We Love Our Pump: The Animas Ping

  Sweetpea and "Fuzzy" the Wonder Pump!

Sweetpea continues to love her pump! This picture shows her with her pump pouch on! We were fortunate enough to get some awesome pouches from a friend whose daughter had outgrown them. They are darling and Sweetpea just loves them!

This is Sweetpea and Ruby! Ruby has diabetes - just like Sweetpea! She went to the hospital to get her pump attached the same day that Sweetpea did!

Ruby has her own pump pouch and her own insulin pump!

This shows Ruby's site. This is great for Sweetpea to see exactly what is going on and what we're going to do to her. For some reason, she doesn't like the "click" it makes when the catheter is inserted into the site. She's really nervous that it will hurt. So - she has to see me attach Ruby's pump - WITHOUT CLICKING - before she's ready to have it done herself.

This is Ruby's pump. It is exactly like Sweetpea's! Ruby has a PING, too!

I made this by using one of her actual sites. The pump was made by taking a picture of the real pump and uploading it to the computer. Then I printed it out on this fabric sticker stuff. I attached that to a Trident gum pack to make the pump. The pump pouch is an MP3 player holder that we found at Best Buy. Sweetpea saw it and said, "Look! Mommy! It's a little pump pouch!" I said, "Yes, it is! Let's buy it!" I was going to make one but this was much easier. I sewed ribbon onto it and it closes with velcro.

I hoped I wasn't going to all this trouble for something she wouldn't even really like! Luckily, she really likes it and it's serving it's intended purpose!

Sweetpea is still nervous about site changes. Ironically, the actual insertion is about the easiest part! She does not like being unhooked, she does not like putting on the cream and insists on helping, she does not like covering the cream and REALLY does not like taking the bandage off the cream! She does not like being hooked back up and she does not like taking the old site off.

Now, she says that NONE of this hurts. She knows it doesn't hurt. She's just really nervous about it. I'm hoping that it will get better each time until she's an old pro. Let's see....it took 5 months to get used to the shots....ugh! Let's hope it's not that long!

The other night I was trying to get the old site off and she was throwing a mild fit. She says, "OUCH! My website hurts!" I was laughing so hard I had to stop! She continues to call it her "website". Too funny! And it's too cute to correct so we just let her call it that!

All in all, the pump has been a great experience! We are loving the freedom of no more shots, syringes, etc, etc. Her numbers have been pretty good, too. She's actually a little more stable than she was before we started. I am hoping to see this trend continue!

Now, if I could just sleep through the night....!