Pumped up!

Five hours ago, I would've already felt that I had a lot to say on this post, but now....Whoa.

Yesterday was pump school, part one.  Katie from Medtronic walked us, and two other families, through why a pump helps you better regulate your blood sugars.  We loved Katie because of her name, because she has the same birthday and because she was awesome.  The class was a lot of review, but learned a lot about some other cool features of the pump.

Things like different type of bolus'.  A bolus is a dose of insulin.  The pump has three different ways to provide the bolus...immediate, arced (starts low goes high goes low again) or square (prolonged distribution of insulin).

There are things like patterns -- if you always go low at Grammy's house (yeah, right! cookies everywhere!) you can set a pattern that changes the way your insulin is dosed without having to reprogram everything when you go and when you come back.

And you can set basal insulin (the stuff you need all day long) and your short acting insulin (with food or to correct a high) to be at different rates at different times ... as much as a new rate each hour.

Pump installation was easy breezy.  Didn't hurt Hannah -- though there was a lot of nervous energy.  And by a lot, I really mean a lot.  And we walked out with a practice pump that's dosing saline so she can practice.  Which is cool.  Less cool was the fact that alarms reminding us to test were going off all night that we didn't set, didn't know how to stop and don't know how to turn off for tonight.  Good times.

We asked Katie if there was any chance of getting a pump before their birthday: May 18.  She kind of grimaced and said maaaaaaaaaybe.  Which was great....we knew inside of a month we'd have the pump.  I filled out the little bit of paperwork she needed to get going, emailed her a blood sugar log this morning and thanked her.

So imagine my surprise when I got home after lunch to pick Cody up for the orthodontist and Medtronic called.  Michelle was telling me that before she put my pump in the mail today......  WAIT?, WHAT?!?!?!?!

Yep.  Katie the awesome somehow pushed through getting prescriptions in order, insurance processed and approved and had Michelle calling me at 1.  We walked through colors for the pump and the sites (two different lengths of cording to give Hannah options with what she's wearing).  We walked through resources online and what would be coming in our magical box.  And best of all, we learned the pump will be 100% covered, as will all the supplies.  <<insert actual weeping with joy here.>>  As if that wasn't enough, we'll be getting a continuous glucose monitor that will make things even easier and better for us in the long haul.  That slows down insurance, so they held off on that piece in order to get the pump here.  If Katie and Michelle are representative of Medtronic, I'm in love.

The pump should arrive on Tuesday.  We'll go to pump school part two on Wednesday.  We'll be on the DL, because the other boys won't have their pumps yet.  But on Tuesday, we'll schedule a 1-1 with Katie to get her pump all set up.  We could be using it by the weekend.  Honestly, I'm a bit beyond words.

In other news, Cody's had an awesome week.  His student led conference was fantastic.  He's rocking straight As.  And he has just been really, really awesome since this has all gone down.  The ortho appts went well.  Hannah got a pass (amen.  She did say "Mom, you don't think I would have bad enough luck to get diabetes AND braces do you??") and looks like she won't need correction at all.  Cody needs correction and will spend a year in braces.  Thankfully not horrible stuff, just stuff that needs to get fixed.  No headgear.  Whew. And, he can still eat apples.  Which, as those of you who know us well know, is one of about 6 foods Cody eats.

All in all, a simply awesome day....