Insulin pump drama

We had that moment.

How we have avoided it this long, I will never know.

We have had episodes where we've had to whisper into our cell phones during movies, walk away from a dinner table, or sit nervously while we wait for a phone call confirming the child's sugar is going down.

We've trained and retrained several family members on the ways of diabetes. We've taught them how to check blood glucose, watch for signs of high/low blood sugar, how to check ketones, and how to work an insulin pump. We even have one, wonderful, babysitter who is trained to care for M. Even S, can check his sugar now if needed!

The one thing that we haven't taught people to do is change his pump site. It's not difficult at all, but involves a multiple step process...rewind pump, load cartridge, change cartridge, remove old site, prime pump, load cannula's, insert new site, tell M, the phrase that HAS TO BE SAID, each time his site is changed, give hugs and send the boy on his way...and any other steps I missed! It sounds complicated, but in all reality is quite easy. We've briefly gone over "trouble shooting" of sorts with the pump, but never how to do the whole thing.

Tonight, was one of those nights where someone needed to be trained.

This time it was unavoidable. We had to leave a "date night" to go and care for M. His pump site fell out, and after giving him an actual shot, his sweet Aunt Sissy, who spends her time as a nurse caring for non med compliant diabetics, could not get his sugar below 450 and she couldn't rest until it was.

I answered my cell phone, which was on vibrate, in a hushed tone, as the movie blared in the background. My sister told me the site fell out and his sugar still hadn't come down. I told her I'd call right back... I got up, squeezed my chubby behind past the people in our aisle and walked out to talk to her. She gave him a snack, checked his sugar and then dosed him accordingly. I told her call me if she needed to.

I walked back into the theater, squeezed past the people, who once again gave me a dirty look and sat down. No sooner had my butt hit the seat when the phone vibrated again... It was Nancy and she said she was sorry, but we had to come and get him. He was miserable. Fussing, complaining and wanting his mommy. I leaned to my husband, explained the situation and we arranged for him to hitch a ride with our friends that we out with us.

I grabbed my stuff and started to squeeze past the people in the row again...decided that I would go the OTHER way, past the people who looked much more friendly. They were.

I arrived to a chorus of "mommy's here" and smiled! Well, two of the three sang my praises, the oldest was already sacked out with his cousin. I gave my sister a crash course in pump site changes, thanked her profusely and told her to quit apologizing for having me come and get him. I assured her that when you have a child with a chronic disease, these are the things that have to be expected.

All in all, things went well. No ketones the whole time...and his new site is in and his sugar is down!