PUMPing!

Guess what came in the mail today?

Let's just say it was something Noah has been excited about getting for a few weeks now.  It took a lot of phone calls and a lot of comparing and contrasting, but it finally came.  He knew this special thing was coming today, so when Tater went berserk, he knew that meant the UPS guy was here.  He ran to the door like it was Christmas morning!  He ran to get his knife and started ripping open to the box to find his....

new INSULIN PUMP!!  We went with the Medtronic, which wasn't our first (or second) choice to be honest, but when they said it was covered 100% by insurance, well, we really couldn't argue with that.  Not only did he get his pump, but he got a whole lot more - a 3 month's supply of infusion sets, insulin injector needles (that's what I'm calling them, because I have NO idea what they are really called), and more.

Of course, looking through all of this stuff is going to take a million years (or at least the weekend) and we have 3 classes to take before he will actually be able to use the pump to pump insulin into him, but at least we're on our way, right?!

This is his new pump.  He picked the blue color.  Do I have any idea how it works?  Nope.  Will I learn? Do I have a choice? :-)  Pete and I scheduled his "Saline Class" for October and I've asked for that day off from babysitting, so I could go.  Hopefully, I can.  There we will learn the basics of how to operate the pump.  We'll inject it with saline and spend two weeks injecting him with saline through the pump, and continue to inject his insulin through his multiple daily injections (MDI).

This is his "Infusion Set".  This is the thing that inserts into his body.  How does that work?  Again, I have no idea.  There is so much to learn, that it'll be like learning all over again!  In fact, once we complete the 2-week Saline Test, we'll make sure we document everything during that time and hopefully, if we've done our job, we will be able to then start him on his insulin pump therapy and start rolling from there.  There is another class we'll take after all of this and it's called the "Advanced Features" class that will teach us more about the pump, but hey, one step at a time.

In his box today, he got a new blood sugar tester.  I *think* this is also a remote that will transfer that number to his pump, but I'm not really sure.  That's what it said on the box anyway!  Kinda cool.

And, as far as I know, this is the little unit that will pop that needle into his belly, arm, or wherever to get the tubing inserted into him.  Kinda of a little handy piece.  Let's hope I don't lose it!

So, friends, that's all the NEW stuff I need to find room for now.  I obviously don't have any room left in our cabinet for more, considering how full that cabinet currently is!  All those notebooks on the shelf there?  Those are all his log books, since his diagnosis in Jan. 2011.  I can't seem to give myself permission to get rid of them yet.  As you can see, I need to come up with a cool way to start storing all this additional equipment.

As you can tell from my last several posts that we've had a lot of stuff going on in the world of Type 1.  Between gearing up for the Walk through our fundraising or going to classes and getting this pump thing up and started, we have been pretty focused on Diabetes lately.  It's certainly not the only thing going on in our lives, but it's definitely taken a front seat in the past few weeks.  Don't be surprised if I focus on it for a little while yet.  So much to talk about as we begin this process and participate in the walk.  Hopefully, by Thanksgiving or so, we'll have his pump connected and ready to go, and be on our way to having a more controlled boy - and, of course, by "controlled" I only mean his BS numbers.  I don't think I'll ever be able to truly control this boy of mine! :-)