Episodes of low blood sugar today: none...was a bit high before dinner at 7.8 (fasting blood sugar should be 5-6) and considering I barely had any snacks in the afternoon that is frustrating and puzzling!
"C" mood today: happy-spent most of the day at daycare, he loves daycare!
Clean eating today: breakfast-oatmeal with protein powder and grapefruit, dinner-sweet potato soup and tomato arugula frittata...Yummy!
Don't let the title mislead you, this has nothing to do with breastfeeding! Although I could likely write a novel on that subject, that is not what I am writing about today. Today after months of waiting I received a letter from Jeff's insurance benefits company stating that they will cover %100 of the cost of an insulin pump. This is a big deal as pumps are very expensive, and it is also a big deal as it has left me thinking about what I should do next.
An insulin pump is a small device that you wear that feeds you a constant small stream of fast acting insulin. It obviously does not replace or act exactly like a healthy pancreas but as far as technology is concerned, it is as close as we can get. There are different kinds of pumps out there, some with wires that attach to you with something called an infusion set and the pump looks very similar to a pager. The pager-type piece can be clipped to your waistband or bra-strap. The pump I like the best is the Omnipod wireless pump that is similar in size to a tic-tac container. It sticks to your skin and there is a remote (looks like a cell phone) that you can alter the insulin stream with; you lower the stream when exercising and you do something called 'bolus" at meal times. A bolus is the amount of insulin that corresponds with the amount of carbohydrate you consume.
Apparently I am a perfect candidate for a pump according to the health care team I have been working with. I am young, active, with a busy family life. Pumps allow you more freedom than the injections I take currently, for example when I exercise currently I have to plan ahead, I have to know what kind of exercise I am going to do ahead of time, how long I am going to do it and I have to reduce my insulin appropriately. If something comes up, and I decide I have no time to exercise and I have already adjusted my insulin a few hours prior, I end up with high blood sugar. With a pump you can be more spontaneous-if I suddenly decide I want to run 10km instead of 5km I can simply set a lower flow of insulin for a longer period of time and carry on. The other huge positive is that a pump would reduce my injections from 5 per day to 1 every 3 days (awesome!).
The downside is that I will always have a tic tac container attached to me. And part of me feels that this will be a pain! I am leaning 95% toward going through with getting a pump but a small (silly) part of me is worrying about it interfering with my clothing choices and the questions I might face about the small lump under my shirt. :(
I am sure I will adapt and get use to this whole set up, but for now I am going to roll things around in my head a little bit more and maybe break out another demo and wear it for a few more days. Jeff's co-worker has a relative that went to a pump a few years ago and this relative said that "it has changed her life!" With that kind of recommendation it sounds like pumping is the way to go. Bring on the tic tac container.
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| an omnipod demo- you can see the adhesive backing |
www.myomnipod.ca
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| side view of the Omnipod |
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