As you all remember last week we were blessed to receive Clifford's insulin pump in the mail. Well now everything is in place and he will "OFFICIALLY" be on the pump on March 22nd. On March 16th, he gets hooked up to saline, and we begin our pump training. I've gone through the books and practice tests, I've done all the training on the education website as well, and went through their practice tests. I've even gone and read his pump manual. I think the next step is to look over our Nova Max link manual. We received our OneTouch meter, and I had previously called Nova Max to request a Nova Max link meter. The reasoning for this is we used OneTouch in the past and absolutely hated it. That is why we switched over to Freestyle Lite, then when CCS Medical stopped providing the Freestyle Lite Strips, we switched to Nova Max, because I actually had a Nova Max Plus at home giving the ketone testing a try. We ended up switching over completely to Nova Max because we liked it much better than Freestyle. Freestyle is only used in our house at night time now because of the handy dandy little light on the end. Makes it much easier than carrying a cellphone up and trying to use that as the light, or turning on Clifford's light and risk waking him up.
I've done the practicing of the bolusing, and setting multiple basal's with the pump as well. I'm very ready for him to start, and super excited about it. The funny thing is when she called to set up our Insulin start date it was actually on the date he had his diabetes clinic (3 month check up). So during the morning on the 22nd, we'll be meeting with his endo, and diabetes educator as well as the nutritionist like we always do. We'll get his A1c, which I'm curious about as I always am. We were 7.5 at our last check up which disappointed me because we were 6.8 at our previous one. But I try not to be too hard on myself as since he was diagnosed we've ranged from 6.8-7.5 with a couple in between. I don't think that's too shabby while on MDIs. During the early afternoon on that day is when we start on insulin and begin our pumping journey. I will keep everyone updated with how things go as I hope it will help those that are considering pumping see how the process works.
I am prepared to have a few weeks to months of chaos with the pump while we establish basals that work and tweak his ratio's etc. I guess it doesn't help that during this time he's growing too right? But even so I will update hopefully daily to let everyone know how things are going and how we're handling our pump journey. Clifford is excited as he thinks the Mio infusion's are tiny in comparison to his syringes. He is also excited about the idea of being able to participate in his care a little more and learn how to bolus himself for meals. He tried giving himself an injection with the help of myself once, but didn't care for it. I have a feeling in no time he will be interested in changing his own infusion sets as well. It's been almost 2 years in getting here. We are 1 week out for his 2 year Diaversary. I have decided to make him a cake, or cupcakes (not sure which), his favorite meal which is seafood enchiladas, and write him a letter telling him how excited and proud I am of him for coming so far in the last 2 years. I really hope he will have a fun day. He doesn't know anything about this, so let's keep it a secret! I want to surprise him after school with it all!
