This post should have gone up yesterday, but I was busy tending a sick kiddo. For my non-diabetic readers: I'll understand if you want to skip this post. It's about my daughter starting on her insulin pump. It may seem like too much detail, but I wrote it thinking that I wish I could have read others' starting experiences so I'd know what to expect. My apologies for the length! We made it through the rest of "Saline Week" without too many problems. Fast forward to this past Tuesday, the 21st... time to start the real stuff, insulin
.
It was one of those harried mornings at home when nothing was going right. We ran out the door to get to our appointment, and as an afterthought, we threw the entire box of pump supplies in the trunk, just in case. We get there, and we do need some supplies, so DH prepares to hike back out to the parking garage and get what we need. (Side note- it strikes us as odd that the pump company/ doctor's office don't supply anything, or at least keep a few on hand, for starting out- we had to use all of our own supplies from our limited stash from home.) Then, we realized... we didn't bring the INSULIN. ::smacks forehead:: The entire reason we were there was to put the insulin into the pump. ::sigh:: So... DH decides to run home and get it. It should be 20 minutes, home and back. Embarrassing to be "those" parents, the ones who forgot something so vital to the appointment, but still... it was fixable.
DH ran home, leaving DD and I with the pump trainer sitting around a table in a tiny room. The woman kept making that "hrrrmmm" sound, which I assume to be a nervous habit, but still, very annoying when you're already having a bad morning and you're stuck in a small room with her. As we're sitting there, my cell starts ringing. And ringing. And notifying me that I have new messages. Which is lovely and all, but I don't get any reception in there- just sound effects. So, I'm 99% sure that the State Surveyors have shown up at work (nursing home) and those calls are mandating me to come in to work, but I'm stuck in the hospital with no car and no cell reception. So, we sat. I had apologized about ten times to the trainer. I'm sure she was probably making notes about how we shouldn't be allowed to take our kid home since we couldn't even remember to bring insulin. Yikes.
An hour later, DH still wasn't back. The pump trainer and I had run out of small talk, DD was getting restless, and I was starting to worry. Knowing that my cell doesn't get reception in there didn't help any. Finally, DH showed up-- it turns out there had been a major car accident on the way home, and he was stuck in traffic.
Once he got back, we got down to business. It wasn't hard to put the insulin in in place of the saline- same process. Draw up a giant syringe full of insulin, fill the cartridge, prime the pump, and insert. Once that was in and running, we were pretty much through there. We packed up, stopped by home, and then dropped DD off at school. I rushed off to work- the State Surveyors were indeed there. (It's pretty much the most stressful week of my year, and I had really hoped that it wouldn't coincide with DD's insulin start because I usually wind up working crazy hours.)
.It was one of those harried mornings at home when nothing was going right. We ran out the door to get to our appointment, and as an afterthought, we threw the entire box of pump supplies in the trunk, just in case. We get there, and we do need some supplies, so DH prepares to hike back out to the parking garage and get what we need. (Side note- it strikes us as odd that the pump company/ doctor's office don't supply anything, or at least keep a few on hand, for starting out- we had to use all of our own supplies from our limited stash from home.) Then, we realized... we didn't bring the INSULIN. ::smacks forehead:: The entire reason we were there was to put the insulin into the pump. ::sigh:: So... DH decides to run home and get it. It should be 20 minutes, home and back. Embarrassing to be "those" parents, the ones who forgot something so vital to the appointment, but still... it was fixable.
DH ran home, leaving DD and I with the pump trainer sitting around a table in a tiny room. The woman kept making that "hrrrmmm" sound, which I assume to be a nervous habit, but still, very annoying when you're already having a bad morning and you're stuck in a small room with her. As we're sitting there, my cell starts ringing. And ringing. And notifying me that I have new messages. Which is lovely and all, but I don't get any reception in there- just sound effects. So, I'm 99% sure that the State Surveyors have shown up at work (nursing home) and those calls are mandating me to come in to work, but I'm stuck in the hospital with no car and no cell reception. So, we sat. I had apologized about ten times to the trainer. I'm sure she was probably making notes about how we shouldn't be allowed to take our kid home since we couldn't even remember to bring insulin. Yikes.
An hour later, DH still wasn't back. The pump trainer and I had run out of small talk, DD was getting restless, and I was starting to worry. Knowing that my cell doesn't get reception in there didn't help any. Finally, DH showed up-- it turns out there had been a major car accident on the way home, and he was stuck in traffic.
Once he got back, we got down to business. It wasn't hard to put the insulin in in place of the saline- same process. Draw up a giant syringe full of insulin, fill the cartridge, prime the pump, and insert. Once that was in and running, we were pretty much through there. We packed up, stopped by home, and then dropped DD off at school. I rushed off to work- the State Surveyors were indeed there. (It's pretty much the most stressful week of my year, and I had really hoped that it wouldn't coincide with DD's insulin start because I usually wind up working crazy hours.)
The day for DD was fairly uneventful. Her numbers were all over the place, though, which meant that she didn't feel too good. Sky-high, then down, then up again. She was worn out between the crazy numbers and the stress of the day. Then we got to that night....
Part III, coming soon!
Part III, coming soon!
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OMG...I know, strange how they don't have "back-up" supplies and even...what about some insulin? So your hubby didn't have to run home. Sorry it coincided with a busy week. I remember Joe stopped his binky, potty trained AND started the pump all in the same week. All by his choice, sans the pump start...but stressful on mom (me) for sure.
ReplyDeleteI'll be looking forward to part III. Keep up the great work. Sometimes it takes a few weeks to tweak the settings etc.