APPROVAL!

I just got word that Seth's pump has been approved and shipped out this morning.  It will be here on Friday and we do pump training on Monday!  Woo Hoo.  I am so excited!  Seth is going to be thrilled.

Now Medtronic is submitting to see if insurance will approve a Continuous Glucose Monitoring System...Fingers crossed this next valuable piece of D weaponry will soon be on it's way to us.

Saturday, Seth spent the day with a friend and his dad.  They went bike riding, out to lunch and played at a park.  Easy peasy right?  This was the first time that Seth has gone on his own outside of our safety net since his diagnosis, and I was so proud of how he handled it.  The dad was a champ too.  He listened to all my concerns and my quick training and accepted the challenge.  I kept my cell phone close by and off they went, while hubby and I took the girls to lunch and a movie.  Seth called me once to tell me that they had gone to lunch, he chose deep fried seafood.  He and dad SWAGGED at 30 carbs, so he dosed 2 units.  Since he called me 90 minutes after lunch and was at 115, I'd say he did pretty good.

What I did learn though is...we will be buying another cell phone.  Our rule has always been, no cell phones until driving age (16)...but with this diagnosis I want another cell phone.  It will be called the family cell phone  to eliminate the fight between Seth and Leah, this way if they go ride their bike down the block, if Seth has a problem, Leah can call me...if they don't come home on time, I can call them, etc.  Also,  I can train Seth (and Leah) to call and check in.  I would like to have heard from Seth a little more, like when he was SWAGGING his lunch carbs, etc. so he and I could make the decision.  But overall, I am really proud of the way he handled himself and I am grateful for a parent who wasn't scared of taking my son was has D...even when I handed him a handout on hypoglycemia, and a bag of snacks and showed him how Seth tests himself and gave him a range of numbers with a list of what to do within each range.  He didn't blink, he told me to have a great day.  AWESOME!  And I am sure my son loved being as normal as possible that day...EVEN MORE AWESOME!!!

D: Techie Style!

I have alluded to it a couple of times, but I will now say it.  I am a techie/gizmo/gadget girl.  I come by it honestly.  My momma taught me well.  I still have my original 32gig iPod (with the wheel), she works great and hasn't failed me yet.

I mentioned last week that I had ordered the new Telcare meter to eliminate the log battle with my son.  Well when I got home from parent/teacher conferences yesterday afternoon, it was sitting on my porch waiting for me.  So we are now managing D, totally Techie...I am sure none of my friends or family are surprised.  :)

DISCLAIMER: These are my own thoughts and opinions of this device.  These are my first initial thoughts and experiences, I will write a new post once we have had a chance to more thoroughly test this out in our rural market.  Please be mindful that we live in RURAL Alaska and as such have unique conditions that come into play with a product like this.

We ripped into the box and excitedly read the directions that said:  Plug in for 12 hours before first use.  I knew it had a rechargeable battery, but I was anxious to try it out.  We plugged it in and watched the screen light up. Ooh...pretty, shiny...fun.  :)

The directions also said when you first turn the Glucometer on, it can take up to 15 minutes to find a cellular provider.  Alrighty then.  The 3 of us took up positions around the breakfast bar and waited for the X that was on the cell bars to go away.  And waited, and waited, and waited.  We did some chores and checked again, nope.  Cooked dinner, nope.  NOW...I need to say, this was one of my fears given that we live in Alaska.  We don't have a lot of the cell providers that the lower 48 has.  My son suggested that we give it a rest and let it charge overnight before we started worrying too much.

When I got up this morning at 3:00 am to check Seth's BG, I had a hard time falling back to sleep.  Finally at 4:00, I came downstairs to check.  Still a big X.  Drats.

One of the issues that I have had, is the toll-free number does not work from Alaska.  Telcare is working on fixing this, but for now I have been given a cell phone number as well as the email address  of one of the managers, who has been AMAZING.  So I decided to email my manager friend and let her know of my cellular problems and to ask if she had any troubleshooting ideas.

I went back to bed and when I came back down at 6:30, I had an email waiting, telling me they had checked for cell phone providers up here who would be compatible and there were plenty.  She then asked me to bring the meter to work with me and she would call me on my lunch hour so we could troubleshoot.  When I went to put the meter in my bag, I glanced at it and saw that the X was GONE!  In it's place was the name of one of our local cell providers.  OHMYGOSH.  ITSWORKING!!!  I ran upstairs and tested my son again and we anxiously watched the tester:  DATA SENT SUCCESSFULLY. 

