Kiddo got fitted with an insulin pump! Exciting new technology, and it seems to be working well. We (kid + parents) got a two-hour training on using the pump. Pretty cool!

Our health insurance company was also really relaxed about approving the pump. One phone call, and two days later, it's here. Nice!

I snuck a bag of M&Ms into the hospital room, which I'm secretly munching while the kid is occupied elsewhere.

This is your near-daily public health insurance appreciation post.

We’re stuck in the hospital for Thanksgiving.

Helpfully, Thanksgiving is not a thing around here.

Tomorrow we’ll have been in the hospital for one week. It’s ok, but kiddo and I are slowly getting fed up.

Also it looks like our roommate - another kid with first-time diabetes - gets to go home this weekend. The two of them got along really well, and kiddo will be more bored then…

Apparently we arrived as part of an unusual peak in admissions of kids with first-time diabetes.

The doc explained that diabetes type 1 is an autoimmune disease, which often seems to get triggered by viral infections, though the exact mechanism isn't known. So they often get more such patients a while after an infectious wave has peaked.

Room change today. A kid we were sharing a room with came down with influenza. Ouch! So that kid + parent get their own room, and we get our own because of course we've been exposed. It's quieter now, and more boring. (Plus I'm super glad I got my influenca shot a few weeks ago.)

The doctors and nurses praise kiddo for learning all the diabetes stuff really quickly. We have actual training sessions, about 2h just today, to prepare us for managing the condition.

Kiddo needs a new phone to replace their hand-me-down Huawei thingy, because the insulin pump's app won't run on it. For various reasons we plumped for a refurbed iPhone 15. Costs more than we meant to spend, but OTOH it's the first actual expense in this whole adventure.

Also, we figure that kiddo deserves to have at least some upside from the whole newly-diagnosed-with-a-lifelong-chronic-condition shitshow.

Because kiddo is such a quick study, a doctor hinted today that we might get to go home already on Wednesday, two days earlier than expected. That would be great!

Provided noone catches influenza, natch.

Would be nice if the Wednesday release works out.

I’m getting a bit tired of this never-ending pajama party.

We went on an adventure: cake at the hospital cafe!

Kiddo had a nice chunk of tiramisu. A great opportunity to practice dealing with unknown quantities of carbs, and to get over an initial fear of eating sweets while diabetic. (Also, tiramisu!)

We ended up eyeballing the carbs. Apparently we did ok: Blood sugar values are looking good so far.

With cake training having gone well, kiddo now insists that we should make this a daily practice. For science.

To round out Saturday night, we had chips (crisps)!

Kiddo snarfed half my bag. The nurse gave us the side-eye, but didn't intervene.

I wisely decided not to mention the cake thing for the time being.

We're quickly getting to the point where kiddo’s math homework is more annoying than the diabetes.

Kiddo has a Bluetooth sensor now. It measures their blood sugar level, and sends it to the pump.

This is nice, even though I’m a little disappointed that kiddo hasn’t turned into a WiFi hotspot 🤪

They’re decorating a Christmas tree in the hospital, and one of the nurses has a playlist running.

I’ll get whammed any minute now.

#whamageddon

Oooffff, the impromptu Christmas party is over. Close call

The other day, the resident diabetes expert finally gave me a plausible explanation for at least some of the “processed vs unprocessed food” discussion.

Broadly speaking: when we process food, we essentially pre-digest it. The body then absorbs the carbs in processed food more quickly, ie. it has a higher glycemic index.

Glycemic index - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

Eg. we digest mashed potatoes more quickly than whole ones.

So - again, on average - processed foods are more likely to make our blood sugar levels peak.

When they drop again, they fall lower than they were at the outset, and to compensate, we eat more.

This might not be the explanation for the entire brouhaha, but it makes sense, and I can work with it.

@slothrop

Yeah, that fits with what I was told by a nutritionist.

I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes three years ago, which included a short hospital stay. But after getting some good medical advice, I managed to get off the pills after one year, and the disease has effectively gone into remission since then.