NO FUN FOR YOU! Return of the Diabetes Nazi

I used this before, the Diabetes Nazi that is, but if you don’t remember who he is, let me introduce you to him. You have seen Seinfeld, right? Remember the soup nazi, “No Soup For You!” Well imaging the soup nazi morphing into the diabetes nazi, your forming a mental picture. Last time I wrote about him it was “No Sleep For You“, this time it’s “No Fun For You”. Let me take you on a journey back a few weeks ago when he metophorically made a visit to our d-household.

It was Saturday morning and I as usual had told the girls they could come and wake me up around 7:30 or 8 o’clock. This Saturday morning only my oldest came in and woke me up, odd I thought to myself. I walked out in to the dinning room where Audi was sitting in a chair with a desponded  look on her face. My wife quickly informed me she had 3.0 ketones, yes you heard right, 3.0. “Ah, that’s kind of high” I said, “Yes it is” my wife said. Some where in the night her Pod cannula came out, so most of the night she got no insulin. Heather slapped in a new pod at lightning speed and corrected her. I gave her a low carb breakfast along with a big water bottle. I grabbed an extra boster for my car incase I had to make a trip to the ER. Heather had a meeting that morning, so it was time for me to step up and handle the ketones. I had done this before, but not at 3.0.

What I had planned was a morning of fun with the girls since Heather was going to be gone until early afternoon. That looked to be in jeopardy with high ketones. I took care all the other morning detail, dosing for breakfast, having the kids get ready for the day. This day, there was going to be no going somewhere, no playing barbies, no going outside playing or riding bikes. We were going to be confined to sitting down, taking it easy, checking ketone, checking blood sugars and drinking lots of water.

There was only a few options for things to do, the girls all banded together in a show of defiance of the diabetes nazi and decided to watch a movie. Good pick. We all sat on the couch, with Audi to my right so I could keep close tabs on her. Less than an hour after breakfast the keytones were dropping, so was the blood sugar, that was good.

I told the girls they could pick whatever movie they wanted. They pick Barbie and the Diamond Castle, their favorite. With all girls in my house you have to learn to like Barbie, GI Joe is not in the picture, and never will be. With a show of excitement (acting job), I fired up the DVD player and put in the Barbie movie. I’ve seen it before, but never really paid that much attention, this time I did. I did keep tabs on the ketones and blood sugar, and they both trended downward in a resonable manner, fast enough to keep her from the ER. I watch the entire movie, seen things I had never seen before, laughed at all the funny parts with them, and cheered in the end when the diamond castle was restored and evil Lydia was turned to stone. Sounds a bit silly, right? No!

Maybe the diabetes nazi kept us from fun out doors, riding bikes or playing in the back yard, but we still had fun. I learned to enjoy a movie that would make most barf uncontrollably. In the process we stuck it to the diabetes nazi. Strength in numbers I guess.

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Breaking News: New writing opportunity.

It official, I now, in addition to this blog, will be writing for Everyday Health’s Voices of Experience. I even have my own editor, bio and profile picture. I was approached a few weeks back about applying for this section. They accepted me right away and I was excited. I will be writing shorter posts, about 10-15 a month. Thank you for all your support over the last 10 months. I will try to continue to write a new blog post twice a month or more. Here is the link for my articles on Everyday Health. This is a new program for Everyday Health so you will have to follow the link to find my column. In the new few days there will be a header on Everyday Health for the Voices Of Experience. Here is the link: http://www.everydayhealth.com/diabetes/father-of-two-type-1s.aspx\

Update: this column is now closed and all posts archived.

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