New tricks for an old dog

After feeling like a failure upon receiving the last diabetes "grade", I sent myself back to school. I got out the John Walsh "Pumping Insulin" book and began to carry it around with me. At first it simply enjoyed a few rides in the car but eventually I took it out of my bag and began to read.

I have read these books more than once and keep them for a reference source. After pumping for seven years, I decided that it was time to see what more could be done. If needed, I was willing to completely start over with basal rates and bolus ratios. There had to be something I could do to help me get through puberty...well besides let go.

The first few chapters were all about why people would want to pump, what to look for in a pump, etc. Great information but not what I needed to know at the moment. I kept reading because I knew that no matter how basic some parts may have seemed, I was going to learn a lot once again. Sure enough it happened! It was not exactly like a lightening bolt revelation. It was more like a "you must be kidding? Who could really do this?" sort of moment. In fact I instantly pulled out my blackberry and sent out an email asking "who can really do this??" Well it turns out a lot of people.

John Walsh was discussing the importance of prebolusing. When you are dealing with a small child this task becomes almost impossible--well at least in my house. We never knew if Liam would eat anything let alone to try and prebolus for an entire meal 20 minutes before he was going to eat! Recently I had been told to get him in this habit of prebolusing. It would have a real effect on his A1c. We had been trying but I wasn't going crazy about it. After reading the chapter and talking with other parents, I decided to be a bit more aggressive with this. We began to prebolus as soon as we were preparing to sit down for supper. We were still far from the required 20 minutes but much better than 20 minutes after we had begun eating or worse--simply forgetting altogether.

Prior to this revelation I just didn't know what to do. There were highs that I could not bring down and I was going crazy. Maybe hormones have just been kind to me but we have been prebolusing for a week and WOW! Readings have been in range an incredible amount of the time. It almost scares me when I look and see such great readings. Now when Liam is on his own, he is still not perfect. He still forgets to bolus let alone prebolus but when he is around Mom the new habit of test, bolus and prepare your food is working for him.

I went a step further today and asked "have you noticed how great your readings have been? Don't you feel really good?" The answer was typical Liam, typical teen..."My readings have been in range? I didn't notice." Ahhhhhh! Oh well Mom noticed. Mom feels a bit better and will take this small bit of respite while I can because I have been assure that it will definitely not last.