Thursday, January 12, 2006

I'm going to try one more time

I'm going to try to post one more time. If it doesn't work this time, I'm going to pull my hair out. I have been tagged by Sandra http://www.artistmom2two.blogspot.com . I am going to join in the fun later, but for now, an update on Riley's sugars. He is now up to 1.5 units of Lantus a day. His sugars are much better. They are on the high end of his range, but in range, none the less. He is spiking up in the middle of the night. I don't think that it is a rebound from lows. I have been checking sometimes every hour and haven't found any lows, only highs. At bedtime last night, he was 163. He got a 10 g snack. At 2 AM he was 271. Pre-breakfast: 143. This puts him just a tad above his morning range of <140. If it happens again tonight, I'm calling the endo. It's almost like his Lantus wears out. He takes it at 8:30 AM. He might need a dose at night, but I hope not. He's already getting 4 shots a day, 5 if he needs a correction. I can't wait to get the pump. The thought of pushing a button and giving precise amounts of insulin without a needle stick sounds like heaven to me. I have wanted a pump from the beginning. While Michael has been supportive, he hasn't been as gung ho about it as me. But, since attending pumping classes and playing with the virtual pumps on line, he's as excited as me about it now.

Speaking of the pump, a couple of posts ago, I said we had decided on the Cozmo. Well, some comments by Carol G. made me revisit the Animas. I knew it had the lowest basal dose, but had not really analyzed what that meant. Cozmo's lowest basal is 0.05 and increases in those increments. So, it's lowest rate are 0.05 and 0.1. The Animas has a basal of 0.025 that also increases in those increments. So, it's lowest are 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, and 0.1. So, more lower basal rates to chose from. So, Michael and I went back to the Animas site and played with the pump a little more. Long story short, I faxed all the appropriate paperwork to Animas yesterday. A couple of hours later, a nice man from Animas called to say he had received it and would be contacting the MD and insurance. So, we're on our way!!! I'm so excited. I know it will be hard work, but I still can't wait. I just hope insurance goes through OK. I've called them before and they said pumps were covered at 80%. I just hope they don't deny Riley for some reason. If they did, I would be devestated. So, how long do you think it will be before I hear something?

One more question for you experienced bloggers. How do you post a link without showing the address? Instead of showing the http:// format, how can you just have someone's name there and when you click on that, it goes to their site? Care to share your secret?

8 comments:

Shannon said...

Seriously, how old is the bottle of insulin you're using? If you upped the dosage and he's still at the higher end, then it could well be the insulin is no good anymore.

Try a new bottle and see what results you get.

That's great that you have nailed down which pump you're going with. Everyone, no matter what pump they use, seems to be happy with the one they're with. Good luck with getting the pump!

Sandra Miller said...

Penny, you are absolutely going to love the flexibility of the pump!

I'm very excited for all of you.

On pasting a link into a post: Click "Edit Html" at top right of the post, then type the name you want linked, highlight it, and click on the add link icon (next to the i at the top left of your post box). Your links will look fabulous.

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness! Well I just followed a link Ellen posted on somewhere (do you know her from CWD chat or her blog?) and followed links from there and just clicked on your blog because your son is the same age as mine pretty much. I generally don't even read blogs. And then of course I ended up posting all over yours :^)

Well I guess I'll feel responsible now that you've decided on the Animas over the Cozmo! Gosh I hope you like it! We have been very happy with ours and I think the ability to fine tune the basal is not a bad thing when you have a little dude. Imagine being able to give insulin for just one hershey's kiss! It is so nice to be able to let them eat like a normal kid for the most part. We've also found the "combo" bolus (where you spread out the bolus over hours) to be very helpful at times.

I highly recommend asking your animas rep to bring you some infusion sets to try out on yourself (or your husband - heh!). I wore a pump on myself for several days and tried several types of sets (on me - not William) - you can pump saline and get used to the buttons and how it feels and what sets feel like. It helps me understand his experience a bit better. I know now if it hurts to roll around on the ground with a needle stuck in my backside (where he wears his - top of the hip), etc. Of course I have more padding! I think it also helped him seeing me wear the pump for awhile before we put it on him. At one point he thought everyone wore pumps - poor little guy...

We use Rapid D sets by the way (with a metal needle) - at first I freaked because you have a metal needle in you all the time but actually it was more or as comfortable as other ones we tried on ourselves. William has done well with it. The metal needle means no canula to crimp and it good for active kids. However William was much younger (still 2 yrs old). There is another set that has the teflon canula that also comes with its own inserter that we tried and also liked.

Ok...I'll shut up now. I guess you can tell how much I love the pump and have been happy with pumping in general. I think it is a great move and I wish you the best.

Penny Ratzlaff said...

Shannon, The Lantus is only 10 days old. His sugars have been lower today. 91 at lunch and 61 at supper. It came up to 120 after drinkable yogurt. We'll see how it goes tonight.

Sandra, Thank you for the link info. I'm going to go try it right now.

Carol G., please don't stop giving advice. I am very interested to hear everything anyone has to say about the pump. And, yes I do know Ellen. I have chatted with her many times at CWD and I also read her blog.

Unknown said...

Penny,
The pump is heaven. Rather than give correction shots which was starting to get to me when Josh would have lunch and then 2hrs later said he was still hungry and rather than make him wait (He's a grazer. He must eat like 6 small meals a day) I can give him some insulin here, and then a little more later. Awesome flexibility.
I don't think your son would be turned down for one. My son's endo was pushing for him to get it ASAP. I shouldn't have waited 2yrs too long.
I'm glad to hear things are getting Better! :-)

Anonymous said...

My seven-year-old son has "dawn phenomenon" and his Lantus doesn't cover him for a full 24 hours. He gets a shot of NPH at around 10:00 PM to cover these nighttime rises. I hated having to add another shot to the 4 he was already taking, but until we can figure out a way to afford a pump, it's the best way to keep him in range.

Good luck to you. My son was about your son's age when he was diagnosed and keeping a child that young in range is a daunting task.

Penny Ratzlaff said...

terrilyn, I'm afraid we might have to add another shot, but I hope not. But, I don't like his nighttime highs. When he took the Lantus at night he had morning lows (50s-60s).

Shannon said...

The reason I've been asking is because the first thing we used to check when he was on shots was how old the insulin was before we made changes. More often than not the insulin was about 2 wks old when he'd start shooting up.

As soon as we'd change vials, his numbers would go back down again. Sorry if it seemed like I was nagging:)