The comfort of a needle...

An interesting revelation was had earlier this week.  Cadence has had a cold/ear infection/ eye teeth coming in...you name it, this week has been one for the books.  Lying in the weeds, there is always the "D" and the sugar irregularity that comes with illness and irritability in a toddler. Is she high, super high, or low?  Those are the questions we ask.

It brings me back to my original point about revelations.  Parents of diabetics...scratch that...diabetics in general should not be too quick to switch to pump therapy, meaning that spending the first few months, let's say 3-4 months if we need to pick a number, is very important.  An about face?  No, just a realization that the time that we spent jabbing our baby with 6-8 needles per day, soothing the crying afterward taught us how to be strong, resiliant, and competent diabetic caregivers.  We have a keen understanding of how insulin works on our daughter, we are not afraid to stick her with a needle if needed, no matter how hard she fights.  That's a unique skill and not one to be underestimated.  Not convinced?  Ask someone on the street if they would be willing to give you an injection, would you trust them to do it for one?  Number two, would they be willing to give you a lifesaving injection?  Social experiment time.  

I know from our situation, the answer to the latter is probably not.  We have people close to us that refuse to learn how to save my daughter's life.  It makes you scratch your head asking why, but then again perhaps it is just how anyone else would behave.  Who wants to give a needle to someone?  Is it unreasonable then for us as parents to ask for help?  Is our wish for a couple hours off of diabetes forcing someone else to enter into an extremely uncomfortable situation? Are we being unfair?

So, the pump is absolutely awesome in the sense that it takes away the injection side of diabetes, which solves the social experiment.  It can provide very finite control, and offers immense lifestyle flexibility.  We celebrate those parts of it every day.  I hope that most Type one diabetics, when they are ready take this step toward normalizing and enhancing your life.  What the pump adds however is the uncertainty of the equipment, did the infusion site work, is the pump working properly, is there air in the line (we had to prime out bubbles twice today)?  Combine the unpredictability of diabetes and you can quickly begin chasing your tail if you don't remain centered.  With a needle, you always know the insulin went in.  

That is the comfort of the needle.

b.