Pump Visit Number Three: Noisy Tamagotchi

I am not sure how much this episode can be considered a pump visit, but since it involves further education regarding the insulin pump, I decided that it counts.

We have a pump educator come to us to start M on saline.

The pump educator works for the pump company, and tells us that we will want to go to see the DNE in about a week to see how we are doing, and hopefully to get M on the pump "live". In the meantime, where do we live so that she can come to our home to train us and get M started?

We live nowhere near anything.

I ask the nice representative where she is coming from. It is nearly one and a half hours from my home, but a mere 45 minutes from where I work. I ask her if she would like to meet us around 3:00 pm at M's school. I assume that this will be okay with the administrator.

The representative agrees, and the appointment is set for a couple of days away.

We all arrive at the school and set up at a round table in the administrative area of the building. M has brought her infusion set, her reservoir, her bg meter, test strips, and, of course, the pump itself, all stocked up with fresh batteries.

We go through diabetes 101 again, and then the pump rep shows M all of the cool safety features, many of which I had read about.

I think that the pump sounds like a really expensive Tamagotchi. If you don't do something to it on a regular basis, it starts beeping at you. Don't touch it for twelve hours, and an alarm sounds, because it thinks you are in a coma and you need someone to help you.

After all of that, M uses the reservoir to draw out the saline from the vial that the rep gives her. Then she makes sure that the little screw that pushes the insulin out of the reservoir is rewound to the start position. M attaches the infusion set to the reservoir, and the rep realizes that she is our of alcohol swabs.

"They were recalled this week, and I forgot to put new ones in my bag."

Recalled alcohol swabs? Really? I guess the medical profession can't be too careful in our litigious society!

M pokes the infusion set into her body, and she's good to go.

Throughout the training, various people stop to sit and watch, or stand and ask questions. These people include teachers, the principal, and students. Everyone wants to know how M's new toy works, and how it will make her life easier.

M and I found this behavior perfectly normal. Supportive, even. The pump rep had to be put at ease. "Don't worry," I tell her, "This is like our family here." I realized that she may have been concerned about HIPAA, but in reality, these people need to know what all this stuff is on M's body, and what to expect.

So, with a quick quiz at the end of out one and a half hour visit, M is using the pump to calculate carbs, do phantom boluses, and pretend to cover bg highs. All using the miracle of saline.

In another week, she will be using the pump without a net.

At least the batteries for the pump are easier to find than the batteries for this little fella!