She doesn't need to get injections with a syringe anymore, which was often times inconvienient, hurt and caused stress each time, it was more often than not inaccurate, therefore affecting her blood sugars, therefore affecting her mood.
We did the best we could for her, and her A1C was holding pretty steady at about 8.1-8.6%, which indicates a 3 month average of blood sugars in the high 200's. Not good.
The pump allowed her A1C to come down to an amazing 6.6% , which is a 3 month average blood sugar in about the 170's.
Here is the chart that breaks down hgb A1C. As you can see she is now in the goal range. As you look at the chart you can see how far we have come...at diagnosis she was at 10.8%, which means the 3 months prior to diagnosis her blood sugars were mostly in the 300's and higher, and since we were not doing anything to treat that, that was happening on a daily basis. On December 3, 2008, her blood sugar was 560. We have come a long way.
The pump has been able to give her more precise dosing. It doses to the 10th of a unit where as with injections, we were doing a full unit or a half....it was our only option. Even drawing up insulin to the half of a unit was a task in itself.
So her blood sugars are showing improvement, her moods have been better, and we get through this together and with more of a smile.
Every 2-3 days she gets her infusion site changed. It's the area where the pump connects to her body. Insulin is delivered to her just under the skin where a cannula is placed ("her site"). It's similar in design to a IV cathater, where a needle is inserted and then pulled out and left in place under her skin is a small cannula. This has been the worst of having the insulin pump, it's doing an IV prep every 3 days. Hannah has struggled with this the most. We have a process that we go through and it takes about 45min - 1 hr to change her site. Technically it should take less than 10 minutes. Right from the beginning , when we were at the pump start class, the infusion set choosen for her was the "Silhoette", because she is so thin. It goes in at a 45 degree angle just under the skin, and they put numbing cream on her so it didn't hurt so much. We have stuck with the numbing cream since it makes it easier on her. Most kids can get by with the "quick sets" and that goes in at a 90 degree angle, which is straight down and in and goes in with a push of a button-- ie: quick. Hannah's sites we have to manually insert. You need to have a little more fatty areas with the quick sets so that the cannula doesn't kink and not allow insulin in. Medtronic has just come out with a NEW "quick set" called the "Mio" and it has a shorter needle and cannula. Sometime this summer we are gonna try this one out. Hannah again, is not for change. Being that it's a quick set I think it's another thing that will make these site changes easier for us as parents and hurt less for Hannah. Also Steve has not yet done a site change in the entire year. That means I have done approximetly 150 site changes over the last year. I just started to teach Steve, but Hannah gets all worked up when I'm around and wants me to do it.
He just did his first one today, while I went to workout and it went just fine, and if we get going with the new Mio's this summer hopefully it will be easier and quicker for the summer, and even in a few years Hannah will be doing her own sites.
Also coming up, we will be walking in the JDRF 5K Walk to Cure Diabetes in Neenah WI on May 21st. Any support would be appreciated....donations can be made online: www.walk.jdrf.org, under team Hannah's Hopeful Hearts--(Hannah Emery) or checks can be mailed to us. Every walker, every step, every dollar brings JDRF closer to a cure.
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