Mama's Got Skills ( and a meme)

Riley had his 3 month endo appointment on Friday. Everything went well. His endo was surprised that Riley can give his own insulin (with supervision). She said often children don't do that on their own until about 9.

She's never mentioned CGMs to us before and I've never asked about them. Mainly because I don't think we are ready for one. I really don't want another piece of hardware on my kid right now. Plus, there's the insurance issue. But, Dr. M is very excited about the launch of the Navigator. She said it's not anything to think about right now, but will be important in a couple of years when Riley's pump warranty expires.

His A1C 3 months ago was 7.3. It was 7.2 this time. I am extremely happy with that. I expected it to go up a little what with an ear infection and the flu. It's always a good thing when it goes down even a little bit. Riley's growing right on schedule. Of course, I could have told you he's growing. His jeans are starting to look more like capris.

It's been almost 2 years since Riley had a slew of blood work done. Dr. M decided it was time for it again. Since we live almost 3 hours from the endo she gives us the orders and we get it done somewhere local and fax it to her.

She ordered thyroid tests and cholesterol. She also ordered the dreaded celiac test. I don't know why but it makes me nervous to have that one done. Yes, I do know why. I don't want my child getting celiac's. He has enough on his plate already. He doesn't have any outward symptoms of celiac but I worry just the same.

I am a nurse. I was talking about bringing Riley into the health department for his blood work and how I hate it because there is always a long wait and he can't eat and I'm always afraid he's going to go low. A co-worker suggested that I do the blood work at home and bring it in myself.

Hmmmm. Stick my child with a needle? I can't do that. Oh wait. I do it all the time. Yet, somehow this seemed different. I called Riley and asked if he'd like me to do the blood work. He sounded very happy to have me do it.

He didn't go low last night and have to eat anything. So today was the day. I worried about it all night. To make matters worse this morning was also a site change morning. That meant double the needles.

I changed his site first. Then, he sat down on the couch and propped his little arm on a pillow.

"Will it hurt?"

"Well, it will probably sting a little."

"I don't like it when it stings."

Luckily Michael was home and was able to hold his arm. He whined a little and the tears welled up in his eyes but he never cried. He was such a brave little man. But, yet, my heart ached for him. Stupid disease that makes him have to check and make sure he doesn't have other diseases.

I sent the labs off today. I should have the results tomorrow.

After I finished drawing his blood I looked at Michael and said "It's good to have a mama with skills."

Even though it was hard for me to do I'm glad I could do it for him. I think it was probably less traumatic to have me do it at home than to have a stranger do it in the clinic.

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Now, onto the meme. I was tagged by Shannon and Kelly to do a six word meme.

Here are the rules:

Write your own six word memoir.

Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.

Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.

Tag at least five more blogs with links.

And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.


Here it goes: Life has been good to me.

It's not as creative as others I've read, but it will have to do.

I'm a little late joining in so I'm not tagging anyone.