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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Enter Mr. Pumpy Pump.

Beautiful photo by EL Photography
There has been so much going on that we haven't had time to write in weeks. We've been getting ready for the holidays, doing glamorous photo shoots and of course continue the street fight on Bella's diabetes.

The big news is that Bella was approved by her endo for an insulin pump. After a week or so of working with several companies and our insurance and the all to temporary medicaid  we managed to have her pump delivered on 12/3 and "installed" on 12/5. Bella got to pick a blue pump that has been named "pumpy pump" which is a fine name. She'll be happy to show him to you.

In case you are not steeped in Diabetes terminology the pump is a small device that is attached to Bella through a tube and constantly delivers small (basal) amounts of insulin 24/7 just like the pancreas would. This eliminates the need for the A.M. Lantus (long acting insulin shot). One shot down. After meals the pump allows us to Bolus or add extra insulin to cover her carbs and compensate for any highs. This eliminates the after meal shots! Now instead of having 5-7 shots per day, we change the location where the pump attaches every 3 days. Bella is super excited about this because no kid wants that many shots. We are also super excited about it because we don't have to give shots either.

So far the pumping has been successful except for two days ago when the site where the insulin enters the body was not inserted properly and no insulin was delivered for a few hours. We had a couple hours of extreme highs 600+, that we didn't know what was going on. We figured it out and within an hour she was back to normal range. No other problems. I think the dosage is about where it needs to be.

We've done a photo shoot with Erica at EL photography in Farmville also. Erica is the official photographer of all things Dolde and went above and beyond with this one. She really captured all kinds of stuff in this. Not your typical 3 y/o portrait.

Lastly we've been fundraising for Bella's dog and making progress. Thanks to everyone at the Craven County Christmas Craft show and everyone from Lenoir Community College who have donated. I can't express my gratitude enough. We are now over 55% of our goal.


Bella's+Dog