It has been a month since Princess was diagnosed. It has been a HUGE change in our lives. I never would have thought that I would be taking care of TWO children with Type 1 diabetes. I thought having one was hard! Nope, two is much harder.
I feel like I have a handle on the diabetes though. I know what I am doing this time around, and that helps. It annoys the heck out of me that I can't "tweek" anything because Princess is still on MDI. (Mulitple Daily Injections) The smallest dose of insulin I can give her is .5 units. I need smaller doses! So, most of the time Princess has higher blood sugar numbers. Her I:C ratio is 1:40 right now (which I think we need to change but I'm not going to mess with it until we have the insulin pump). So in order to dose her for food she has to have at least 20 carbs, even though if I give her 10 carbs it raises her blood sugar. Needless to say I'm sure her A1C will be nice and high at her 1st follow up appointment in June.
For the most part we are muttering through getting used to all this. It has its good and bad days, as you would expect. Just ours seem to be doubled. Or if one kiddo is having a good day the other one isn't. It is a never ending battle, times two!
On top of all of this I had a hard decision to make. We had to decide about which insulin pump was right for Princess. It was a tough one! I'm sure most would assume that we would just put Princess on the same insulin pump the Lovebug is on, but that isn't the case. While we LOVE the Animas Ping I simply do not like that Lovebug has to carry her CGM (Dexie) around with her too. It drives me crazy and was a major factor in hesitating to put Lovebug on a CGM. Of course once we did a trial with it, we immediately saw the benefits and were hooked. If it wasn't for the wonderful benefits the CGM allows us, Lovebug simply would not have one.
So, we took a serious look at the Medtronic Revel. It has a CGM integrated into the pump. I was hesitant at first but the more I learned about the pump and after talked to friends, I was convienced this was the right pump for Princess.
I did have my doubts about the CGM and senors that accompany the Revel. The sensor/transmitter is much larger and I was afraid it would be a bit much on Princess's small frame. I called my endo office and decided to do a trial with the Guardian System (as Medtronic calls it) I have been nothing but impressed! Which takes a lot! Especially because I am a HUGE DexCom fan. There are features on the Guardian which I really like, and a few that I don't. Probably more because I am used to the DexCom.
One particular function that took some getting used to was the alarms. You can set the high and low alarms on the Guardian (just like DexCom) but you can't shut one or the other off like you can on the DexCom. They are simply either on or off. I do like the predictive alarms, especially for the lows. We only had the predictive low happen twice but both times Princess was still in the 120's when the CGM alarmed. Therefore she never actually went low, like she might have had we just had the alarm telling us that she is already low.
I find the information gleemed from the Guardian is much more useful then the DexCom's graphs when you download the information from the DexCom. The Guardian has it marked on the graph when you bolus. The screen is also shaded from 6pm to 6am so you can immediately tell where the "over night" numbers were at.
We really had a great experience with it and we are very excited to be getting our own! Our endo already ordered the Revel pump and CGM for Princess and it has already arrived! We will be doing our pump training this coming week as well as starting our saline trial so we can get used to the new pump. Princess is very excited (as well as Mom and Dad!!) to be done with shots! She keeps asking me when she will be done with shots and now we are counting down the days! Then the week after we will be live with insulin! It is all a little bittersweet for us but we are still happy to be moving to this "next stage". It will be a good one for the whole family.
I feel like I have a handle on the diabetes though. I know what I am doing this time around, and that helps. It annoys the heck out of me that I can't "tweek" anything because Princess is still on MDI. (Mulitple Daily Injections) The smallest dose of insulin I can give her is .5 units. I need smaller doses! So, most of the time Princess has higher blood sugar numbers. Her I:C ratio is 1:40 right now (which I think we need to change but I'm not going to mess with it until we have the insulin pump). So in order to dose her for food she has to have at least 20 carbs, even though if I give her 10 carbs it raises her blood sugar. Needless to say I'm sure her A1C will be nice and high at her 1st follow up appointment in June.
For the most part we are muttering through getting used to all this. It has its good and bad days, as you would expect. Just ours seem to be doubled. Or if one kiddo is having a good day the other one isn't. It is a never ending battle, times two!
On top of all of this I had a hard decision to make. We had to decide about which insulin pump was right for Princess. It was a tough one! I'm sure most would assume that we would just put Princess on the same insulin pump the Lovebug is on, but that isn't the case. While we LOVE the Animas Ping I simply do not like that Lovebug has to carry her CGM (Dexie) around with her too. It drives me crazy and was a major factor in hesitating to put Lovebug on a CGM. Of course once we did a trial with it, we immediately saw the benefits and were hooked. If it wasn't for the wonderful benefits the CGM allows us, Lovebug simply would not have one.
So, we took a serious look at the Medtronic Revel. It has a CGM integrated into the pump. I was hesitant at first but the more I learned about the pump and after talked to friends, I was convienced this was the right pump for Princess.
I did have my doubts about the CGM and senors that accompany the Revel. The sensor/transmitter is much larger and I was afraid it would be a bit much on Princess's small frame. I called my endo office and decided to do a trial with the Guardian System (as Medtronic calls it) I have been nothing but impressed! Which takes a lot! Especially because I am a HUGE DexCom fan. There are features on the Guardian which I really like, and a few that I don't. Probably more because I am used to the DexCom.
One particular function that took some getting used to was the alarms. You can set the high and low alarms on the Guardian (just like DexCom) but you can't shut one or the other off like you can on the DexCom. They are simply either on or off. I do like the predictive alarms, especially for the lows. We only had the predictive low happen twice but both times Princess was still in the 120's when the CGM alarmed. Therefore she never actually went low, like she might have had we just had the alarm telling us that she is already low.
I find the information gleemed from the Guardian is much more useful then the DexCom's graphs when you download the information from the DexCom. The Guardian has it marked on the graph when you bolus. The screen is also shaded from 6pm to 6am so you can immediately tell where the "over night" numbers were at.
We really had a great experience with it and we are very excited to be getting our own! Our endo already ordered the Revel pump and CGM for Princess and it has already arrived! We will be doing our pump training this coming week as well as starting our saline trial so we can get used to the new pump. Princess is very excited (as well as Mom and Dad!!) to be done with shots! She keeps asking me when she will be done with shots and now we are counting down the days! Then the week after we will be live with insulin! It is all a little bittersweet for us but we are still happy to be moving to this "next stage". It will be a good one for the whole family.
6 comments:
You're almost there! Just a little bit longer and then you'll be pumping with Princess! I'm happy you were able to get her on the pump so quickly after diagnosis. I can't wait to read more about your thoughts on Medtronic vs Animas.
You are so close. AND, I think you will have some really valuable insight for the DOC on pumps and CGMS after utilizing both Heather...in due time. I know you are crazy busy right now mothering and being a pancreas. Good luck with the pump start.
Good luck with the new pump! Sounds like youre doing an amazing job Heather!
Heather - - you are doing an amazing job. I am so excited you have another pumper soon. Thinking about you daily, sweet friend!
You are an inspiration to so many of us! You're doing an amazing job for your girls! I think it's great that you're handling each one based on them and not just automatically doing the same for each. I hope things move quickly for you all getting Princess on the pump :)
I'm so excited for you! It will make life so much easier for you and your little sweetheart! Hugs to you! You are handling this with so much grace. One day at a time! You can do this!
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