My daughters best friend is attached to her side night and day, her best friend keeps her from the lows and the highs, her best friend is forever reliable, her best friend helps her with her calculations, her friend is forgiving when things don't go as planned. Her best friend can be a pain in her butt (but that is only if mum and dad hit a nerve)
Her best friend is her Medtronic insulin pump.
From the second day of diagnosis my daughter has accepted a little device that is attached to her via a needle cannula. It's somewhat familiar as she has always seen one on dad so I think it was a blessing in that sense but in every way she could have rejected as quickly as she accepted it.
She runs, jumps, tackles, sleeps, throws tantrums and is in general a normal 2 year old toddler with her pump. I will always teach her that there is nothing she can't do as long as she has drive to do it.
After 2.5 months of having T1D my daughter has had her first HbA1C and as the drums roll...... 6.1. I was proud of her and proud of my wife's efforts with managing not only T1 in general but also understanding the carbohydrate counting and the functions of the pump so quickly. On MDI people work for years to be able to see results like this, and yes I do understand that this result will fluctuate as my daughter goes through her developmental stages, but this is the best start I could have given her. The life on the Medtronic pump is essential to our success. It allows us to be able to give her what she needs using the inbuilt Bolus Wizard. As she is so small it allows us to give very small increments of insulin. It caters for different events and types of foods through the dual and square wave boluses. It takes away the need for slow acting insulin that in my opinion caused a lot of my severe hypo's.
Moving from MDI allowed me to put some flexibility back into what is a very regimented life. Naturally the body produces a base line of insulin to make sure that it stays level and then produces more once it realises that carbohydrates have been consumed and needs to be broken down into energy. Slow release insulin does this job but what it doesn't do is allow you to have varying levels depending on what your body requires at any part of the day and night. For example my body requires the most amount of insulin during the first part of the night while I sleep but then at 2am my requirements drop and so does my insulin intake. This allows my BSL's to stay stable instead of jumping up and down causing you to possibly walking the line of hypo in your sleep or running high.
Even though the pump isn't a cure and it isn't automatically adjusted making it as good as the information you put into it it is a management solution that gives a great amount of control each and every day and night.
Another element of the Medtronic pump that made me choose it over the others available in the market was the ability to read the clinical data. The pump connect via Bluetooth to a USB antenna which allows you to download the information to a central location (a cloud if you like) and with a single login you are able to look at days, weeks and months worth of data to find trends. You see the insulin given for bolusing, basal rates and corrections. You see the BSL readings entered into the pump and and anomalies such as temporary basal rates, exercise markers or sickness markers.
The benefit of having this data centrally located is that no matter which computer your at you will be able to find your information and use it to adjust your settings and requirements.
Another element of great reason for this pump is the CGM (Continual Glucose Monitor) sensor that talks directly to the pump and allows you to see what is happening with you BSL in real time. You can see the rise and drops and even can suspend the pump if it drops to low. The only frustration around these sensors is the cost. At this stage they are not subsidised by the government and not covered by any health insurance. At this stage it is out of reach for me and many many others and hopefully someone or some organisation will see the need to help cover these products to be available to all. These advancements make living longer easier and control a little less unpredictable.
I look back to the day I decided to move to an insulin pump and the day I decided it would be the best method of management for my daughter and there isn't a single regret. I look forward to knowing that there will be advancements from here.
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