Last night, we went for an evening walk. My phone was running on fumes so I plugged it in to charge and left it behind for a change. Imagine my surprise when I walked back into the house and saw two missed calls from my youngest son. There had to be trouble. He had left a message but I simply called him instead.
"My pump won't let me bolus. When I need to bolus it screams at me instead."
A lot of not so nice words went through my head as I realized that my son was at his father's, not coming home for another week, and had no spare pump with him. I asked him if he had tried to take out the batteries, restart it and bolus. He had tried everything. Super crap! I asked him for the serial number off of his pump and the support line telephone number. I told him I would get on the phone and we would go from there. In the meantime, he had told me before he left that he had syringes at his father's house so he could inject.
I called the Cozmo support line and was shocked to no longer even hear, "Press 3 to deal with warranty issues". There was just dial the extension or press 2 for clinical support. Eek!! The client list must be getting smaller. I finally spoke to the on-call answering service. I knew she was not a pump person. It took five spellings for her to type out "bolus". It was frustrating but not her fault. I waited to get my call back from the clinical staff (last time I called there was only two of them left).
A woman called me within a few minutes. She quickly said that she would replace the pump. They only have one color--slate grey. They can only ship during office hours. The pump most likely would not go out until late tomorrow afternoon due to many downsizing issues. What can you do when they don't make your pump anymore?
In the meantime, my son had called two more times. He had finally got his pump to bolus...oh and correct that high that had happened because he was eating cinnamon buns. Yes, I screamed. Yes, I reminded him to inject! Yes, I suggested that foods that were not high in fat and a carb counting nightmare would be the best to use until he had a fully functional pump. I then began the search for his old Cozmo 1700.
This was the pump that usually travels with him. This was the pump that I had thought about sending along (and normally do) "just in case". This was the pump that was instead hidden somewhere in the depths of his room. When I finally found the lifesaving pump, I set about the task of reprogramming.
And here would be where further proof of me being a "think about it staller" came in. What were his basal rates? What were his carb to insulin rates? Heck, what was his insulin sensitivity these days? I had no idea! I searched for the log sheets from his last endo appointment. I tried to boot up my old computer that had his Cozmo program running. Neither would have the latest results but after numerous calls and texts, my son was no longer answering his phone or his messages. I had no way of getting the actual, recent rates. Before he left to go away I had thought, "I should write down all of his rates just in case. I should actually keep a book that has the latest changes in it at all times." Of course, that is where it ended...as a thought.
The old pump is in the mail. Because of where my son is staying, the only courier service that has a slight chance of getting to him within 24 hours is through Canada Post. I am crossing my fingers that he gets it tomorrow, if not it will take until Monday. I am kicking myself for not sending it to someone at an address with higher odds of it arriving on Friday but you only think of these things once it is too late.
Lesson learned. This "think about it staller" will never let her son go anywhere without the spare pump. Said pump will have the latest rates programmed in before leaving the house. An updated list of basal, bolus and correction rates will be kept near to me...Hopefully!
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| The old standby and one of the old Lean Green Pumping Machines |
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