Two year old Natalie get's her insulin pump
by Tracy Crombie Crombeclan@aol.com

Natalie was diagnosed with diabetes one day before her first birthday. That was December 22, 1998. That was a very gloomy day. We had many relatives and friends from out of town and state at our home when Natalie was diagnosed. At first the doctors were treating her for an ear infection and then God woke me up at 1:00 O'clock in the morning and said she has all the signs of diabetes. At that point I never knew anything about it (in fact I thought you couldn't eat sugar). I rushed to my childcare book and sure enough I was checking off all the symptoms one by one and tears were streaming down my face onto the pages. My husband was not even home, he was working the night shift. I called him up at work and told him that he will have to take us to the doctor in the morning when he gets off.

When we got to the doctor all of us were sick with something but Natalie acted very different. I asked the doctor to check her for diabetes and his remark was and I will never forget this, "I have a thousand patients with symptoms like this, what makes you think she has diabetes?" I began by telling him that she just finished her 17th bottle of formula from the day before. To his surprise (not mine) he said, "Yep it's confirmed she has diabetes and she needs to get to the hospital quickly." We had two intense days of training and she came home on Christmas Eve! That was our present for the holidays.

After being on shots for just over a year, Natalie's diabetes was not in good control. She had an A1C of 10.1 and that was all that was needed for her doctor to suggest going on the pump. I was so excited. I was doing my homework on pump therapy and told them what I know and they were very impressed what I knew about it. Well we finally got our 508. It was teal green and Natalie who was 2 when she began pump therapy, loved it as much as a two year old can. She called it her "pager." When Natalie rolls over at night and the pump gets in her way (she wears it in a pouch called Waist-It) she wakes up and yells, pump!! pump!! So I go to her in her crib and turn it around so she can go back to sleep and she usually does. It's just so funny to hear her say that. Everyday new things are happening and she is discovering what life is like with a pump. To this day, Natalie is the youngest person that our team has ever put on the pump and Natalie was our doctors' youngest diagnosed. Her current A1c is 7.4

We feel very honored to be apart of this community and to have Natalie doing well on the pump and is three years old. She has been pumping now seventeen months. We use the MiniMed 508. Natalie loves to try to pretend to give herself a bolus. It hasn't happened yet, but at least she show signs of interest. She loves showing her pump off to people who have never heard about the pump before. One of her best friends is Kimberly who is eight days older and has diabetes too. She is on shots, we are trying to get her parents interested in the pump too. Who knows maybe they can be the next Pump Girls!

Tracy and Doug Crombie Crombeclan@aol.com