Jennifer's Mom Tells Her Story

Jennifer went on the pump May 12, 1996. It has been fantastic. Not to say we haven't had a few complications, but nothing major.We have learned quite a lot from the pump. The first weekend Jennifer was on it was very hectic. We didn't realize that the large doses of NPH that she had been taking stayed in the body, and for the first few days her basal rate was very low and she did great. Once the NPH was out of her system her #'s soared. It started of course at midnight and continued to get worse through the night until mid afternoon the next day. Fortunately we have a fantastic endo and we spoke to him constantly beginning at 3AM.

Once we got the basal rate higher everything was fine and has been ever since. We have learned how important it is to be willing to test regularly. Jennifer pumps Humalog, so she cannot forget to bolus when she eats. If she does her #'s immediately rise. The only other thing we have discovered to keep checking is for bubbles. If you get a bubble then you are missing a dose. When all of these things are in line her #'s are great. She has only missed bolusing twice, and we have caught it both times quickly.

The pump has been the best thing we have done for her. Jennifer's #'s are so much better than they were with shots. When her #'s go above 150 we really start to wonder why so High compared to the constant roller coaster of #'s in the 300's before. She loves the freedom to sleep in as late as she wants. She eats pretty much (within reason) what she wants and when she wants. She has totally given up bed time eating, and doesn't ever have to watch the clock. We just spent 2 days at Disney World with all their cousins, and it was great to be able to be like everyone else. For the first time since her diagnosis we feel like we are in control and not the diabetes controlling her. We were in the countries at Epcot and all the girls decided instead of eating a regular lunch we wanted to go through the countries trying little bits of all the different foods. Jennifer was able to do it with us. Something she could have never done on shots.

Jennifer is on the Minimed 507 and uses the soft set infusion sets. It comes with an inject eze which is great for her, because that is the only way she has ever been able to give herself her shots. To my knowledge it is the only infusion set that has an inject eze. We have purchased pj's and t-shirts from the Uni catatlog, also the leg thing. It's great for dresses.

I highly recommend the pump to any child that is responsible and willing to test frequently. For Jennifer it has been fantastic!

Sue