I talked to Olivia again about going off the pump and she's adamant about wanting to do it. We were changing her site because, once again, the site she'd had in got infected. She only keeps a site in for 2 days, but they often seem to get red and irritated. We use antiseptic wipes before inserting them - I don't know if she's just sensitive or if we're doing something wrong or what, but she's sick of it. I don't blame her; after looking at her stomach and arms, she's got a lot of ugly, raised white bumps, especially on her belly. We rotate sites all the time and go pretty far out on to her sides, but the scars just don't seem to go away.
I don't know if there's anything that can be used to get rid of the scars or if she's stuck with them forever. I just know they really bother her.
So she's insistent on the pen, hoping that it won't scar her up the way the pump has done. We've never used a pen - do they leave scars the way pump infusion sites do?
My biggest worry about the pen is that she won't have quite the freedom that she does on the pump. We're going to use Lantus and Humalog, which shouldn't mean too much of a change, but still, I worry that she'll get too impatient to use the pen when she wants a snack. Of course, she does this on the pump with annoying regularity, too, so I suppose it won't make a huge difference. It's more the remembering to take all the stuff with her all the time that concerns me.
It's kind of a moot point anyway - we can't afford to replace her pump and it's out warranty at this point. Our insurance only covers $1500 in pump costs and we can't take on a payment plan right now. If she hates being on the pen, we'll have to figure it out, but she knows the deal at the moment and seems to be fine with it. She has another month to think about it and get used to the idea, though.
I just hope this works for her.





