Pump it Up!

Last Friday was the first day with Kaiah on the insulin pump. She spent about 3 hours going over pump functions, deciding which settings to put it on, and answering questions/quizzing us. Then we put the set into Kaiah's belly (and one in mine). I have to admit my head hurt a little bit when we were done. I felt a little bit like Chris Farley in the movie Almost Heroes:



Only we weren't learning the alphabet. We were learning about bolus doses, insulin on board, unit of insulin to carb ratios, ezcarb and other glucometer apps and when to use any and all of them. We also learned how to program the pump for Kaiah's specific needs and talked about what situations will arise requiring us to change those settings. I understood about 85% of it last week and today, after watching the hour long orientation video twice and practicing with the saline loaded pump, I think I'm at about 95%. It's a good thing Cliff had the weekend off, because it really took me a while to understand some of it. He's been pretty patient.

When we got home Kaiah showed it to Mimi (grandma) who stayed to take care of the other kiddos.


When Mimi realized that the pump would completely replace shots, she cried. I did too. It will be so exciting to not have those anymore. And speaking of exciting, did you notice the pump sleeve she chose to protect it? Yeah. Pink and Purple Tye Dye. Hmm.

Yesterday we gave Kaiah's last Lantus insulin dose.


We all did a happy dance! She greatly dislikes those and tenses up her whole body while holding her breath. Her pump will replace the Lantus (which takes a full 24 hours to disappear) with a tiny bit of fast acting insulin every hour to keep her blood sugar from going up between meals and at night.

And then this morning she had her last shot of the fast acting insulin (Novolog). Yaaay! Here is her eccentric dada giving it to her...




Well, it may not be her last shot ever. They said she may have to have a shot if we need to get her sugar down from a really high number and don't have time to change the pump tubing (in the case of a kinked catheter or tubing or if something else went wrong with it).

Anyways, the meeting went well today. I was originally going to do it alone (Cliff had to work), but they were overstaffed and he got a mandatory. It was great because he seems to understand this stuff better than I do. Also, there was a sweet nursing student there who wanted to interview us about our journey with Kaiah's Diabetes.

I remember being in her place and having to interview someone who was sick. In fact, the term I did the ICU I think I interviewed the same guy like 2 or 3 times because he was the only one alert enough to answer questions while he was waiting for his heart... Anyway, as we thought back to the first thoughts, memories, realizations that she had become a diabetic, I fought back the tears.

It still seems pretty fresh even though it's been a year and a half. I still don't like it. I wish she didn't have it. But I absolutely don't question God after the fact. I know he loves us. It could have been so much worse of a diagnosis. We are still thankful for how healthy she really is. As we shared his faithfulness through our dark times, I know that we can still be used by God in the lives of other people as we tell them about hope in the midst of trials. He loves us and is there for us in this dark world. He never promised to protect us from calamity. He did promise to send a helper while we have to live here. And if we take our responsibility to make Him and the hope He gives known to the hopeless, I believe (and have personally experienced) great blessing as a result.

I keep having a thought running through my head about starting some sort of ministry to families of diabetic kiddos. I don't really know how I would do it yet, but I think it would be so helpful for Kaiah to get together with other kids who are just like her.

When we were in the waiting room today, Kaiah started playing with the sand/magnet toy that she always does every time we are there, a little boy came and started to play with her. Cliff went to poke her finger before we went in and the little boy asked her if she had Diabetes. They didn't look at each other the whole time, but they were comparing their life experiences. I heard him say, "I don't like shots." Kaiah said, "I don't either, but they aren't too bad." I really had to fight back the tears. It was a sweet interchange. It would be nice for her to connect with some other kiddos who are just like her. I suppose someday we will let her go to the Gales Creek Diabetes Camp. I have heard great things about it.

Back to the pump... It's pumping insulin into her little tummy now. She's pretty excited to wear it! Her friends are telling their moms, "I got to see Kaiah's pump! It's so pretty!" I have enjoyed it too.

NO MORE SHOTS!

But still there is a lot work to do. We will be getting up every three hours at night to get the blood glucose readings and also the ketone values if her blood sugar is up over 250, for a few weeks while we figure out the best numbers to set the insulin at for each 2-3 hour stretch of the day. Also, we've already had a few pump drops and finger catches in the tubing. So far, it hasn't been pulled out.

Even so, we're excited for the things this pump can offer and help us do:

1. Remote control glucometer to pump communication so we don't have to lift up her clothes each time we need to give her a bolus of insulin. This is great in the drive through for fast food so I don't have to give her a needle to shoot herself or come to the back seat to give the shot myself. I can just program it in, push "go" and it goes in! The only catch is you have to be 10 feet away.

2. It can be programmed to give different amounts of insulin for various phases of her life including active times, sickness, and eventually menstrual cycles...

3. It has a database of almost every food you could eat, and if it doesn't have the one you are looking for, you can program the foods/recipes you eat regularly into the pump for quick reference.

4. It remembers when the last dose of insulin given was, so you don't accidentally overdose on insulin by doubling it up.

5. It does the calculations for you based on insulin already on board, where you want your target to be, and more. Then you just enter the amount of carbohydrate you want and it does a mathematical equation recommending a dose. This part is sooo nice!

6. It can alarm when you want to remember something.

7. It can brush your teeth, clip your toenails, give you GPS directions to the theater, give you tutorials on the latest and greatest sewing projects and help you find your keys... well maybe it can't do everything. But it's pretty cool if you are a diabetic.

So we are excited to get started on this. It cost $6000 but was free for us because insurance paid everything! That is a huge blessing. Hopefully it will be a big help for our little Kaimookie, who was really beginning to detest the shots (no matter what she told that little boy in the waiting room). We just love her and are so glad to be able to start this new endeavor...