There is a computer portal you can access and a free app that I got for my iPhone to check the results, here are a few pictures of the iPhone app:

This is a snapshot of Seth's day.  Now...I am supposed to be able to check this on my phone, so I know what his tests are during the day.  I work in a concrete school and do not get great reception.  Even so, I was home for about an hour before my results updated this evening.  I will keep track of this as I also want to use this as a tool for when Seth stays the night at friends and for when he goes to Scout Encampment this summer.  I was able to access the portal from work, so I still knew what his numbers were, but I may not always be around a computer and I ALWAYS have my phone with me.

When you test, you attach an activity to the testing time, before breakfast, after breakfast, fasting, snacktime, etc.  We had a couple of oopsies today with Seth forgetting to attach the proper activity and you can't edit once the data has been sent.

On the iPhone app, you can also enter the insulin injections as well as the carbs consumed.  Which is nice.  But I am confused as to why those are not options on the tester, it wouldn't be that hard and then all the input would on the device.  It is a little bit of a pain to have to use the device and the iPhone to log (since we invested in this to do away with paper logs).  They have a forum and they ask for feedback, this is something I plan to bring up.

Tomorrow will be his first day at school with the monitor.  I'm anxious to see how it goes.  I'll keep you posted.  :)

Techie's

A few weeks ago, I heard tell about a new Glucometer that was hitting the market by Telcare.  And the abilities it promised appealed to my techie loving mother’s heart:

Abilities like:

Upload BG’s to an online database

Create charts of BG’s to track trends that are printable…can you imagine how much that will impress your doctor at your next visit?

Having user created accounts so doctor/provider can access the database and monitor patients BG, if the patient grants access.

Texting my phone when a BG is uploaded

I was intrigued and began researching.  For some reason logging is a battle with my son.  It doesn’t seem like it would be that hard, but he will even pretend to write his numbers down and NOT.  Right now, while everything is so new and his life has changed in so many ways…this battle isn’t worth it to me, not if we can purchase this technology to stop the battle…not to mention it will save his overworked school nurse from having to scan and email me his numbers every day…and it will make testing/logging in Disney World so much easier.

If you sign a year contract, the meter is $100.00 and the strips are $35.95 for 50, this is before insurance reimburses me. (I am currently paying $128.00 as a COPAY on 300 strips).  This is a huge cost savings to me and my insurance company.

There were a few glitches in the process, but Telcare has been in personal contact with me to work them out and I feel assured that this is definitely not the norm.  They are a very new company, just opened for business this month.  There are bound to be some growing pains with that.

So yesterday, I did it.  I took the plunge and I ordered the glucometer and 200 strips.  It will all be here on Monday and we are so excited.

Last night I downloaded the free App for my iPhone.  Using this app, I can add Seth’s insulin amounts/times to his logs as well as his carb amounts and meal times to the logs.  I wish that were an option on the meter, but I can hope that will evolve and come to be in time.

So…once I’ve had a chance to play with it. I’ll let you know my thoughts, good or bad.

In other techie news:

We had our 1 month follow up visit with the doctor this week.  The doctor and I both believe that we are entering the honeymoon phase and have backed off on Seth’s Lantus dose and adjusted his Carb Ratio to stop him from running as low as he has.  We are seeing some improvement…but what really excited me is that SHE brought up the idea of Seth switching to a pump.  Said now that she has gotten to know me (over the course of all of our daily phone calls) and seen our documentation and my involvement that she believes I will stick with this and that we are a good candidate for the pump and she sees no reason to wait a year!  I told her I was wondering about making the transition this summer since I am off work and Seth is out of school, seems like a good time to do it since we would be spending so much time together and she agreed!!!

So, Seth and I are reading information and watching videos on:

The Omnipod

and Medtronic

Those are the two pumps she is familiar and trained on.  The Omnipod is a pod delivery system so there is no tubing running from the pump to the insertion site.  The Medtronic does have tubing, but it also has a built in Continuous Glucose Monitoring System, so there are pro’s and con’s to both.  We are doing our research and have information requests into both companies.  Seth is a little nervous about it because when he asked the doctor how it felt to insert the cannula, the doctor said, like an IV.  Well, if you read our hospital post you know the IV did not go well for Seth.  I am hoping we can test each ones insertion out for him to see.  Most kids say it doesn’t hurt any worse than the Lantus shot (which is a little painful because the insulin crystallizes under the skin so that it is a slow release)…but Seth has to experience things to believe it.

So that is what we have been up to…you?

~B