Alarms (times 2)

Last night was infusion set change night. Generally I do site changes right after Sain's dinner bolus is done but I decided to let her play last night.

At 9:15 I had Sain get ready for bed. I had all the supplies gathered and in her room. Our plan was to quickly change the reservoir and infusion set, watch an episode of iCarly on demand, then go to bed by 9:45. (late for a school night but not too bad for summer vacation)

The infusion set went in fine. The pump was primed and ready for the new reservoir. With the new reservoir of insulin in place, I held down the act button. Within 2 seconds the pump was beeping and vibrating and "NO DELIVERY" flashed on the display.

I've had this warning before... it was probably bad tubing. I changed out the tubing and tried again.

"NO DELIVERY" beep, vibrate "NO DELIVERY" beep, vibrate

At this point I start to worry a little. I try one more tubing.

"NO DELIVERY" beep, vibrate "NO DELIVERY" beep, vibrate

Now I am worried. My mind is racing with the thoughts of a pump malfunction. How much Lantus would I give her? Which Endo is on call on Tuesdays at Children's? Can I miss work tomorrow if there's a problem?

In a last ditch effort I fill a new reservoir. We've never had a defective reservoir and the manual says "NO DELIVERY" alarms are usually tubing issues or pump malfunctions.

I draw up the new reservoir, attach another new tubing set, insert it in the pump and pray. It seemed to take forever for the priming to finish but it worked.

A little behind schedule we still watched iCarly and the kids were in bed by 10:15.

I love Sain's pump but it scares me sometimes that my daughter's life is in the hands of a tiny little machine. Things can go wrong so quickly -- this leads to alarm #2

Long before I wrote a blog I was a blog voyeur. One of the blogs I read is written by a mother of a boy Sain's age in Massachusetts. This post scares me -- May 16th post. Next time someone tells me "it's just diabetes" I think I will refer them to this story.