Hannah and her Mom, Stephanie, chose to do “day in the life” over the span of a few days, because let’s be honest, some days are less eventful than others. We wanted to be able to accurately depict how living with and managing diabetes actually is for a 10 year old.

This photo is from the beginning of a long night. Hannah is usually hypo-unaware. She doesn’t feel her lows often and never feels them when she’s asleep. This was a 4 juice box and piece of candy night for her. Despite the low treatment and doing temp basals (temporary settings in her pump), this was a stubborn low! She woke up feeling okay, not really remembering all of the juice she drank. This mom was exhausted! Diabetes never sleeps. Even with a CGM, we must still be alert and ready to make quick decisions. Technology is not perfect but it is an excellent tool to help manage better!

World Diabetes Day! Hannah was decked out in blue and ready to take on the day. But first breakfast. Oh, that high blood sugar? That is a rebound high from the low the night before. Frustrating and a bit nerve wracking with that big insulin delivery. We sent her off to school and did not hear from school until the end of the day. All we heard from school was that she had a great day and came down nicely with no lows! That is a win in my book! Hannah had a great day at school, no complaints at all!

While out running errands and grabbing a quick bite to eat, Hannah’s pump gave 2 occlusion alerts. This means that insulin isn’t being delivered. Her pump also gave us this nice little message that said “undetermined amount of insulin delivered. Change site and re-check BG in 1-2 hours.” That was a new message we had not seen. Terrifying to say the least. To not know how much insulin was delivered is dangerous. So home we went to take care of a new site. This made Hannah extremely upset. There was yelling and tears and so much frustration. These are the moments that I wish more than anything that I could trade places with her.

The result of the bad site. It’s nice to be able to see her CGM right on her pump but this was such a bummer to see. This made Hannah so mad. In the moment, she was clearly high but also told us she wasn’t pumping anymore, that she had enough and was ready to go back to shots. She’s been pumping for 2 years and it has been amazing for her. Her a1c’s have been awesome and she likes the freedom that her pump gives her. So despite feeling so angry with diabetes, she pushed forward and got a new site put in.

At the end of the day, Hannah is still living her best life even though she also lives with diabetes. It definitely comes with a lot of emotion and it made her grow up a little bit more than her peers, but she is happy, she is healthy and she is thriving. Some days are better than others but we push through every day, it’s the only choice we have. We could not be more proud of our girl and how she chooses to embrace diabetes. She makes the best of it and is going to continue to do big things in her life. We pray for a cure and hope to see one in her lifetime and until then, we keep up the biggest battle we’ve been through!