Emily's Insulin Pump

Well, we survived the first part of Emily's training for her insulin pump. We went on Tuesday to meet with the pediatric endocrinologist nurse and the Medtronic pumps rep. This was the nurses first training on the pump because she was new to this department, so that is why the pump rep was there. The nurse really had studied all of the information and did a great job presenting it all to us, probably even better than the pump rep.

It was a three hour meeting filled with ups and downs and TONS of information. For the first 2 1'2 hours we reviewed all of the features offered on the pump. Extremely overhwelming! For the past week or so, the pump has been set in a practice mode so you can play with all of the features and play like you are giving insulin without it actually doing it. I asked alot of questions and it frustrated me because the rep really did not want to deviate from what she wanted to talk about. That is just not really that good for me. If I have questions, I am going to ask them. Especially when the questions and answers are related to my daughter living a healthy, SAFE life.

The bad part of the visit was when the nurse and rep realized it was 4:30 and it was soon quitting time. We had not even started talking about how to connect the pump to Emily or fill the pump with insulin. That was the main reason we were there and they only wanted to devote about 30 minutes to it. That was when I got really frustrated. Plus, the device we needed to use to insert the needle and tubing into Emily was not working the way it was suppose to. And the rep just kept telling me it is fine and just keep going. I am not ok with that. Finally, we switched out the device and it worked the way it was suppose to. At this point, I was so confused. There are about 15 steps to put the needle and tubing into Emily and because it was not working the way it was suppose to, I was not sure how we were going to do this when we were at home by ourselves. Then they showed us how to fill the insulin reservoir. Again, something the rep just flew through that required about 10 steps and did not really want to devote to much time on it. Thank goodness Jeff was there. Because I knew once we got home, between the two of us, hopefully we could do it.

Then the time came to actually connect it to Emily. She is allowed to wear the pump in any of the places she would normally get a shot - either her tummy, her arms, her bottom or her legs. She hates getting shots , but prefers them in her arms. So, that is where we decided to do it. She was so brave and did not even cry. I think that it hurts more than a shot, but since we only have to do it every three days it will be better than the 7 shots she gets each day.

So, now she has her insulin pump. For the first week, we are only using saline solution as we practice using the pump. This is the safest thing so that as we are learning, if we do make a mistake it is really not that big of a deal because she is only getting saline. Next week when we go back to Temple we will start using insulin. That makes me a lot more nervous. Because with the wrong push of just a few buttons, we could give her too much insulin and make Emily very sick.

We have to replace the tubing and needle every three days. So, Jeff and I had to replace it for the first time today. It was confusing and did not go as smoothly as we wanted, but hopefully it will get easier over time.

She has to wear the pump all day, every day. We just have to disconnect the tubing from the site while she baths or is swimming. I think that she is excited. She either keeps it in her pocket or we have a clip that we can use to clip it to her pants. She even has to sleep in it. I was really nervous the first night she slept in it because I wanted her to be comfortable while she was sleeping. As she and I were talking about the best place to clip it to her pajama pants , I just kept asking and asking was it ok and was it comfortable. She finally just looked at me and said, "Mommy it is just a clip. I will be fine". So sweet! I just had to smile. Yes, it is new and scary, but it helps that my sweet little girl has the kind of attitude that she does. Such a blessing from God to help her to have peace about all of this.

Emily and her PINK pump. When we saw that there was a pink pump, we knew that was the one for her!

The tubing that comes out from the end of the pump, we thread under her shirt, and out of the sleeve of her shirt to the needle that is inserted into her arm.