Considering a Pump...

We met with the Diabetes educator earlier this week to talk about putting Ben on an insulin pump. It's an exciting possibility for us because:

1. It would mean NO MORE SHOTS!! (We would do a site change every three days, which is equivalent to a shot, but once every three days as opposed to three times every day sounds great to us.)

2. It will allow us to be more flexible as far as when he eats. Right now, we make sure he eats breakfast at 8 a.m every day in order to give him his background insulin at the same time which is active for 24 hours. This means waking him up in the morning most days, so letting him sleep in would be a nice change.

3. It would (hopefully) mean better control of his blood sugar. The pump lets out small amounts of fast acting insulin every hour, mimicking a healthy pancreas. The amount of insulin can be adjusted at certain times of the day according to his specific needs. For example, he tends to run "high" in the afternoon. With a pump, we would be able to increase the amount of insulin during that particular time of the day to avoid a high. Also, on sick days blood sugars can be abnormal, so we would be able to temporarily adjust the basal rate of insulin. (The amount given every hour.)

And an added bonus to the particular pump we are considering is that it communicates wirelessly with a blood glucose meter. So the meter would test Ben's blood sugar, but also have the ability to control pump functions. It could calculate how much insulin would be needed for a meal, and then tell the pump to deliver it. The meter can also store carbohydrate information for 500 foods which we could customize.

Those are the major advantages to pumping. I'm hoping that once he is on the pump, we will discover many more. The plan is to have him start pumping this fall. The ball is rolling with insurance, and we need to coordinate appointments with the Diabetes educator and Ben's endocrinologist as we will be in frequent contact with them for awhile as he adjusts to the pump.