So, today someone posted a comment about my daughter's YouTube video. Here is what she posted:
Your video gave me the courage to get an insulin pump. I was diagnosed when i was 18 months old, in 1990. I am now just getting the courage to get a pump after 17 years of shots. Your daughter is inspiring.
I have to admit I teared up a bit when I read her post. When we were faced with the task of making the video I wanted to show the impact that the disease had on her life. But I didn't want for it to be a depressing story of doom and gloom. Don't get me wrong, type 1 diabetes is a very difficult disease to manage. To give you an idea, I haven't had more than five straight nights of uninterrupted sleep since my daughter was diagnosed 5 1/2 years ago. However, learning to live with this disease has also taught all of us about strength and perseverance. We have all marveled at how courageous my daughter has been and continues to be. She fights every day to win the battle against this disease and usually prevails. Despite all of this she continues to be a kid first and foremost. I wanted for that message to come through in the video. I wanted everyone to realize that just because she has this disease doesn't mean that it has her. Making the decision to switch to the insulin pump was one of those important decisions that helped Samantha become more independent and at the same time take better care of herself. The fact that our video helped someone else find the courage to try the pump makes me feel so uplifted. I didn't want for our video to leave people with a negative impression; I wanted for people to recognize that despite everything that we deal with day in and day out, we still are hopeful. Someday there will be a cure for diabetes, but until that day comes technology (like the insulin pump) will keep improving and allow our kids to live healthier, more normal lives. Any person who has the courage to make the choice to try something new and different is truly a remarkable person and this gives me even more hope.
Showing posts with label insulin pump. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insulin pump. Show all posts
12.21.2007
11.14.2007
... knowledge is power
NOTE: This post was moved from my old Vox blog and was originally posted on April 9th, 2007.
I guess I should mention what the insulin pump actually does for a person with diabetes for those not in the know. My pal, Jen, asked me about it on the phone tonight and I realized that in all of my postings I never mentioned what pumping is all about.
What is insulin anyway?
In order to accurately describe pumping, it is necessary to understand the basics of how insulin works in the body of a person without type 1 diabetes. For all of us without diabetes, our pancreas regulates our blood sugars by releasing two different hormones, glucagon and insulin. When going about your daily tasks, the pancreas lets out small doses of insulin constantly. It keeps the blood sugar range from going too high by increasing the insulin to turn food into energy. It keeps the blood sugar from dropping too much by releasing glucagon (this stimulates the release of glycogen from the liver), ultimately raising the blood sugar. The pancreas is a well oiled machine that keeps our blood sugar in really tight control. It is thought that even before we take a bite of food at a meal, our pancreas has already started delivering higher levels of insulin to balance with the food we consume.
Insulin is necessary to take every bit of food we consume and turn it into energy. But people who have type 1 diabetes no longer make enough insulin to turn food into energy. Without insulin the blood sugar rises to high levels and the body compensates by making you drink lots of water to dilute the level of sugar. When this happens no sugar enters the cells of the body and therefore it cannot be used as fuel. In response the body thinks it is starving because it has no sugar available for use in the cells. So it starts burning fat stores for fuel. The body literally starts eating itself. All of this makes a person with developing diabetes very sick. Without treatment this person would die in a very short amount of time (weeks, not months).
My daughter has been on insulin injections since she was diagnosed at the age of four. She doesn't just have one or two shots per day, she has more like four, and when she's sick you can easily double that number. I don't say this to complain or to make you feel sad, I tell you this so you'll understand what we currently are doing to keep her blood sugar in good control. For type 1 you cannot take a pill to treat diabetes. You can't just watch your diet and eveything will be oaky. You must take insulin or you will die ... soon.
The pump makes things so much easier. First of all, instead of getting poked with a needle four times per day, you only get a needle poke every other day. The insulin is delivered through tubing that connects to the body, called an infusion set. The other end of the infusion set connects to the pump, which is a small electronic device (the size of a pager or cell phone) that contains a reservoir with insulin. The computer inside the pump helps deliver small little bits of insulin throughout the day, very similarly to the way the pancreas does. So with the new pump, my daughter will get a super small dose (we are talking tenths of units here, folks) every three minutes. This function aims at keeping her blood sugars steady throughout the day. Because this is a machine and not an actual human organ, it doesn't work anywhere near as well as the pancreas, but it is much better than shots. In addition to the little bits of insulin delivered during the day (called basal dose), the pump also delivers a bolus dose.
A bolus dose is a dose of insulin that is delivered when the blood sugar is too high or at a meal (or snack) time based upon the amount of carbohydrates eaten. So right now if Samantha wants a couple of pieces of candy for a snack, she either has to take a pass and miss out on the Easter candy (because the insulin needed to cover that amount of food would be too small to administer via syringe) or she would have to eat a little more than a couple of pieces so that she could receive a bolus dose by shot. But once she starts on the pump she can have those two pieces of candy, enter them in the pump and the pump will deliver the right amount of insulin to cover those consumed carbs. When dinner time comes around we count up every gram of carbohydrate eaten and we input it into the pump. Based upon a bunch of calculations and definitions (I won't bore you with them) previously set up in the pump's computer, the pump recommends a meal bolus dose. We can accept the recommended dose or we can modify it. Similarly, when the blood sugar rises out of target range the pump recommends a correction bolus dose to bring it back into the preset range. Once the dose is accepted it is "pumped" out of the reservoir through the tubing and into the body.
The benefits of pumping over injections are many. First of all, there is a reduced risk of low blood sugars (which happen regularly with injections). Second, it keeps the blood sugars from fluctuating so much and if everything is set up correctly, it can lead to much better blood sugar control. Good blood sugar control reduces the risk for complications (blindness, heart disease, amputation, kidney failure, etc.). Anything that does that and allows my daughter more freedom with food and fewer needles, makes me a very happy mom!... thank god for technology!
NOTE: This post was moved from my old Vox blog and was originally posted on April 26th, 2007.
Yay! We are live with insulin! Everything went really well at pump start today! Samantha has a kidney infection, so that complicates matters a bit as infection makes her more insulin resistant. But, we are doing good! Here are some pics.
This is Samantha's infusion set. She has 10 viable sites on each side of her tummy and 6 viable sites on each side of her upper tush. Having so many site options to rotate will greatly reduce scar tissue build up and site problems! The infusion set in this picture is a different type of set she will normally use. This one is called the Comfort Short and requires a manual insertion (using an introducer needle -- no cool little insertion device with this guy). We decided to give it a try so that we would know how to insert a different set if she does not do well on her prescribed sets. This set goes in at an angle and works great for kids without many fatty areas. You need fat for sub q insulin delivery! Luckily my kid has some padding so chances are the other sets will do just fine.
This second photo is the pump itself. We all started calling it Greenie before it ever showed up and the name just stuck. Although Samantha did inform us in the car on the way home that Greenie is in fact a girl pump. This home screen shows the name and current basal rate. Basal rate is the rate at which the small little doses of insulin are delivered over the period of one hour. This screen shows that she gets .7 units of insulin per hour this time of night. Since that .7 unit is split up into tiny doses delivered every 3 minutes, the actual doses delivered are insanely small.
Picture number three and four are her supply box and the typical supplies needed for one set change. The box is kept on the kitchen counter for quick access for treatment of lows and set changes. We decorated it together.
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