The quest for the pump

Well, the endo. has done her part. Now, we're waiting on insurance. M. called from Animas yesterday and informed me that the insurance was requesting 3 months worth of blood sugars. I record all of his sugars on a homemade chart. There are only 2 days worth of sugars on each page. I thought that was too many pages to fax. It would be about 45 pages. So, Michael and I spent about 3 hours last night taking turns typing about 900 blood sugars into the computer. We plugged along for a while but then the Duke/UNC game came on and we only put in sugars during the commercials. (Yeah Duke!!!!) But, it's done now. I spoke with M, and he sent the sugars to the insurance company today. He said hopefully we'll hear something by the end of the week. That's only 2 days away.

So, tell me why I am scared to death. I keep wondering if I'm doing the right thing. I think it's because I've finally gotten comfortable with the way we're doing things now. I know the pump is going to be a daunting task. I'm just so happy not to be stessed all the time that I'm scared the pump is going to start that all over again. Yet, I know that the pump will help in so many ways. Riley gets 1/2 unit Novolog for every 25 g of carbs. Well, sometimes he doesn't want to eat enough to get 25g carbs. But, if he eats 15-20 g of carbs and doesn't get insulin, then his sugar goes too high if he does get insulin, his sugars go too low. If he's very hungry and ends up eating 40 g, then he still only gets 1/2 unit (since he only gets 1 unit per 50 g carbs) then his sugar goes up high too. Then, there is still the nighttime lows. We almost have those under control now. Riley gets ice cream as a bedtime snack which he likes very much. Without the ice cream, he goes way too low at night. I know with the pump we can decrease his basal at night and hopefully combat those lows. Although Riley would just rather eat ice cream. I've actually gotten pretty good at figuring out how much ice cream he should eat based on what his sugars are. His endo. says I'm "dosing" him with ice cream. Also, I'd be lying if I didn't say the extra costs associated with the pump aren't stressing me out a little too. I work part-time now, 3 days a week. I'm seriously considering increasing to 4 days per week, but I HATE it. I want to be home with Riley more, not less.

Holden did get his learner's permit on Monday. He's done pretty good driving. I've had a few scary moments, but it hasn't been too bad. I feel like my baby is growing up way too fast. I just can' t believe he's 15.

I'll close with some humor from my day. A few weeks ago my mom made Riley a sugar free banana pudding. He absolutely loved it. He only ate a little. When he went back to my mom's the next day my dad had eaten the rest of it. This morning, he was sitting in the back seat on the way to my mom's. He was just sitting there. We weren't really talking. Then, out of the blue he said, "Mom, the next time you make a banana pudding, be quiet about it, so Grandaddy won't eat it all." He started my day off with a smile.