Hey there.

I’m still here in the bathtub.

Sorry – elementary school teacher in me sneaking out referencing a children’s book of poems.

I can’t remember the last time I wrote, and I’m too lazy to click back on archived posts – Im guessing the last post would be archived since it’s defiantly been a long time.

I could give you a list of reasons why I’ve been absent but it would bore you, so lets just pretend I’ve been in a drunken stuper for how ever long it has been. I haven’t of course. I really don’t drink. In fact, I was recently chatting via text with another Dmom about how I should drink, and I wondered aloud (can you wonder aloud via text?) fuck it anyway, I wondered why I didn’t drink and she was able to remind me, because as a parent of a child with diabetes Dmoms or dads, need to be on 24/7. That made me think of the last time I had more than 2 adult beverages. I knew of course. It was December 2010. I had hosted a BUNCO party at my home in Texas. Thirty of my closest friends or women with no better plans were at my house. I had consumed copious amounts of red wine. I remember checking my youngest sons blood sugar before going to bed, technically before vomiting a few times and then going to bed. I know I set an alarm for 3am to check my youngest again, but I didn’t get up and I didn’t ask my husband to get up either. I don’t remember much of the evening after the party. The next morning when I checked my son his blood sugar was 32. For anyone not in the diabetes know – that is exceptionally low and dangerous. That was the last time I consumed more than 2 adult beverages in one evening and even that is a rare occasion.

I digress – this post isn’t about adult beverages or the dangers of caring for children when under the influence. I honestly don’t get what is fun about being intoxicated. I’m a bit of a control freak so the thought of not being in control kinda makes my skin crawl.

Still more digression – this post is about insulin pumps. Or it will be if I ever shut up about alcohol.

My oldest started using the Tandem T:Slim insulin pump in December 2013. It is a sexy pump. I mean if pumps could be considered sexy.

The other night my daughter inadvertently let her pump (Dorothy – her pumps name is Dorothy) die. The T:Slim is a rechargeable pump (woohoo – planet Earth friendly) but if you don’t charge it, it dies. After it dies and is then charged the insulin cartridge must be changed. I don’t know why. It just does. Just like with the Animas Ping – if you change the battery the pump also requires a full rewind and load of a cartridge, thankfully with Animas it can be the current cartridge, not so with T:Slim. Sorry jumping ahead – I’ll get back to Animas in a few paragraphs or one paragraph – I really don’t know since I haven’t written it/them yet, the point is I’ll get back to Animas.

So Dorothy is dead. It’s late at night and my daughter had just gotten into bed. I was making the rounds to the kids rooms saying goodnight and tossing in some late night criticisms of messing rooms and such when my daughter told me Dorothy had died but she (Daughter, not Dorothy) thought she could try to use the same insulin cartridge. I went back downstairs. She (daughter again, not Dorothy) sent me a text telling me she did need a new insulin cartridge and would I please come get her pump and do it. Ugh. I told her to bring it down. Instead my husband said he’d go get the pump.

This is where the flip phone vs smartphone title will start to make sense. Just hang in there.

So my husband retrieves the T:Slim pump from my daughter. Upon his return to the kitchen he asked (for the 4th time in 2.5 years) why she (daughter) was using the T:Slim instead of the Animas Ping which both boys use.

I went into a quick – ‘her diabetes, her choice’  spiel but he (husband) was not convinced. The tech guy in him wanted to know what was so great about the T:Slim, why complicate our lives by allowing various pumps in the house, blah blah blah.

My spiel about ‘her diabetes, her choice’ wasn’t going to cut it so I had to get technical.

For over 9 years one or more of my kids have used the Animas pump, currently both my boys use Animas Pings. My youngest started on Animas six months after diagnosis. It wasn’t a Ping initially, but we upgraded as soon as the Ping came out because HELLO remote bolusing. The Ping is great, but it hasn’t changed even one little bit since it debuted nearly 9 years ago. Yes, Animas came out with the Animas Vibe, but now with the Dexcom G5 available that uses a smartphone as a receiver, the vibe is really quite obsolete. The Animas Vibe is an insulin pump with a built-in Dexcom CGM receiver so the CGM data can be displayed on the pump screen. The worst part of the Animas Vibe is when they added CGM they deleted Ping technology. That, and the CGM software can’t be upgraded (to my knowledge) when it was integrated which means users of the Vibe are stuck with the same CGM software for 4 years despite advances in technology and software updates. We are used to the Animas Ping and so we forgive Animas the lack of updates. What lack of updates? The LCD screen is basic black and white, save for a few highlighted words, and to get it backlit you have to press an extra button. To get to various menus you have to go through nearly a dozen screens that you don’t need. When it is time to bolus the user must ‘scroll’ up to the proper bolus amount. The IOB (insulin on board – amount of insulin currently coursing through ones body at that moment) is multiple clicks away, as is the history of boluses, alerts, etc. Still none of that matters because PING – remote bolusing is the bomb. The kids can be in full sports gear with their pumps tucked away under layers of under-armor and pads but still dose for the 32oz Gatorade they down on the sidelines, or correct a high blood sugar without touching their pump. At night if I am checking the boys blood sugars during the small hours and they are higher than what is good for them I can bolus them without rummaging around under covers for insulin pumps.

The T:Slim,  the first Tandem pump, not the Flex, which is also integrated with the Dexcom CGM and has the same software issues as the integrated Ping (to my knowledge) is very user-friendly. Large color touchscreen, easy to navigate menus, slimmer profile, displays the IOB on the home screen, and doesn’t require user to ‘scroll’ through numbers before bolusing. Sadly – there is no remote bolus feature and no blood sugar meter linked to the pump.

Getting back to how I explain to my husband why the Tandem is ‘better’ and why my daughter wanted the T:Slim is as simple as The Animas Ping is the equivalent of a flip phone and the Tandem T:Slim is the equivalent of a smartphone.

That my husband understood.

Dear Animas – can you please recognize the importance of updating the Animas Ping pump, and for the love of Pete (I wonder if Pete feels loved?) – can you please update the Ping meter. Seriously – I have been begging you for some time to at least update the meter. The Ping meter is bulky, outdated, and uses twice the amount of blood as the VerioIQ meter (not really sure if that is accurate, but it feels like it).

Dear Tandem – incorporate ping bolusing technology into the T:Slim and the boys will most defiantly switch to the Tandem pump and I will name my first grandchild Tandem. (OK – maybe not a grandchild because I think my kids and their spouses get to name their own kids, but I will name my next pet Tandem)

I don’t know how often I will get back to write. Things are more chaotic in our home than ever before. Lots of ch-ch-ch-changes (in a few hours you will still be humming that – you’re welcome).

Writing as a parent of a children with diabetes is hard. My stories are intrinsically linked to my kids lives which are not only mine to write about.

Two of my three cwd are teens. Anyone in the know – knows that these years are hard. The stories of diabetes in the teen years aren’t always pretty. My kids are clever, kind, funny, and all kinds of wonderful but they are also stubborn, prideful, arrogant, and even – big breath – ‘non-compliant’ at times. At this point with all the non-diabetes chaos happening I’m just trying to keep my head above water and since I’m having a difficult time with life in general I have not been writing or interacting so I can focus on what is most important in our lives.

Feel free to send chocolate.