Thursday, February 11, 2010

3 month Endo appt and PUMP CLASS!!!

Endo Appt... I guess I'll start with the Endo appt because it just happened to be first up today...
This was only our 3rd appt and it was the first one that I didn't worry myself sick over the A1c. I knew the last A1c of 6.8 would be history and I was truly ok with that. August- October was so easy...too easy! November-January have been much much harder, I knew I tried my best but the D Monster put up a darn good fight, no matter how much I adjusted she had random highs everyday and random lows once or twice a week, there was never a pattern! I was actually a bit surprised that it was 7.5 (her current 30day average on the meter was 219...yikes!). Her Dr was pretty happy with that, he agrees that she's definitely coming out of her honeymoon period and expected the rise in her A1c because of that. He looked over our log book and couldn't find a pattern for her crazy highs either and didn't want to make any changes. He did offer up a few suggestions for us to try out on our little guinea pig to see if we could fix the problem. Well give them a try, hopefully it won't lead to lows!
If you've been reading my blog for awhile you'd know that we were all getting pretty concerned about her weight, at dx in May she was 27 pounds just 4 months later in September she was 40 pounds and only a month later at our last appt she was up to 45 pounds!!! I was so excited today when he told us she was 46 pounds, she's still off the chart for weigh but at least the gaining is slowing down!
And best of all he went ahead and gave us the green light for the PUMP!!!

PUMP CLASS!!!!!...
Can you tell I'm excited about this part????
As much as I liked meeting the reps during the in home hands on demos, I really felt like they were just trying to sell their product, mostly because they were!!!
It was SO nice to have an impartial person going over each and every pro and con for each of the pumps. In the end we just had to pick, there wasn't "the perfect" pump (someone needs to make it!!!!).
I wanted the good remote,
I wanted the linked CGM,
I wanted the tubeless feature...but which one did I want more???
I wanted the Ping, yes it has tubing, no I can't have a linked CGM, yes it will take a few more steps to deliver insulin, but it is waterproof, it can deliver the smallest amount of insulin which Alivia will need, it has the good remote, I can give insulin directly from the pump if needed, it keeps track of IOB and most importantly it comes in pink! We meet with the rep tomorrow to start the paperwork!!!
Honestly though if Medtronic had the good remote (they currently only have a tiny one with 3 buttons, no screen) I would of gone with them. With an active 3 year old I felt like we needed the remote, at least until she does it on her own.
If everything goes well with the insurance we should be pumping in a month!!!

10 comments:

Meri said...

I think because she is three you made the right choice! You NEED those little doses!

I am so excited for you!! I know these last 3 months have been hard, but you did an awesome job!!!

What an exciting year for your family...a new pump...a new baby! So great!!

Jennifer said...

The remote is a great feature. We use it for mostly all boluses. My favorite is just checking Jada and she can run off. I've even used it to bolus her on a fun jump.

Wendy said...

My favorite line...

"most importantly it comes in pink"

HA HA HA HA!!!! That cracks me up :)

I think you'll be really happy with it...especially those little tiny doses. Addy is going on 7 and we STILL use those little increments every time we change something.

You'll understand my IOB fascination once you start seeing that delivery screen...and, trust me, you'll be happy it's there!

Well, congrats :) On a great A1c, a great weight, and a new journey!

Tracy said...

That is a great A1C! I would be thrilled with that!

And you will LOVE the ping! We are in love with our remote. I rarely even see the pump with Zane. It is nice to use the remote to bolus. :)

Can't wait to hear how it all goes.

Nicole said...

Congrats with the pumping and yes PINK is very very important. You must not forget how important the colour of the pump is.

and for the weight issue I use to get so sick before I had to bring my kids for a check up because they would never be at age weight requirement. But that was just my kids, they are tiny, tiny, tiny!!

Mike LeBlanc said...

Good call on the Animas. We also started pumping when Adele was only 3 and went with the Animas because of the small dosage increments.

Adele is 9 now and we're using the Minimed pump because of the integrated CGM (which is the only one available in Canada), but I sometimes still miss the precision the we had with the Animas.

Pumping is a lot of work in the beginning (my wife resisted at first) but well worth it in the end. It's not a cure and often is more work but it will give you a better control and more flexibility.

I remember the first time we bolused the day of the pump start. We were at Wendy's for lunch and I appreciated being able to just give her insulin without leaving the table and giving a shot!

Hallie Addington said...

Yay for pumps!! We have a pretty pink ping too! We love it! Love the small doses, love the IOB feature, LOVE the remote- helps her be a little more normal! I DO wish we had a cgm but.... Nothing's perfect, I guess! Happy for you!! I'm no expert, but if you need anything or have any questions, let me know! :)

Shamae (Ghost written by Loren her hubby) said...

AWESOME!! You are doing a great job and will absolutely love,love, love having the pump!!

Tracey said...

Hi -
Just found your blog, we are new to the pump also. Only 2.5 weeks in and so far LOVE it. I didnt think we would, I thought it would be too hard to manage on someone so young ( my son is 4 ) but nope, love it.

Kathleen G said...

Congrats on picking a pump. We also use the Ping and Kaitlyn loves it. We also got the Dexcom Seven Plus CGM which hopefully will someday link to the Ping.
I love the fact that Alivia gets pink.

Good luck with insurance.