Getting an insulin pump – a date with a pump

Animas Vibe insulin pumps

Rung six (or is it seven) – a date with a pump

Today, sat at work, just recovering from my 12 mile cycle to work I got a call from a number I didn’t recognise. I didn’t answer it immediately but then saw it was a Winchester number, who could it be, I’d better answer it.
It was a DSN whom I’ve never met whose recently joined the diabetes team and it was the first time I’d spoken to her, but what a first conversation to have, which lasted for the next 24 minutes.

Damn you email Spam filter

The DSN had sent me an email yesterday and was surprised not to have had a response, the team at Winchester had obviously told her how internet-addicted I am and how keen we are for the pump – I may have emailed them one or two too many times recently asking progress 🙂
I hadn’t seen the email, it had been caught up by my email spam filter which had decided to ditch everything I did want and nothing I didn’t.

Is the 20th July any good?

I wasn’t near a computer to read the email so the DSN went over the details: would dates for the 20th and 26th July be okay?
“Yes, of course, fantastic, wow, this is great”. “But I just want to check when Amy is going on the school trip in July first”.
We spoke around different issues for a while, discussing how very confident we feel about going on the pump – yes, yes, we know it’s not a cure, yes, yes, we know that Amy might not enjoy the experience – and we spoke about initial use of saline or insulin.
The DSN said she’d like to meet us before the first date, “how about a week and a half before the pump, perhaps on the 10th”.
“Yeah, sure, 10th, that’ll be fine. That’s a Wednesday right?”
“No, the 10th is a Monday”.

Hold on, you mean June?

“10th July, that’s definitely a Wednesday.”
“Sorry Kevin, I’m talking about June, not July.”
“For the chat? Then the pump in July.”
“Erm, no, for everything.”
“Crikey!”

Saline or Insulin?

Many people seem to use Saline for a week or two, just to get used to wearing the pump: we discussed the issues over what would be best.
Initially we both thought Saline would be best but…Amy’s off on a school trip to Europe mid July. So we decided going on insulin immediately was the best idea, to give us 3 weeks to iron out any issues.

A date with a pump

So there we have it, Amy will be getting her pump on 20th June, going on insulin straight away.
I’m so excited.
One week later we’ll go back to clinic to check everything’s okay and learn all the advanced techniques.
I think we’ll find it hard not to use combo-bolusing immediately!
Two weeks later Amy goes on a school trip to Germany.
Actually, I’m now blooming nervous. I wasn’t before but I am now.

Did I mention that Amy will be getting her pump on the 20th June? 🙂