4/21/2011

death of a pancreas

Could it be?  Is this really it?  Is it possible that 207 days post diagnosis Ellie's pancreas has finally stopped sputtering random doses of insulin?


Obituary of an Organ:

Ellie's pancreas, age 8 years 7 months, died sometime during the 3rd week in April; the probable cause being Type 1 Diabetes, an autoimmune disorder occurring deep in the Islets of Langerhans.
 Born June 8, 2002, in Des Moines, Iowa, Ellie's pancreas was healthy and strong; happily secreting hormones until an illness or environmental factor 'woke up' sleeping auto antibodies. These nasty cells were on a one way mission to seek out, wreak havoc and ultimately destroy the insulin producing beta cells of Ellie's now defunct pancreas.

Survivors include her longtime companion, the stomach, and her trusty sidekick, the small intestines. Ellie's pancreas was preceded in death by 8 baby teeth and too numerous to count hair follicles.

Neither a viewing or funeral services will not be held since Ellie's pancreas must remain in her body to provide various digestive juices as part of the exocrine system. The digestive 'team' is ever so thankful for this honorable contribution.

Memorial contributions are welcome and should be mailed to the researcher who is closest to finding a cure for Type 1 Diabetes

My hope, very truly, is that the rollarcoaster ride of Ellie's 'honeymoon' period of pancreatic functions are now kaput. 


The last couple of weeks required a decrease in Lantus (after months of .5 unit increment raises slowly spread out over weeks at a time), as her lows were begging to be lifted.  Slowly, ever so slyly, her blood sugars rose and remained stubbornly high until we tentatively began the process of increasing her basal insulin . . . now by full units at a time.

I can feel it.  The death of Ellie's pancreas is upon us and we are c-e-l-e-b-r-a-t-i-n-g the milestone with balloons and beef sticks.


Bu-Bye rollarcoaster of not-for-any-good-reason-but-a-sputtering-pancreas blood sugars!  Wish I could say I am going to miss you . . . . no, not really.




By the way, have you seen the T-shirts produced by DiabeTees?  Oh my.  How have I missed this site of awschumness?  Leave it to a UK business to come up with these fabulously snarky tees. (Hi Jules!)  How ace of 'em.  I am so daft when it comes to slang!

Off to bake a cake, or more apropos . . .  a beefcake, to celebrate the changing of the guards from Ellie's pancreas to whoever wishes to step in and save the insulin crisis.

13 comments:

Joanne said...

HA! I loved these... the DKA one made me laugh (as does anything that ends with "... and all I got was this lousy shirt), and so did the "I'm with Stupid" one. Methinks that most people would mistake that for a penis though. Depending on who you're with, it could work!

The "Someone I love has diabetes" shirt made me tear up.

Our Diabetic Warrior said...

A++++++++++ What a great post!

I'm still sitting on pins and needles waiting for Andrew's pancreas to go kaput.

Happy celebrating!!!!

Football and Fried Rice said...

you crack me up...so much! I am so glad that I get to give you big hugs in person!!

love you!
Sara

Trev said...

Too funny! Love your creativity, and the obit was fab! Cheers!

Denise aka Mom of Bean said...

Ah, the end of the honeymoon...in the true sense of the word, a bad thing; in the D sense of the word, a fabulous thing! Doesn't make things perfect, but it does tend to make them more predictable.
I love, love, love the shirts! I've seen them before and have wanted to get a few...maybe that will be our 'treat' for Bean's diaversary in June!

Leigh said...

I love the one... I'm with stupid! That is great! I am such a dork. I was kind of getting teared up reading the obituary. Darn hormones! I think I wish we were there too, but I think we are still randomly dispensing insulin hateness (i.e. going from 252 to 52 in 2 hours with no correction.) Good thing I didn't decided 252 was a good sleeping number! Grrr!

Jules said...

I loved this post and said "oooh!" out loud when I saw my name! I just adored the I'm with stupid one and am about to pop over to the sit to have a butchers at their site (that was Cockney Rhyming slang from London, a butcher's is "a butcher's hook = a look. I'll teach you more soon!).
I felt very mixed emotions at first as I realised that Frank's honeymoon phase was ending. (Do you call it honeymooning too? Maybe the word comes from the lack of sleep ... ahem!). I wanted a cure so that he could be well again but once I understood that this was hugely unlikely I welcomed the end of it all. It was so much easier to manage..
This is good timing for your trip too!

Heidi / D-Tales said...

I love your humor. That obit was seriously clever and funny!

And celebrating with balloons and beef sticks?! Ha ha ha!

Love the tees too!

As you like to say, this post was awschum!

Unknown said...

This rocked!

I don't remember a honeymoon for us. I don't think there was a single beta cell left :(

I love your style ... love your humor ... just love bloggin' alongside you, my friend :)

Stephanie said...

hahahah!! I love your pancreas obituary! And totally want that "I'm with Stupid" t-shirt! Except Joanne is right, people would probably think it was something dirty. :)

I am thrilled that ADam's pancreas is finally kaput. No need to worry that his pancreas is going to start working again at some random time!

Anonymous said...

Couldnt agree more with that, very attractive article

Leighann of D-Mom Blog said...

Loved this!

The Alexander's said...

Your post gives me confidence. My son is 4 mos into his honeymoon and to be honest I'm freaked out of it ever ending. It seems so "manageable" right now. But you make it sound like life outside of the honeymoon is maybe a little better...so I guess I'll wait and see.