July 20, 2007

I got an email from Alish with the definition of the word "imminent" and a friendly reminder that I had yet to post any photos. Sorry for the suspense...they all sort of look like this:

 

Turns out that painting light blues and greens and white on top of browns and mustards and putty requires many a coat. Marc worked extremely hard for a man on vacation. Everything looks great, and while we aren't quite done, we can get the rest knocked out some weekend soon. I considered the whole thing a success when Marc said the other night, "Wow, it feels really good in here."

In other news, we took O to the endo this week and her A1c has decreased from 7.7 to 7.4 and the nurse practitioner said that this did not look like it had come at the price of too many lows. In fact, I was really surprised again because it feels like she has been high all the time lately. In the evening, the smallest snack sends her soaring and we have been doing a lot of correcting in the middle of the night. I was reading in the forums over at tu diabetes that several parents have mentioned that same situation with their toddlers this summer. I don't know what's going on, but it has me worried. We increased her Levemir again yesterday, but I haven't seen much effect today. In fact, she's been above 200 all day and I have been putting cotton balls in her diapers to try and check for ketones. I got a Precision meter from our endo team so that we can check for ketones in the blood because this whole cotton ball thing is dicey. (So thankful for our nurse practitioner - we have yet to pay for a meter, except for the one that the hospital "gave" us at diagnosis for which they probably charged us a grand.) However, I haven't gotten any strips yet because the pharmacy had to order them. They are $50 for ten and the pharmacist says that insurance won't cover them, despite our prescription, because they are over the counter. As I type this, I realize this is probably not right. Her other strips are OTC and insurance covers them. Right? OK, I'll pick that fight next week.

Update: I meant to include a definition of the A1c for those not familiar and in the process discovered that maybe I don't know exactly what it means. I found this quote on a website: "The A1c test gives a picture of the average amount of glucose in the blood over the last few months." However, my understanding was that it is not so much an average as it is a picture of how often the BG has been high. Anyone? Bernard?

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5 Comments:

Blogger Major Bedhead said...

Ketone strips should definitely be covered by insurance. You might have to have your doctor write a letter of medical necessity, but they should be covered.

I thought the A1C was a three month thing, with the last couple of weeks weighing in more heavily than the previous weeks.

5:31 PM  
Blogger Penny Ratzlaff said...

Hi Paige,

The A1C is the average of all blood sugars over a 3 month period. It is my understanding that the sugars the last few weeks before the test count a little more.

You can go here (http://www.elviradarknight.com/diabetes/a1cnumbers.html) to get a chart to show you what the average sugar is based on the A1C.

And, a 7.4 is an excellent A1C for Olivia's age. Way to go, Mom (and Olivia)!!

8:59 AM  
Blogger Penny Ratzlaff said...

The links got cut off. Here is is again.

http://www.elviradarknight.com/diabetes/a1cnumbers.html

9:00 AM  
Blogger Paige said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

4:22 PM  
Blogger Paige said...

Thanks for the info and the link!

4:22 PM  

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