Ask and You Shall Receive

Alexis over at Justice's Misbehaving Pancreas has a list of questions for all of us D Mamas.  Alexis... ask and you shall receive! 

When did you guys start pumping?

  October 2009, 6 months after DX.  Sweetpea has a Pink Animas Ping.

What do you use to change sites? Whats your "process"?

Here's what we do:  We put EMLA cream on when Sweetpea goes to bed.  Then, after an hour, we go up and take off the cream with a wet washcloth.  J gets the washcloth ready while I'm unhooking the pump.  Then I take off the Teagaderm and wipe off the area while J does the pump.  He fills the cartridge, rewinds, loads... Then he brings it to me.  I turn on our lantern and look for a good place.  Then .... POP!  It's on.  No extra adhesive.  No nothing.  Then I prime and unhook - run the pump tubing thru the slit in her pouch and tuck her in.  Deed Done.  She usually never even wakes up.  We might hear a quite "ouch" but that is about it.  Then, as she showed when she was playing site change the other day, Mommy tucks her in and kisses her head before leaving.

How often do you check ketones?

If we suspect illness.  If her bg has been over 300 twice with no real explanation.  If we think there is a problem with the site.  I probably do it more now that I have the blood ketone tester.  The pee sticks were gross.

When do you do an unscheduled site change?

Uh... like every day?  This is not the best time to be asking me all this about site changes seeing as how our have SUCKED recently.  I used to put it off as long as possible... now if it looks like it's bad and one correction has not worked... I rip off.  No messing around.  This rarely happened until this month when we've had at least one, if not more, bad sites at EVERY. SINGLE. SITE CHANGE.  

Whats your childs target?

80-180

What was your childs last A1C?
7.4

What kind of strips do you use?
One Touch

Which do you prefer?

Before she was on the pump, we used AccuCheck.  That's all we've ever used.  One Touch is driving me crazy with all the error readings.  Accu Check seemed better.

What kind of Peanut Butter do you use?

Jif with Honey.  That's what Sweetpea likes. I like low fat Jif.  Can't eat the regular stuff anymore - too oily. 

Do you allow juice when not low?

No, not really.  Maybe once in a blue moon.  Maybe.

Do you still check your child at night?

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Yup.  Every. Single.  Night.  Probably always will.  We check at bedtime.  Then when we go to bed around 11 or 12.  Then that number determines what time the next check will be.  Usually between 2-3 am.  Then if it's a school day, J will check when he's leaving for work - around 5:45 am.  Sometimes, he'll check at 5 when he gets up.  If it's a weekend, it just depends on the numbers.  Sometimes the 3 am is enough.  Sometimes it's not.

What is your rule on sweets?

Sweetpea loves dessert.  I don't like giving the sugary candy.  Try our best just not to have it or say that it's only for lows.  She likes chocolate and we'll let her have a Hershey Kiss (one - two max) for dessert.  Or a little bowl of m&m's - usually 10.  The smaller the bowl, the more it looks like!  She also likes cookies.  She has to choose.  ONE dessert.  A cookie or a kiss.... she'd eat it all if we let her.  We let her have it - just in moderation.  I don't want her to think it's off limits cuz then she'll be more likely to sneak.

Regular pasta or whole wheat? 

Whole wheat sometimes. Regular sometimes.  We rarely eat pasta.

What about veggies and fruits?

We love fruit and veggies.  We get lots of fruit - usually melon, strawberries, and grapes - for Sweetpea.  She has been known to choose melon over a cookie.  We also often have a veggie tray around for snacking.  She likes carrots, cucumber, broccoli.  She also eats lots of cooked veggies.

White bread or whole wheat?

I usually get wheat.  But it's rare for us to have bread in the house.  We just don't eat it that often at home.

Do you use glucose tabs?

Nope.  She won't eat them.  We use Smarties instead.  She's probably old enough now but when she was dx'd she had just turned 3.  The glucose tabs were too big - plus she'd never really had candy like that before.  Shocking, I know.  I know you all thought she got D because we fed her sugar all the time!

What do you use to treat lows?

Usually a 15g Juicy Juice. And only juice at night.  Always apple juice.  We use Smarties if she's really low.  M&M's if she's a little low.  Starting to use Starburst.  She just tried those and liked them.

What does your child use to hold their pump/cgm?

She has pump pouches!  We have a really cute picture case from PumpWear.  We also have some super cute pouches with clear add-ons for the CGM from Too Sweet Boutique.  

We just recently tried an arm site... and thanks to winning the give away at Tracy's blog - The Superhero and The Princess - we had a wonderful tank from Kangaroo Pump Pockets to use.  She LOVED this!

And here's my hero... in true Sweetpea style!