I start this entry with the words of caution "I am not a specialist or doctor but I am the expert on my own T1D."
After now 4 months with 2 T1D's in the house I have been amazed to see just how the honeymoon period works compared to someone who has no natural insulin production. If you have read my other entries you will know that the first decision my wife and I made when our 2 year old daughter was diagnosed was to get her onto a pump ASAP. This meant getting up and running before we left the hospital. As I was already a Medtronic user we went forth with what was familiar. We made the decision because of the following reasons -
1. Our daughter is fussy. There is no way we could ensure she would eat a set amount of carbohydrates at any given time.
2. After living with MDI and a pump we wanted our daughter to have the best possible start with the best control.
3. To also put it straight we wanted to only give an injection to a 2 year old every 2 days rather than 5 times a day.
If these were the only benefits that bringing this device into our daughters life then we were going to be extremely happy. We would soon see that these benefits were not the only ones.
With the honeymoon period in full swing my daughters pancreas is in the process of slowly diminishing it's insulin production. Coming out of hospital we were under the belief that the insulin levels were keeping her at a stable level. This was true for the first 2 days after those days I found myself lowering the insulin levels across the board. Each time I made these adjustments the changes would work however they would only work for a number of days before the hypos would start again. I would go through the same process and wait for a pattern to form before making the required change.
The benefit that we were not aware of is that while our daughters beta cells are slowly being attacked we are able to artificially replace the function of the pancreas and the insulin production. While not replacing we are helping to support the pancreas while it is under attack. Instead of allowing it to be under stress and for it to diminish quickly we were now using the pump to prop it up.
I realised that each time we had to review the setting on the pump and reduce the insulin amount was the ability to reprogram the pancreas. Why is that important? Well to be able to maintain natural insulin production is the ability to allow the body to have natural, stress free production and the best chance of long term benefit. this disease is not easy and as you progress further down the road you realise how important good control and stability is in the early days of T1D.
We also realise that this honeymoon period will finish one day soon however the ability to maintain natural function is now one of the biggest benefits to having the insulin pump introduced even at an age where they have no idea what is going on and why they have to carry around this life and lifestyle saving device.
This is my learning for the day and I didn't even know it was coming.
