YOU SHOULD BE PUMPING ?

Flo decorates her pump with colored stickers

- by Stasia Bachrach s_bachrach@yahoo.com

7yo Flo on the jet ski My 7yo Flo was diagnosed with diabetes at age 2. She was so brittle with uncontrollable number swings. To add to that was her hypoglycemia unawareness that we thought would go away when she got older but so far only a small improvement has been seen in her ability to recognize a number of 60 instead of passing out when it's 30. Many of our diabetes community children were going on pumps but our endocrinologist was not pushing it for Flo.

Flo goes to a private school which has rules set for what teachers are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do. Apparently they are not allowed to do sugar checks. Flo can do her own but what if she's too low? This was our concern. She is now in second grade but since kindergarten there has only been one teacher who actually "took the diabetes ball and ran with it." In order to circumvent these problems I have educated all 18 children in her class how to recognize and treat low sugars, test gluc Flo's biggest problem was passing out in school from low sugars. Those students had to scrape her off the floor many times when she was on Ultralente and Humalog. So, her father and I thought, what about the pump? We went to the endocrinologist and asked for it and she wrote the prescription. Flo was connected to her pump in September, right after school started. Although it is not the end all and be all, it has changed our life in that she doesn't pass out any more and we aren't chasing insulin with food She ran track at school this fall and the pump did not slow her down. We just disconnected prior to her race and reconnected after. She also does a lot of indoor swimming in the winter and outdoor swimming in summer. Again, the pump does not stand in the way of anything she wants to do.

Regarding how she feels about the pump, it does not bother her at all to have to be attached to something all the time. She decorates the face plate with different colored attachments and stickers and it is fun for her. She loves the idea of a shot only once in a while, not five or so a day like she used to have. She loves giving her own boluses and doing other pump tech. tasks.

The pump has streamlined things and freed her up to take music lessons at dinnertime instead of having to eat right away. Although we are still kind of pump newbies we hope to learn more and more as time goes on.

Stasia Bachrach s_bachrach@yahoo.com


If you have a child with diabetes and would like to talk to other parents about the Insulin Pump, please contact Kid-Support@Insulin-Pumpers.org or visit the Insulin-Pumpers website.
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