Checks

Oh, how I have fallen off the blogging bandwagon.

I was reading some of my old posts last night and marveled at how frequently I wrote and how long the posts were. Clearly, those were my pre-child and pre-book days.

Things are the usual over here. Our son is two and totally keeps us hopping. He is a total chatterbox, loves to go to the ATM (which he calls the AEM). Every time we drive or walk by an ATM, or he sees the Bank of America logo somewhere, he shouts "AEM! Checks! Deposit!"

It's a big treat for him to walk with me to the ATM and watch me deposit a check. I wish I got as many as he seems to think I have.

Next week he starts two days of a local summer camp to go along with the three days of daycare he's already in. This is so I can have solid time every day to work on my diabetes and pregnancy book. It's moving along, but my deadline is fast approaching, and currently, I'm not writing fast enough to meet it. August is going to totally suck.

The book, when I finally sign off on a chapter, feels great. However, there's always something else I can be doing, and I always have something hanging over my head. Sort of like diabetes itself, I suppose.

Along those lines, I had a bit of a freakout last week when Baby L (who should really be called Toddler L now) slept really late one morning (I mean, 'til 9:30 am, which is unheard of). His diaper, no surpise, was soaked. Since I had such a great specimen, as it were, I took out a Ketostix and pressed it into the diaper.

The result was Trace.

Oy vey.

I immediately called his pediatrician's office and asked to speak to a nurse or a doctor about it. I explained my history, my reasoning for why I even have a bottle of Ketostix by my son's diaper changing area, and was promptly put on hold.

I did a quick Google search on Trace Ketones in Toddlers, but didn't get much back. Instead, the hold went on and on and I hung up. Toddler L was clamoring to watch Sesame Street on my laptop, his latest favorite thing. I set him up with Elmo and Abby Cadabby, changed the lancet out of my kit and gave everything a good swipe with alcohol.

I didn't want to do it, but I figured I could find things out quicker on my own.

I pricked his finger and tested his blood sugar. He cried and said "No More!" when the lancet went into his finger. I felt bad.

5

4

3

2

1

His result was 78.

I was thrilled.

I kissed his head and immediately called back the doctor's office and finally got a nurse on the phone. She assured me, as this office has in the past, that he didn't seem to be showing major signs of diabetes, and actually had the nerve to say the Ketostix for home use aren't always accurate. (But they're accurate enough for pregnant diabetic women to pee on them every morning, but I digress.) As long as his blood sugar was 78, the trace ketones could be explained away because he slept for so long, he hadn't eaten in a long while and ketones sometimes appear that way.

It seemed reasonable to me. But I will absolutely continue to check his urine if it's easy to do so.

Just as I'll keep writing with my eye on the deadline down the road. And with any luck, people who don't know me will actually buy this book.

And hopefully that will bring me some more checks so my son and I can entertain ourself depositing them at the AEM.