Pumping

Next week we are starting the process to put Emma on a pump. Its not going to be easy but we hope that it will make things a little easier for us in the long run. For one thing, she has some strange "times of day" that we cannot adjust for well with the regimen we have (namely her body wants to go low between 10pm and 2am each night, leading to a juice and protein snack in the bed with us).

The process is supposed to take 2-3 months but we are trying to do it as quickly as possible to eliminate a couple of these lows that we are currently experiencing. This week is "Pump Night". We go have an introduction / initial training with the Nurse and then we meet with the pump vendors. I think I've narrowed it down to 2 pumps that I want to look at. The Nurse said that she normally doesn't recommend a pump but she is going to in our case because Emma is so little and her doses are so small. The pump she is recommending is one of the two - so we will spend a lot of time looking at that one on Wednesday.

After we decide on a pump, it has to be ordered and processed through Insurance. I have made, oh, 5 calls to the insurance company to confirm exactly how and where we can get a pump. The bad news is that I kept getting conflicting information - which is what I expected and the reason I called 5 times. The good news is that the one consistent piece of information I DID get is that it is covered 100% with no co-pay. That is good news since these cost about $7500 and even a 10% co-pay wouldn't be cheap.

After the pump arrives, Mike and I each have to wear it for a couple of days. We wear it with simply a saline drip. This is so that we understand what it takes to use a pump - since we will be managing the pump 100% until Emma is old enough. After we each wear it, then Emma will wear it for a few days to get used to it while we still do injections. There are lots and lots of cute little pouches that they sell to hold insulin pumps on a belt so I'm going to get her a couple so she'll enjoy it a little more.

Then we start the insulin drip through the pump. On all accounts, I understand that what you go through to get it calibrated is as bad as when you were first dealing with the diagnosis. The doses are little/teeny and they can be administered almost as frequently as every 15 minutes, so you are coming up with a scheme that gives the right dose in each time frame all day and all night long. Lote more finger sticks while you are figuring it out. AND then hoping that your infusion site is good (or the insulin won't get in) and the tubing doesn't get kinked OR your child doesn't disconnect it (I'm hearing funny yet not funny stories of 3 and 4 year olds disconnecting their own pump because they think its funny)

But in the end we should be able to manage her reading much better. No injections and insulin on a better schedule that SHOULD keep her from some of the shooting highs and dropping lows that we have been experiencing recently. I'll keep you updated.