Food Friday - D Blog Week #5

As a family that has Type 1 Diabetes we hear all the time about what we can and cannot eat (she can't eat candy can she?), should or shouldn't, etc.  I haven't ever been attacked by any food police, but only well wishers that have given us sugar free candy (blech!!), or food labels from home made items (love!!).  Anyway we were told when she was diagnosed to let her eat anything she wants, just count the carbs.  I believe that allowing her to try everything has reduced most eating problems.  I do make faces in restaurants on some carb heavy items, with good reason because we have had nasty spikes in blood sugar from seriously high carb high fat items. Plus NO ONE should eat that stuff.

That's the problem sometimes, counting the carbs, especially at restaurants.  We tend to stick to chains that serve healthier low fat items (the fat in foods makes her spike terribly) that have fairly accurate nutrition information.  What we love to do is cook at home to reduce the fat and use is our food scale to calculate carbs per portion.  Since she loves to cook and when she has time to do so we have come up with some tasty stuff.

Like these:

 

Sloppy Joe Bake

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

 



Pizza Bake

 

These were made with low fat Bisquick and she loves this stuff.  And we can count the carbs accurately and have little to no spike.

 

Of course I tried to jump on the Low Carb train, but most of those recipes are high fat and since all fat makes her spike, they don't work for us.  But some were good like this low carb cauliflower pizza crust:

 

 

 



This one is also gluten free.  While we have not tested positive for celiac (yet) my dh and dd have both tested positive for the DQ celiac gene so they could have a ticking time bomb.  But with all the gluten free choices out there these days, it shouldn't be a rough transition (says someone who doesn't have celiac).

One thing I would love to recommend is joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) if you have one in your area.  You get fresh fruit and veggies all summer and fall like these fresh PYO peaches:

Brown's Orchard

Then again, throw caution to the wind and use your food scale for these:

Christmas cookies!!!! Caution: contain carbs and gluten

 



DQ Ice Cream cake, also with carbs and gluten (a birthday must have)

 

 

If you watch your portions (and EVERYONE should do this regardless of diabetes) you can enjoy some.

Changes - D Blog Week topic #4

We have been doing this for almost 6 years now, and we have seen plenty of changes in our diabetes care.

We have changed endocrinologists, we're getting ready to try a third one later this year that only sees ages 15 and up.  There is a major shortage of endocrinologists that will treat Type1s and know what the heck they are doing.  You have to know how to treat yourself and then ask for the prescriptions.

We have also seen plenty of changes in diabetes technology.

The biggest one to get would be an actual cure but I am a doubter and I bet we won't get one unless it's lucrative enough for big pharma.

But - they can make money off of an artificial pancreas and they are so close to releasing it, that I can dream of my daughter being able to wear this at college and only have to think about it once or twice a day.

Anyway, technology we have used in 6 years includes:

One touch glucose testers: the Ultra, the mini's and the OneTouch Ping

FreeStyle glucose testers: Free Style Lite, Insulinx, Omnipod PDMs (two of those)

Insulin Pumps: Animas Ping, Omnipod, both old and new smaller ones with improved PDM

Dexcom CGM: Dexcom 7 (the goose egg) and the Dexcom G4 and now with Share (best thing yet!)

Nightscout (deserves an honorable mention): that rogue hack of the Dexcom G4 receiver that sent data to a Moto G phone into the cloud and back to a Pebble watch and only worked when it felt like it.  But it helped me keep an eye on things as we started high school this year.

This is why I have so much stuff in my clean it up blog (see yesterday).

We haven't used any of the other CGMs on the market except for a 3 day blind trial of the very painful Medtronic CGM.  We haven't used the other popular pumps like the T Slim or Medtronic.  It's nice to have choices and insurance that will cover 70% of most of this stuff.

Hurry up Dr. Ed Damiano with the Bionic Pancreas!!!!!!!  Please help us here:

Bionic Pancreas

Vintage equipment:

Clean it Out - D BLog week Entry #3

I am a d-mom pack rat.  I have hoards of diabetes crap all over the house.  I fear ever running out of stuff.  I have given some old stuff away, but not much, I might need it for the zombie apocalypse. (Actually we would run out of insulin in about a month and then call it a day).

I even bought a cabinet to keep it all in.

 

There are currently about 150 used pods, 60 new pods, an old PDM, and old Ping pump, 10 glucagon kits (most expired), epipens, Dexcom sensors, a dead Nightscout rig, etc. etc.

I bought this nice cabinet from Penn Dutch Furniture and a real Amish guy delivered it (by truck, no horse and buggy, bummer). http://www.penndutchfurniturestore.com/

I have junk down in the basement.

More expired glucagon kits, 10 old One Touch testers (we switched to Freestyle with the cut the cord program) and lots of other junk.  I need to regift this stuff.

And I also have kept every log page for the last 6 years.

I don't know why.  I need to recycle this crap and go electronic.

Does everyone else have this much d-crap?

Keep it to yourself - Glucagon

This one scares the bejeesus out of people - having to use glucagon.  They don't want to think about even having to use it, but the day may come when you have to.

We had to use it, so far only once in 6 years.  Our story is saved here:

http://forums.childrenwithdiabetes.com/showthread.php?75821-So-we-had-to-use-glucagon&p=861357#post861357

I was brave because of Lorraine's story here:

http://thisiscaleb.com/2010/12/20/glucagon-mini-dosing-a-valuable-tool/

The power of the DOC, sharing our war stories and not keeping them to ourselves.

I can - My new and revised blog (for what it's worth)

It's D blog week and I thought it was time to update my blog.  Since Google won't let me connect my old blog, to my new account, I will post the link here.

http://t1tween.blogspot.com/

My baby is no longer a tween so it was time for a new name anyway.

We have been doing this for almost 6 years,  June 19, 2009 is our D Day.  Here I our diagnosis story:

http://t1tween.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-blog-candy-is-medicine.html

I have learned so much from other D blogs, from Children With Diabetes http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/ and from the Facebook groups like Parents of Type 1 Diabetics, Dexcom, and Omnipod Users, that maybe I can contribute in some small way.

Today's topic is "I can."  Not sure what to do with this but it reminds me of the "You can do this project."  Just the motto inspires me.  I got their bracelet at the Friend For Life conference last year and it sits on my vanity to inspire me that I can do this another day. http://youcandothisproject.com/ Diabetes won't beat me or my daughter down.