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Entries in Insulin Pump (46)

Friday
Nov112011

Spring Universal Infusion Set - Giveaway

 

 

In celebration of World Diabetes Day, Spring Health Solutions has generously allowed me to identify one child that would benefit from receiving a *three year supply of their Spring Universal Infusion Set, at no cost to the child! Spring has also contributed a $250 gift to help me realize my goal of starting a charitable foundation whose focus is putting insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors in the hands of children who want but can not afford them. 

If your child could benefit from a three year supply of the Spring Universal Infusion Set, please complete the form at the link below to be considered. Be sure to read and understand the following details before completing the form.

 

The details...

The Spring Universal Infusion Set is compatible with the following insulin pumps: Animas One Touch Ping, Roche Accu-Check and Sooil Diabecare IIS.

You must have a doctor's prescription to receive the Infusion Sets and complete a product training with a Spring U.S. representitive.

 

What's next?

Consider helping the Untitled Giving Project become a reality.

Become a member of Arden's Day to stay up-to-date about future giveaway opportunities.

Complete the form to be considered for the Spring Universal Infusion Set giveaway.

Spread the word about our efforts by using the 'Share Article' link just below or by sharing this link - http://www.ardensday.com/main/2011/11/11/spring-universal-infusion-set-give-away.html

 

The rest...

Arden's Day is not a charity and does not claim to be one. We take no responsibility for your experience with the Spring Universal Infusion Set should you be chosen to receive the three year supply. Arden's Day is not directly giving the winner any products but merely choosing one child that Spring will award the gift to, train in it's use and make delivery of as they see fit. In the event that Spring can not, for any reason, fulfill it's promise to supply the infusion sets. Neither Arden's Day nor it's owner Scott Benner, assumes any responsibility to fulfill this offer. The recipient will be chosen based on many factors, at the discretion of Arden's Day with the primary focus of provided the best clinical outcome possible. If the recipient is unable to accept the gift, a new winner will be chosen. The gift has no cash value and is non-transferable. Recipient must be a U.S. resident.

*"Three year supply" means 450 total infusion sets. 

Thursday
Nov032011

Untitled Giving Project: Insulin Pumps & CGMs for kids

It has long been my dream to find a way to give insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors to children that need but can't afford them. Today after two years of research and preparation I am ready to take the first step towards making my dream a reality. 

I hope that you can imagine with me the collective good that would come from lifting just a part of the massive stress that managing a child's type I diabetes brings to a family. My family is lucky enough to have good insurance and the means to pay the out of pocket costs that are associated with these fantastic devices. I feel a grand desire to help the children that aren't as fortunate. I have a plan, an agreement to buy devices at cost and enough enthusiasm to lift my house, I just need one last thing... a little help. My goal is to identify and outfit the first child with a device by the spring of 2012. After that I'm going to keep going until I can't find another child suffering or struggling with multiple daily injections and wishing that they could use an insulin pump. I'm going to keep going until every parent has the peace of mind that comes from knowing that their child's CGM will wake them when blood glucose levels get dangerously low. Until type I is cured - I'm going to make these focuses my personal mission. I have the time, the knowledge, the desire and hope.

If I've ever helped, taught or inspired you please follow this link to find out how you can help me help others.

Tuesday
Oct252011

When diabetes throws you a curve... just go with it

My son Cole is a baseball player and we talk about different aspects of playing the game with some frequency. He's a good listener and he makes adjustments most times with ease. There is this one pitch that he struggles to hit, it's low and just a bit outside but is almost always called a strike. Cole won't swing at that pitch no matter how many times I assure him that he can reach it. I tell him all the time to, "just go with the it" but he resists.

Perhaps 'just go with it' is something you have to feel and not something another person can describe but I'm still going to try.

Managing your day-to-day stress as it relates to your child's type I diabetes is, if you can find a way to 'feel it', as easy as just going with it...

Arden's BG was pretty perfect Sunday evening when we changed her OmniPod, except for her basal she didn't get any insulin for the remainder of the evening. By midnight her BG had drifted up to around 180 so I delivered a small corrective bolus. An hour later her DexCom began to beep and indicated that her BG had risen above our high limit, which was odd because I definitely expected that the last bolus would bring her to 120 but instead she was more like 220.

Getting the idea that the last bolus wasn't making a dent in her number, I gave a little more and then waited two hours to see where we stood.

