Pumper Mums!

Being an adult with diabetes can be a worry at times, but how much harder for parents caring for a diabetic child? Should my blood sugar go high or low, I am aware of the sensations and can act accordingly. Only on rare occasions have I had to seek help and experienced difficulty in communicating my needs. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to be constantly on the alert for possible signs of an imbalance in a child. Children don’t necessarily understand the need for injections, or being denied the freedom to eat as they choose on special occasions like Birthday parties, when all the other children are happily filling their faces with cake and jelly. They may also be subject to growth spurts, when hormones go to pot and have a huge influence on insulin levels. Or they might succumb to one of the many childhood illnesses that we have all been through, but for them may lead to a potentially dangerous rise in ketone levels.

Some of these concerns, from what I have read, are greatly alleviated by the fitting of an insulin pump for the child. They’re not an easy option – the first few days and weeks, possibly even months, require frequent and accurate testing of levels, counting of cabohydrates in foods consumed, setting basal (background) levels of insulin that may vary throughout the day, adjustments for increases (or decreases!) in activity, illnesses – the list goes on, but you get the idea! The enormous benefits, though, become apparent very quickly: improved blood sugar levels day-by-day, increased freedom for the child to play and eat as his non-diabetic peers do, and huge increases in confidence for the parents who can worry less about night-time hypos, and be more confident of a long and healthy life for their children.

You can read the story of one child's experience with a pump (the girl in the picture) at http://www.childrenshospital.org/dream/dream_ss2002/diabetes.html

This poem is about Pumper Mums, but could equally apply of course to Pumper Dads or Pumper Guardians, who all do magnificently well – but it wouldn’t have rhymed so well!

Pumper Mums! Pumper Mums! Let’s give a cheer for Pumper Mums!
Now, there’s a bunch of ladies who can really do their sums!
They can bolus for a biscuit, or a piece of apple pie,
And adjust a temporary basal rate if levels are too high!

They can dual wave a pizza so the levels don’t go spiking,
And tweak in tiny increments so the setting’s to their liking!
And when the DSN says they must learn to trust the pump,
Then they’ll use the bolus wizard to avoid a nasty jump!

Hurrah, hurrah for Pumper Mums
Up and down the land!
They’ll be prepared, whatever comes,
And always in demand!

Bolus for a biscuit!

I’m in two minds about insulin pumps. I can get through my days reasonably well and my blood sugar levels are extremely good. But since I became tied to only eating if I inject, and only exercising if my levels are just right, then worrying afterwards if they’ll fall too low because the basal insulin I injected 12 hours ago is now too high – I’ve been becoming more and more seduced by the flexibility that a pump would bring. The downside for me at the moment is whether I really want to be permanently attached and dependent on a sophisticated electronic device. Injections seem to be so much simpler, but do limit your lifestyle considerably compared to a non-diabetic’s. Pumps can make such tiny and rapid adjustments that they much more closely mimic a fully-functioning pancreas. However, because of the expense involved, it’s unlikely to be a choice I’ll have to make any time soon…
One hundred and twenty five monthly injections,
One thousand, five hundred a year,
And virtual abstention from sugary confections –
Now which do you think you’d prefer?

If your other choice was, instead of a pen,
To wear a device day and night
That pumped constant insulin under your skin,
Can you say? Do you think that you might?

What if the tubing should get pulled loose
As you toss and turn in your bed?
Or coils itself into a hangman’s noose,
And then you should wake up dead?!

Imagine though, if you were offered some cake,
When at one time you wouldn’t dare risk it,
The tiny increments you’d be able to make –
And bolus for a biscuit!

So if your levels swing from low to high,
Or possibly go ballistic!
Then let electronic wizards show you why
The future’s optimistic!

The Pump-O-Dyne Eight

There’s a lot of talk about insulin pumps these days. Over in the US, they are fairly common as they tend to be financed by private health insurance, but in the UK it can be quite a battle to get them funded on the National Health Service – you have to prove that you would benefit significantly from having one, rather than using the much cheaper method of MDI (Multiple Daily Injections – now sometimes called BB, or Basal-Bolus). Usually, that would mean that you were finding it very difficult to get control of your blood sugar levels, leaving you at greater risk of diabetic complications.

I have very good control, so the only way I would probably be considered for one would be if, say, a rock-bottom model were to emerge that cut costs significantly. If probably wouldn’t be as elegant as some of the more expensive models, and possibly a bit more unwieldy. Probably something along these lines…



Hello, will you sit down? I’ve something to say.
You remember about pumping? How we said we can’t pay?
Well, I’m happy to tell you that we have found a way,
For a new pumping company has entered the fray!

Now, please don’t be shocked, for I know it looks cheap,
But the cost of those others would just make you weep!
And we’d love to provide them if the costs weren’t so steep…
So, just close your eyes now – and promise you won’t peep!

Tada! There you have it! The Pump –O-Dyne Eight!
With its own little trolley (because of the weight),
And here is the thing that straps onto your back,
With the steam-powered motor in its own special pack…

Now here, let me hold that, and you climb aboard!
Let’s get you strapped in with this thick nylon cord…
Don’t spill that jug where the insulin’s stored!
Come on! Are you thrilled? Let's hear you applaud!