on the low end of the spectrum for Ryan at this point. And mom, I didn't call you at 11:30 at night because despite what Yvette says... I GOT THIS...probably.

Ry was happy, and bright eyed, and had a great appetite at breakfast. He complained about the impending nap time at school (as usual) and decided he would rather let his snack that day be a surprise. He informed me that I should refrain from telling him what it was only to later break and request that I spill the beans. It was chips, sugar free cookies, and water in case you were curious. (1 bag of chips @ 15g carbs + 3 Cookies @15g carbs = 2 carbs)

  I was in such a rush to get him to school on time that I nearly backed over a guy walking on the sidewalk in front of my house. I almost never run people over in my drive way. Other than that, the tooth fairy mishap, and the insulin injections it could have been a normal school morning of any kid, anywhere, in any house.

That is the goal. Keep it normal. Don't let them see you sweat.

I GOT THIS....probably.


Ps. The husband was there during Yvette's and my mutual freak out and assisted as much as I would let him. He has learned after nearly 10 years of marriage that I need to take care of things myself in some cases to ease the stress. I needed to see the numbers for myself, do the checks myself, and give the water myself to reassure my warped anxiety rattled brain that I have done everything I can do short of wizardry to help the situation. I'm weird. I accept it.

My little snaggle tooth boy.