Two hours later was about 3 am and her BG had not moved, I knew now that we either had to push a large bolous and everything would be great or change the site and start over. I wanted to bolus big but at that time of morning I couldn't be sure that I'd be in any condition to act if she was suddenly 45 at 5 am so I gave another small correction and set an alarm for 6:30 (an hour and a half before Arden gets up for school).

When the alarm sounded I felt like I had sand in my eyes. I checked her CGM and saw the steadiest line you could imagine, steady but too high. I bolused this time for the full correction plus the 36 carbs that Arden would be eating for breakfast. I then literally thought, "that'll do it" as my head hit the pillow to get my last 45 minutes of broken sleep.

In the morning I got Cole off to school and went back upstairs to wake Arden whose BG I was sure was going to be in range and heading south just in time for breakfast. The rest went just like you think it did. Her BG was a little lower, falling but in no way was she feeling the full effect of that last bolus. The site needed to be moved.

In that instant my entire day changed.

Arden wasn't making the bus and I needed to wait out the last bolous before she could even eat. It was a mess but I didn't let the sudden upheaval of the day rattle me or Arden. I explained how our day changed so Arden wouldn't be flustered, we pulled out some books to read to help take her mind off of her hunger. I moved an appointment, slide a number of to-dos to the next day, emailed the nurse and her teacher and then refocused on my new goal for the day - getting everything back to normal and salvaging as much of Arden's school day as I could.

I realize that being a stay at home parent helps lessen some outside influences. I don't have a boss to report to so I can be flexible but it's not the mechanics of the day that I'm most proud of. I'm proud that when the pitch tailed away from me I didn't complain that it was a ball or that the ump was screwing me. In fact I didn't even wait for someone or something else to tell me what my reality was going to be.

I just went with it, I dictated what happened next.

There is a moment in almost every situation when you make a choice. You can dress it up anyway you like but in the end you decide how you feel and what you'll do next. If you go with it and just except that in this moment you took the best option available to you, well, I don't understand how you can be upset. We may not control the when or why in our lives but we sure can have our say in the how.

When my son learns to let go and swing at that low outside pitch he's going to miss a few, he'll foul off even more but once in a while he is going to drive that shitty pitch so far into right field that it'll make all the swings and misses very worthwhile.

Arden got to school at noon. Her BG was in range, she had breakfast and was ready to learn. We even got to spend some great time together. I did the best I could with the pitch I got.

Friday
Oct142011

OmniPod Question

Thanks for taking the time to help!

This morning as we were bolusing Arden for breakfast she began to complain that the insulin delivery was painful. It got worse and worse, she was grabbing at her arm and I thought she was going to cry. She begged me to stop the delivery and I did. I immediately decided that I'd change the site right away.

When I removed the pod I saw this.. 

click photo for enlargement

Hopefully you can see in the photo that the pod was compressed too tightly on her arm and in created an impression. We quickly realized that her new pajama top had tighter sleeves then her other tops and that the squeezing caused the issue. I want to be clear that this isn't an OmniPod issue.

My question to the adults out there wearing an OmniPod is this...

Because Arden is seven, sometimes her descriptions of events aren't everything that a young Jessica Fletcher would hope for as she tries to figure out a mystery. If this has every happened to you, can you please try to describing the level of pain that would be associated with this incident. Also, I'm trying to figure out if removing the night shirt and waiting would have alleviated the issue and how accurate Arden's response was to the discomfort. Plus any thing else that your feedback can teach me.

Thank you in advance!

Friday
Apr082011

Beeeeeeppppppp

There has been an unrelenting, brain scrambling noise in our kitchen for the last two weeks. We’ve unplugged appliances, turned off breakers, crawled on our knees, checked the basement, outside, upstairs - EVERYWHERE!

 

It was driving us crazy! Today I resolved myself to find the noise and stop it or die trying... Watch the video above to see what I found... Sorry the video was lost in the site change over (it was an Old OmniPod with a dieing battery).

 

Enjoy your weekend as I’m enjoying my new found silence...

 

**

The following are archived comments from this post. You can post new comments below.

I have SO been there Scott! The freezer works for a short term, then it comes out a-screaming again when it thaws. Once I couldn't get the paperclip/thumbtack in the hole to get it to stop, so I took it to the driveway and put a hammer to it. Damn thing shut up then and I felt SO much better. We call them screaming Pods of death around here.
Glad you found it and glad it stopped!!!
Saturday, April 9, 2011 - 07:17 AM