It's A Very Diabetic Halloween, Charlie Brown!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! *evil laugh, duh* 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Less pressure than Thanksgiving and Christmas plus spookiness, gore, campy horror movies, and costumes. 

So what's not to love?

Well, this year it's all the candy. Needless to say, Trick or Treating wont ever be the same again for Ryan. No longer can he pick through his loot and immediately gobble down whatever sugary goodness he has collected from our neighbors. 

When he was diagnosed at the beginning of September, I have to admit that Halloween didn't even cross my mind...And I plan for October 31st early.  Thankfully, I have a couple of lovely Facebook friends that messaged me some really great ideas to make the holiday fun for him and still keep his blood sugar in check. 

One idea was delivering a letter to houses you plan on visiting and letting them know that your child is diabetic. Attached to the letter is a small toy like a match box car, some vampire teeth, or temporary tattoos...that kind of thing. The letter asks the home owner to give the diabetic child the toy instead of candy and describes what  he/she will have on for a costume. 

While this idea is brilliant, it didn't work for our situation since our neighborhood has so many houses and because kids come from all over the city to Trick or Treat around here. It is well known for being a safe location and the streets are flooded with people. I didn't want to add any extra trouble for our neighbors, not that they would have minded, most likely. But also to be quite honest I didn't feel like putting in the time or effort to get toys, print out letters, and deliver them. I'm lazy and socially awkward. Those are my reasons and I'm sticking to them. Nobody's perfect. 

If your neighborhood is smaller and you actually know those that live around you then this would be a perfect idea for you and your diabetic child. 

Another idea that was given to me was the Halloween Fairy. This one struck me right in the part of my soul that loves magic and lying to my kid. HAHAHA-kidding about the last part...mostly ;) 

It's really a very simple idea. Instead of eating all that junk, you let your child pick a few pieces that he really wants to keep and the rest goes into a bucket for the Halloween Fairy. 

At night, after the child has gone to bed, the fairy visits your home and trades the candy for a special gift. It has to be something better than a pile of candy so don't be stingy about it, parents. You don't have to spend a lot but make it something that your child will really enjoy. 

That's it. When your kid wakes up the next morning he has a present from the Halloween Fairy and the candy has either been hidden (very well), given away, or thrown in the trash. 

If you have a child that really, REALLY loves candy just remind him that the more candy he leaves for the fairy, the better his gift will be. 

This is actually a good idea for any kid, not just a diabetic child. Everyone knows the fun part about Halloween is dressing up and Trick or Treating. No kid needs ALL the candy that comes from a large haul on Halloween night. And if you are like most parents you really don't want to deal with the hyperactive aftermath of all that sugar anyway. 

I got Ryan a little nerf gun ('Merica) with extra ammo (Yee-Haw) and my mom got him a DVD of Monsters University. This more than makes up for a bunch of candy. 

Another disturbance in the force this year was Ryan's classroom Halloween "party" which, I've been told, isn't actually a party but more of an extended snack time. I got a note last week from his teacher asking for cookies, cupcakes, goody bags, etc for Halloween day. 

My heart sank a little. I really didn't know what I was going to do. So far I have been able to play bait and switch with a lot of activities at school that involve things he can't eat. But this is the first holiday party (I'm calling it a party, folks...deal with it). 

Ultimately I decided that the best idea would be to check him out of school. I didn't lie about the party to him. I let him know what would be going on and he did get a little upset that he had to miss out. There were tears and that hurt to watch...a lot. 

I asked him if he would rather stay at school and not be able to eat the snacks or if he would like to leave school with me and go do something extra fun.  Eventually, he agreed that getting out of nap time would be far better than staying and watching other kids eat pure sugar. 

So instead of the classroom party I checked him out before lunchtime and we went to Chick-Fil-A. He got to play on the inside playground with some other kids. He pretended he was a zombie and soon all the kids inside the play area were stumbling around with their arms outstretched. It was like an honest to goodness infectious outbreak. I loved watching him play even though some of the other moms kept shooting me looks because now their Precious Wittle Babies were moaning, drooling, walking dead. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...next step...world domination. 

After that we went to the book store and I let him pick out a couple new books. Ninja Turtles and Doc McStuffins if any of you are curious. He also got a photo with Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty.

I think it was a successful day. He kept asking me what the kids in his class were doing right at that moment and I would say, "Probably taking a nap."

 Then he would do his own evil laugh. 

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.