Site Change

Every 3 days we change Betsey's infusion set, which she currently has in her bum. The site lasts for 3 days before it gets "tired" and the insulin flow may diminish or just block all together. Sometimes if we're even 8 hours late, meaning we were due to change in the morning but waited until before bed, she'll go high - pushing 300's for no reason, and I just know it's the site.

Ever since Betsey has been on the pump, I have been the one to change it out... just because. Bets is more comfortable because she thinks I can just get it done, I know what I'm doing, it's all business. On occasion Speedo has had to do it.... one time I was away in Florida, one time it was an emergency change... but I'm on the phone walking them through it. (I also have a smidgy bit of a control thing going on, too...) Even at school, I'll race down there and change it if need be.

It makes Betsey wince when we get ready to do it. She shudders. She closes her eyes. She makes a funny noise. She'll even giggle sometimes. Sometimes she says, "wait...wait...wait...ok, go...no WAIT....wait...alright....no, I'm not ready, hold on....." I'm embarrassed to say I have not inserted one in myself to "understand" the pain. I know I should-what is my hold up? Why am I such a wimp when she is so stoic and brave??

I have tested my blood sugar with that little poker that feels like it's cutting the tip of your finger off when you use it--what is up with that?! The pain lasts for hours!!! I actually put a band aid on mine when I'm done. A Dora one.

Anytime I've had to help console a friend who insists their child has diabetes because they have symptoms that mimic Betsey's initial ones (and I am NOT poking fun, honestly, it's just the way of us moms to be so paranoid) I tell them I can test their blood sugar right here, right now, and tell them if their sugar is too high. Dr. Meghan on call. I insist it doesn't hurt, a quickie poke. Hold still... not a big deal... the whole time I'm thinking YOWZA, this little gizmo sucks!!! The children always do better than I do when I test myself. Maybe they don't have as many nerve endings in their teeny tiny finger tips?

Betsey's infusion set consists of the actual site which is attached to tubing and a round end piece with another needle that hooks onto her insulin cartridge that goes into her pump. The cartridge pushes insulin through the tubing and into the needle in her bum, which adheres there with super sticky tape. 24 hours of insulin delivery--as close as we have right now to a pancreas. This keeps her alive. Amazing, isn't it?

(The infusion set Betsey uses ... the circle in the 2nd picture is around the little needle that inserts and then is retracted leaving a cannula under her skin that delivers the insulin. Note: that blue thing is the inserter to get the needle in in one swift motion-it doesn't stay connected to Betsey. )

One time, about a few months into Betsey's pump wearing days, she decided she didn't want to change her site. She took it out and decided we were NOT under any circumstances putting it back in. (This was a different pump than the one we have now, a different infusion set-it hurt more.) I was kind of speechless, I didn't quite know how to handle it because she had always just gone along, with the occasional grunt or sigh or comment-under-her-breath. I let it go. I felt so guilty, so badly about forcing her to hold still and let me jab this thing in her. It wasn't even about her having to have the medicine, the insulin to keep her alive, all of a sudden I felt like I was completely invading her, completely disregarding her feelings after all this time. She didn't want another needle, she was sick of the poking, she was done. And this was only months into it. Sweet dear, we have years of this ahead of us.

It was just after dinner time and we had a couple hours before bed time. Finally, after 4 hours, I talked her into it. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't easy, but I didn't have to hold her down. I don't know what we would have done had it resorted to that.

But she did cry. And she did go to bed without giving me a hug and a kiss. But she had her medicine.

Recently, I was out and Betsey was home with her older sister. She called me-- she was high. She felt kind of yucky. She needed a new site--we had forgotten to change it the night before, and she needed a new site. I told her I'd be home in about 1/2 an hour, any chance she could do it herself. "No way!" I suggested she try it, I'd walk her through it. She could do this. "No." That was that.

I hurried through to finish in the store. My phone rang.

"I did it."

"Betsey?"

"I did it, Mommy, I changed my site! All by myself!"

"What?! You did?? Betsey!!!!"

I was so excited, I couldn't believe it, I was so happy for her - this was huge! This was a major accomplishment for her!

"You filled the tubing?"

"Yup."

"No air bubbles?"

"Nope."

"You did 'fixed prime'?"

"Yup."

"You did the whole thing, you even inserted it yourself?? Hayls didn't help?"

"No, Mommy, I did it myself!"

And since then, she has done it 3 more times. By herself. Remembering every step, taking care to do it properly and methodically.

(Betsey filling the cartridge with Novalog insulin.

That little vial is her medicine lifeline.)