My insulin pump rep is a mentor for Team in Training…small world, huh? She came over today to show me how the pump works, what it looks like, the basics of use, etc. Kade was enamored with her…she was very pretty and very nice, and he took to her like glue. I am so excited to start pumping. All the paperwork is in, now I just have to wait for the phone-call from the pump manufacturer to confirm the color and shipping address. Deciding on what color pump to go with is more difficult than the decision to pump in the first place. I’m going to be wearing this thing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (and you all know how obsessed I am with style) so I want to make the right choice.

The pump is going to make living with diabetes much easier. Right now I am living my life around diabetes. I have to eat at the same time every day. I can’t sleep in (the kids prevent this too, but I would like to have the option in 18 years). I can’t just take off to run errands, or take a walk, and I definitely can’t run more than 5 miles without intricate planning and preparation. The pump will give me the freedom to do what I want, eat what I want (or not eat, which is even more important because eating constantly throughout a run kind of defeats the purpose), and live like I did before diabetes…oh, and did I mention that it involves only one injection every 3 days as opposed to my current 4 shots a day routine.

An insulin pump acts like a pancreas would in a person without diabetes. A healthy pancreas secretes a low level of insulin all day to keep blood sugars in check during your daily activities. When you eat, the pancreas will secrete a burst of insulin in response to your meal. My pancreas doesn’t do either of those things, in fact, it doesn’t produce any insulin at all…hence the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. With an insulin pump, you receive a low level or basal level of insulin constantly, and that basal rate can be adjusted to your activites and change throughout the day. On top of the basal insulin, you bolus a larger amount of insulin when you want to eat or if you need to correct a high blood sugar. I guess you could do this with multiple daily injections also, but who wants to inject themselves 8-10 times a day…no thanks. The pump allows you to administer just the right amount of insulin you need, which means your risk of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is greatly reduced. It’s about as close as you can get right now to an artificial pancreas, and I am ready to welcome my little attachment with open arms…I’m going to think of it as a medicinal iPod. Too bad the design isn’t as up to date as the technology. Maybe if we yell loud enough, they’ll start to hear us…