Thursday, May 20, 2010

The Word of the Day is Patience

Patience: Quality of being able calmly to wait or endure.
Frustrate: To prevent from achieving a goal or gratifying a desire.

As both a mother and a teacher I am constantly trying to help others achieve a balance between these two things. I tell my own kids and my students that learning something new can be frustrating, but with patience and perseverance you will have the reward in the end.

Diabetes is a real test in this kind of balance. It is very hard to calmly wait to get blood sugars to a point where I am not afraid I am damaging her body in some way. It is very hard to calmly endure the fact that she could have a severe low outside of my care. It is extremely frustrating to have to talk my little eight year old into putting the CGM on which she says really hurts and bothers her the whole time it is on. It is ultimate frustration when I decide we have to put the CGM on and then  have it fall off less that 24 hours later.

 I guess I get to practice what I preach to my students and kids by having patience with diabetes in the face of frustration. I guess I should look at this as daily lessons to my daughter of how to handle this disease the good, the bad, and the ugly of it with grace and patience. Maybe if I keep reminding myself that she is watching and learning from me it will help my ability to be patient and prevent me from losing my mind right now :).

So, as you have probably realized I did get the CGM on her and we both survived it. All went well last night and early this morning. Then after playing hard in phys. ed and swinging on the swings it fell off!!!!! I am currently logging her crazy numbers and I am trying to have patience. I think I will (patiently) wait until Saturday to start alternating the basal rate between .15 and.2, but I am anxious to try it out. Also, I'm still debating whether both, or either of us, possess the patience to put the CGM back on again.

5 comments:

Heidi =) said...

Thanks for this post. I needed it! Grace and patience are what I need to properly deal with our school issues. Thanks too for the reminder that I am being watched and how I choose to deal with all of this will effect how Bekah chooses to deal with it too. Good luck to you as you work to find out what will get those numbers back in range! Sending happy BG thoughts your way! =)

Wendy said...

The alternating thing really works well. We've done it ALOT...so happy you found a little trick to try.

Bummer about the CGM :( I know she struggles with it. Kudos to her for giving it a whirl and kudos to you for being patient.

connie said...

Patience is a virtue...right?! I know there have been many times where I have had to remind myself of this powerful statement.

Diabetes can definately put our patience to the ultimate test, it's hard to ride out those roller coaster BG levels. I will be hoping for some good BG's for your daughter, I know how frustrating it all is sometimes.

Hugs to you and keep us posted :)

Anonymous said...

Oh I was so hoping (and had a hard time reading without skipping ahead) that this was a post about how being patient really worked and the basal thing was all hunky dory. Do you see how bad I am at patience??

Everything you say is right and I will keep this all in mind when I am finding myself losing my patience, but dang, diabetes really, really, really challenges us all in this regard.

PS - I emailed you last night - hope it didn't end up in spam. :)

Unknown said...

I hope it all is working out!!! Sorry I have been out of touch for the past week and a half...we are moving - UGH.

Patience is not always easy...especially when it comes to D messing with our children.