Last Thursday was Alison's first after-pump check up and I'll admit to being a bit nervous.  Okay, so the numbers don't lie, and overall we've seen better BG readings and less mood changes from highs and lows, but you still worry about what the A1Cs are going to be.  Well, she scored 6.9 which is her best ever!  Such a nice number too.

Alison has also grown 3 cm in height since February (she's now 3 feet 4 3/4 inches tall) and has put on 8 lbs (she's up to 38 lbs).  Still very slim, but not as bony as she was a few months ago.

Ali was having a lot of itching and redness from the adhesive used to keep her infusion set in place (the tubing inserted under her skin that allows the insulin to be absorbed into her body) and we learned a great tip from one of our nurses.  Tegaderm can be put on the skin and you can do the insertion kit over top of it so that it acts as a barrier between the adhesive and the skin...works like a miracle.

All in all, the pump, while a challenge at times, has been a great thing for our family.

So it has been a while since we posted anything.  We are adjusting to our new "life" very nicely and the overall stress level in our house has gone down significantly.

Alison still fusses over site changes, but things are getting better.

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The Training Wheels Are Off!

So, on Monday, and Daddy's birthday, we were speaking with our pump-start-endo when he told us that he was happy with the ratios we had established and that it was time for us to try on our own.  We still have access to our endo team 24-7 so we'll be okay.

We were all so happy to start sleeping through the night again!  It was a rough couple of weeks on the sleep front, but in the end it is so worth it!  Alison was within target range all day today (between 6 and 11.3) and this is starting to become the norm.  We don't feel like we are feeding the insulin anymore, but that we have a four-year-old who can act four.  She can decide how much or how little she wants at her meals.  She can have an extra snack, or avoid one all together.

It took the first night for me to realize something that makes me a little sad.  Alison decided she wanted to have "A lot-A lot of pancakes to celebrate".  She ate almost double what she has been allowed for supper over the last 19 months.  For some time, it seems, Alison has understood that she couldn't eat what she wanted when and was being pretty good about not complaining too much.  This disease makes our youngsters grow up way too fast.

The whole process of putting Alison on pump therapy has been difficult, but it is certainly the best decision that we've made as a family.  To see her living as close to a normal life as Diabetes will let her is such a wonderful stop gap until a much needed cure is found. 

We're just over a week in and things seem to be going well.  We got the go ahead on Tuesday to stop testing Ali's BGLs at 3 am which is really nice.  Still getting her up at midnight tho.


Last night we had a major meltdown when it came to site rotation.  I used one insertion kit and Alison just cried and cried.  She said that it was unbearably sore.  I took it out and tried another spot but she was still crying like mad and insisting that it was hurting her.  I put some film over it, gave her some advil and she was doing better this am.  Word to the wise, if you plan on pumping, get some Emla cream before hand so that you can nip a situation like last nights' in the bud.


We started doing ratios today.  Ali was allowed her first afternoon snack in over a week and we didn't give her the normal set amount of carbs for dinner that we have been.  I must admit that doing the ratios according to her insulin sensitivity is a little scary for me.  Adding any additional math always is.


We're doing okay as a family.  Our team told us that this would be a very stressful time and that it was not uncommon for parents to be at each others' throats during the pump start but we've been okay for the most part.  This is surprising since exhaustion is the best word to describe our house hold these days.  Riley is the only person getting adequate sleep which means we're hauling our rear ends trying to keep up with her.


Today Alison hurt herself and Riley came over and hugged and kissed her big sis.  

Pumping night two did not go as well as night one!


Alison went to bed with a fairly normal BGL.  At midnight she had dropped to 6.1 mmol/l, okay, starting to creep towards the low end of things, but we'll take what we can get.  Then 3 am rolled around and we were down to 3.1 mmol/l.  I treated her, waited 15 minutes and tested again.  4.6 mmol/l.  I treated her again and was going to have to go back into her room, prick her finger again and probably wake her up when Alison asked me if I was planning on coming back in another 15 minutes (she gets things fast for a 4 year-old).  Upon my confirmation, Ali decided that she would rather be cuddled up with me in the parental bed than have me come in and disturb her again.  It is hard to argue with a child that you keep waking up and forcing sugary snacks into when she is making sense.  We dosed off, all snuggled up until I had to get up at 5:30 for work.  That's when she found the next heat source, Daddy on his side of the bed and continued on with her slumber.


Just before Terry was leaving for work this evening, Alison got her cannula caught on something and rather painfully pulled out her infusion set.  We had to do a site change and rotation tomorrow anyways, so it shouldn't have been a big deal.  Alison was so tired and upset from the sting of the other set coming out that she had a complete meltdown.  It took both Terry and I to hold her down to sanitize and re-connect her to the pump.  She also had a very difficult time with Daddy leaving for work.  I had to snuggle her for what seemed like forever to get her to stop bawling :(


I wish that was where the story ended.  The alcohol must not have been dry enough when we sanitized the new site location as the infusion set slid right out and the tape was toast.  I had to promise to not only give her a star on the blackboard (her reward system) but I had to make a star that was shaped like a pump.


As I tucked her in, she gave me one of those sweet moments that you get from no one but your children.  When I told her to get some rest, she replied "Mommy, you get some rest too, you had a really long day".


She truly is too sweet for words.

I'm Lovin' it!  What happens when a four-year-old, who almost never gets to visit the golden arches, gets a McHappy Meal?  She doesn't waste even one inch of the meal.

PUMP START, FOR REAL THIS TIME...

We started pumping insulin yesterday at 10:30 am.  It was really overwhelming for me, but Terry was pretty relaxed about it.  We programmed Ali's basal rate (constant insulin release) at CHEO, in our session.  Then when we went to lunch and tried to bolus (additional insulin to cover meals), we got an error saying that our line had an occlusion.  Up we went, back to the Diabetes Clinic to change our infusion set and start all over with the bolus.

We're talking to the Endo every evening, adjusting and re-adjusting Alison's basal rates and boluses so that we can figure out her carb ratios.  Once that is done we'll be sitting pretty for a little while.  Until then, we are checking her blood sugar at breakfast, two hours later, lunch, two hours later, dinner, two hours later, snack time, two hours later, midnight and 3am.  It is going to be a couple of really exhausting weeks (unless Ali's body and the pump sinc up more quickly).

What makes it all worth while is not only the health benefits that Alison will see, but how happy her pump makes her!  She is so proud of it.

Pumpin' Aint Easy?

So we made it through the first pump start session.  Ali, as you can see (above) is all hooked up and pumping saline.  We are bolusing, but just for practice at this point.  My monkey is always such a trooper. 

Late last night I told her she was my hero.  When she asked why, my answer was that it's hard having Diabetes.  Alison told me that it wasn't hard because I love her.  It is nice to know that in times that are scary and uncertain to her, that Mommy and Daddy are enough to keep her confident and calm.

Next week we will be replacing her saline with her NovaRapid and trying to figure out what her insulin sensitivity is.  And there will be still more things to learn and master.  That being said, I am feeling a lot more confident than before.

To all you soon-to-be pumpers, chin up, it wasn't so bad.