At the end of August, my son got a new pump. We had been lovers of the Cozmo pump for over 10 years. It physically hurt to have to put it away but with no warranty and a child living hundreds of miles away, it seemed best to make sure that he had a pump with a company still behind it if he had any issues.
We both shed a few tears as we put his beloved "Lean Green Pumping Machine" in a box and brought out his new pump. When we sat down with his pump trainer, the trainer dealt with my son. Mom stayed in the background. The trainer talked to him when going through how it worked. My son is too big for me to hover over his shoulder so again, I just sat back and let him learn. It felt a little strange.
After she left, he let me touch the remote bolus and test drive it a bit. Soon though, it was hands off. I could touch it at night if he was out of range but that was it. I had not other reason to use it. If there was a change to be made, he did it. If there was a site change to be done, he did it.
As time went on, I used the pump less and less and I began to put it out of my mind. This was not my new toy to check out. It was his. When we had a problem, I grabbed the manual to help him figure out where to go but again, I checked a book while he was six steps ahead of me navigating through the pump screen itself.
It has been five and a half months since my son started on his new pump and now I can barely figure out how to bolus him with it. On the other hand, he has no problem making corrections, adjustments or anything else required.
A few weeks ago, a friend and I were talking about new pumps for our kids. Her child is also holding strong to her Cozmo but they know that a new pump needs to happen sooner rather than later. I casually told the mother not to be concerned about the pump that her child goes on next because she won't be playing with it. It will be her child's pump and Mom doesn't need to know how to operate it.
She thanked me. We have been so used to handling everything, checking out each device, and learning on an ongoing basis that as parents, we can forget that this isn't our disease. When our children were 2, 3 or 5, this was our disease no matter what anyone else said. Now that our children are 16, 17 or 20 we have very little input. We have been relegated to the sidelines whether we wanted to be or not. We can make suggestions. We can nag a little but our children are now young adults who will do what they feel is best. The only thing we can now hope for is that some of what we have taught them along the way has found a home in their own thought processes. It's a huge step but we can all do this with one foot in front of the other...and back away from the pump.
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