We switched to an insulin pump for William's insulin injections almost four years ago. I do remember doing all of the math required for his care just before that. They made us do all of that for about six months before they allowed us to get a pump. I guess they wanted us to do it the long way before showing us the shortcut. Kinda like in math in school. I really didn't hit me as to how easy things had gotten for his care until about a month ago. I had the privilege to take another type 1 with us on a field trip to the zoo. He had been diagnosed about two years earlier and was still using shots to regulate blood sugar. It had been a long time since I had to give shots for blood sugar control. It felt a little strange having to do the math for the injection. I am so used to just putting the carbs in and having the meter dump the blood glucose number straight to the pump and do the correction that I had forgotten everything that you need to do to take care of diabetes the old way. I also forgot about the nighttime shot of Levemir. I am glad that I got to go that day. If I had not gone that day then neither my son or his friend would have gotten to go. It was also nice to get to see how far we had come.
I do have to keep up with trends and look for things on a daily basis but over all it is so much easier having the pump. William's A1C dropped significantly after we got the pump. He was so young that small amounts of insulin made a huge difference. The shots only gave an accuracy of 0.5 units where the pump was at 0.0275. This made a big difference in his little life. Not so many lows. We no longer had to give the night time shots of Levemir but could better control his numbers with the basal rate adjustments during the night. Many things have changed over the years. We keep pushing his numbers to be better. William is starting to do some of the care on his own. I now let him do his own blood glucose number checks. He uses the same finger all of the time. I am going to have to break him of that. I am glad to see him wanting to take care of himself.
We are due for a new pump this year. I have been doing a lot of research on the subject and I think I know what I would like to do this time. I also think that we will be looking into getting William a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system. This will be a significant expense since insurance only covers a small part of this. New tools are not covered by insurance right away no matter the improvement in life care. That is a discussion for another day. I really hope when you are an adult and you read back through this you will think "I remember when I had diabetes and had to have a pump". I really hope that one day soon you will not have to think about what you eat, at least for diabetes.
Can't wait to see the future,
Your Loving Dad
I do have to keep up with trends and look for things on a daily basis but over all it is so much easier having the pump. William's A1C dropped significantly after we got the pump. He was so young that small amounts of insulin made a huge difference. The shots only gave an accuracy of 0.5 units where the pump was at 0.0275. This made a big difference in his little life. Not so many lows. We no longer had to give the night time shots of Levemir but could better control his numbers with the basal rate adjustments during the night. Many things have changed over the years. We keep pushing his numbers to be better. William is starting to do some of the care on his own. I now let him do his own blood glucose number checks. He uses the same finger all of the time. I am going to have to break him of that. I am glad to see him wanting to take care of himself.
We are due for a new pump this year. I have been doing a lot of research on the subject and I think I know what I would like to do this time. I also think that we will be looking into getting William a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system. This will be a significant expense since insurance only covers a small part of this. New tools are not covered by insurance right away no matter the improvement in life care. That is a discussion for another day. I really hope when you are an adult and you read back through this you will think "I remember when I had diabetes and had to have a pump". I really hope that one day soon you will not have to think about what you eat, at least for diabetes.
Can't wait to see the future,
Your Loving Dad
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