HEY! Diabetes!..... Seh 'ello to my l'il friend

   I've been waiting over two months to use that post title - ever since we chose Jonathan's new weapon.  And, what a little pistol it is.

   It was strange.  I got up this morning and there was nothing.  I was expecting myself to run out of the bedroom, rushing to get ready, only to be at the hospital two hours early, but it was a calm and orderly start (amazing considering it was Alexandra's first day of grade 2).  It wasn't until we were about half way there that it really hit me, that today is THE day, P-day.

  Rewind: Last night, as I tucked Jonathan into bed and told him that he had one more needle and then it was all pump, his face lit up to the point that I was speechless (of course with 2 night-time corrections, D made a liar out of me, but Jr doesn't know that).  I was overwhelmed with emotions because I could see in his eyes how much he wanted this and despite his awesome cooperation over the past year, he really hated the shots more than he let on.  I think that is what kind of made this morning a little anti-climatic, a big chunk of the drama happened last night as he wore his pump for the first afternoon and night.

   This morning we flipped the switch.  All his long-acting basil was out of his system and he was officially pumping.  As we reviewed what needed to be done to re-tune his ratios, basil, and sensitivity, I quickly realized that this was more like starting over than I had originally thought.

   The doctor's orders were the same as his current MDI orders.  I felt a little uncomfortable about this and we nudged the carb side of the ratio up a bit.  Even though his "target" was 6-10mmol/L (108-180), corrections only occurred at/outside of 4&13 (72-234).  With his new target of 8.0 (144) (they said a single number target for now makes it easier to tune in basils) we will effectively be correcting at >8 instead of >12.9 and from some of the lunch numbers I've seen over the year, that 5 mmol margin has saved his bacon a few times.

  Lo and behold... Lunch - 3.0 (54).  Yikes!!!  He was over 18 (324) just before we put the pump on a little over 2 hours earlier, AND had 15g snack that wasn't bolused.  Basil must be out of whack.  His lunch was 45g of carbs which typically earns him a bolus of 3.0u, with a reduction of 1.0u for the low... Pump result = 1.7u.  Sounds good to me.  He ate his lunch, was at 6.5, we pumped 1.7u into him and 2 hours later... 4.6 (83).  That's not right.  He's low and still has 2 hours of active insulin in his system.  OK 15g snack.  45 minutes later = 5.9 (106).... Hmmmmm... 18g snack.  45 minutes later 8.7 (157).  Nice!  Home at 5:14 = 10.7 (193), decent.  Dinner, 9.8 (176), booyah!

   Now, I have previously learned my lesson that posting good numbers online will lead to only one thing... crazy numbers.  But I have already resigned myself to the fact that the next few days and weeks will be as squirrely as the weeks following Dx.  One thing on our side is, we're reasonably sure the honeymoon is over.

   So.  For all you out there that want to say I told you so... Don't bother.  I know you were right.  To one gentleman in particular, whom I had the pleasure of meeting this past June in Toronto at the JDRF Canada AGM, while I can't say that your insight and experience were the sole reason we have taken this direction, you did give my head enough of a shake to realize that it was at the very least worth giving a fair shot.

   To everyone that has provided stories of experience and they're support and kindness, thank you!  So far, no regrets.  I feel that we have done exactly the right thing, at exactly the right time, for all the right reasons; the most compelling of which:

Jonathan: Upgraded!