I'll take Insulin Pump Site Change for the Win Alex
What's not as hard as it may seem? Letting go...
Arden was diagnosed at such a young age that it was impossible in the early days for her to have any real responsibilities regarding her day-to-day care but it has always been our goal to transfer tasks to her as she is ready. We do so all of the time. I like the slow matriculation because it allows Arden to take on more without feeling as if things are being dumped on her. I pass on a new role in her care often without her noticing, things normalize after a little time and then that level becomes her new understanding of life.
Rinse, repeat.
Before long Arden found herself doing things she once thought impossible, she makes decisions that she probably didn't think she had the understanding to tackle and I can see her grasp of diabetes concepts grow by the day, month and year. One thing that took longer for her to become comfortable with than I expected, changing her insulin pump. I've felt for some years that she could change her Omnipod with ease and I even could see in her eyes that she held the same belief, but no matter how many times I tried to get her to do it... she just couldn't make the leap and anxiety would get the best of her.
There have a have been a few times when she has been forced by circumstances to change her own pod but those events were not exactly without drama.
This weekend brought a huge leap forward for Arden, but that leap didn't happen completely organically, I had to orchestrated the moment just a little bit.
Arden spent the night, armed with her new Dexcom SHARE, at her cousins house for a sleep over. Her Omnipod was scheduled to expire mid-morning the next day. I initially thought to change the site twelve hours early to avoid a conflict with Arden being away from home - but then it hit me. I thought, "I know she can do this without anyone physically with her, she may just need a little of my help". I imagined that we may need to FaceTime so that I could provide support and comfort during the process.
The opportunity presented itself when Arden's BG became stubborn the next morning, it was clear that it was time to change her site. We were bolusing and temp basaling but her BG wasn't budging.
I texted Arden and said that she should clear a space in her Aunt's dining room, get her supplies together and then FaceTime me when she was ready to begin.
I waited for a few minutes and didn't receive any communication, I was beginning to wonder if Arden was going to be able to summon the courage to change a pod on her own for the first time without me or Kelly present. I still had plenty of faith in her so I went about my business and assumed she'd call when she was reading to begin.
But a few moments later, seriously it was just a few minutes, I received these pictures from Arden's Aunt.
Turns out that Arden wasn't talking herself out of it or bereft of hope, she was busy filling the syringe, choosing a site and injecting her canula like a boss.
As you can see in the pictures Arden, besides being super cute, is a person who trusts herself and is completely capable. It seems as if my being with her in the past during site changes might have been be more of a crutch, than that of support.
Without someone there to bail her out, Arden showed no signs of self doubt as she moved swiftly and precisely through the steps of changing her Omnipod insulin pump and did it just as fast and as well as I could have.
After a few more site changes I'll going to begin to include Arden, even more than I do now, in the conversations that I have in my head about insulin dosing and BG management. So much of what I do is not based on math, it's mostly a feeling I get based on trends and recent history. Passing this knowledge on is going to take time and I think it is only going to happen through a lot of repetition - I know that's how I learned all of this.
#DiabetesAndFear don't have to go together! #BeBold #EveryTenYearOldSHouldSleepInAClerksShirt
Video: Sierra Sandison Miss America Montage
Sierra Sandison finished off her whirlwind ride on Sunday by winning the 2015 People's Choice Award at the Miss America Pageant (Way to pull together DOC!).
When Sierra appeared on our television screen Arden said, "That's me!". Those two little words are all you need to know about what Sierra's #ShowMeYourPump campaign has meant to everyone who lives with diabetes.
I hope you enjoy this short montage that I put together in celebration of Sierra's wonderful accomplishment.
Thank you Sierra and congratulations!
Diabetes and fear don't have to go together.
Video: Sierra Sandison on Dr. Oz #ShowMeYourPump
Sierra Sandison became Miss Idaho 2014, dreamt up the viral hashtag #ShowMeYourPump and is competing to be Miss America – all with her insulin pump clipped at her side.
Now she's on the Dr. Oz Show showing her pump to his audience and making every person with diabetes about as proud as can be.
I first met Sierra in July when I interviewed her about the events that led up to her #ShowMeYourPump tweet; which inspired people everywhere to share photos of themselves with their insulin pumps. During our conversation I learned about McCall Salinas and how a talk that she had with Sierra led to the Miss Idaho wearing her insulin pump on stage.
The Miss America Pageant is on ABC Sunday at 9 pm est. The top 15 contestant make it to the live stage and I'm hoping, as I imagine are all of you, that we see Sierra show her pump Sunday night on national television. Good luck Sierra, the entire diabetes community is behind you!
Vote for Sierra Sandison so she can #ShowMeYourPump on Television
Vote for Sierra Sandison to put an insulin pump wearing contestant on television during the Miss America Pageant. Takes 5 seconds, no kidding.
People's Choice: Miss America
There will only be 15 contestants featured on television during the Miss America pageant next month and WE have the ability to vote for one of them...
It takes less than 5 seconds to vote: Let's use those five seconds to propel Sierra Sandison, our favorite insulin pump wearing pageant contestant, into the top 15!
VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!
Just click on this link and check the only option you will see (it says, "Click here to vote for Miss Idaho 2014 Sierra Sandison), then press the "Finish Survey" button and you are done, it's that easy. Voting ends on September 12th.
Let's all help Sierra take #ShowMeYourPump from the Internet to your television and give her the chance to tell the world what that thing on her hip does.
After you finish please share the People's Choice news with your friends any way that you can. Use my social media share button below, write a note on your favorite social media platform and include this link - http://bit.ly/SS-AD - or shout from the highest mountain!
#DOC
#ShowMeYourPump
Interview: Miss Idaho Sierra Sandison #ShowMeYourPump
All any of us want is to be anonymous and in a world where different is often looked upon with fear, the people who want, need and deserve that anonymity sometimes have to stand front and center to get it.
A few weeks ago Sierra Sandison was a contestant in the Miss Idaho Pageant. She wasn’t a diabetes advocate or even a person who widely shared with her friends that she was diagnosed with type I diabetes at the age of eighteen. Much has changed since then.
Sierra was backstage at Miss Idaho during the first night of competition when she had a chance meeting with Miss Idaho’s Outstanding Preteen, 12 year old McCall Salinas. Sierra stepped out of her dressing room and heard these words, “Oh my gosh, is that an insulin pump?”
Sierra told me that her stomach “flip flopped” when she realized that McCall recognized her insulin pump for what it was. I thought, “Oh no, people are going to notice, I was hoping that it was little enough that no one would notice”.
Sierra’s second reaction to McCall’s words, “I got scared”, but then McCall quickly explained that she also had type I diabetes and that she didn’t use an insulin pump because "she was scared of what her friends would think and of how it would look”.
It was during this brief encounter that a diabetes advocate was born. Sierra Sandison, a 20 year old woman who was diagnosed with type I diabetes only two years prior, was about to make a decision that would change her life. She could disconnect from her pump when she took the stage in her swim suit or leave it on and help McCall to not feel quite so alone.
At the time that their exchange took place Sierra told me, “I had no idea that I would even make the top ten, let alone become Miss Idaho - but I thought, I have to do this for McCall”.
During the interview I mentioned to Sierra that I believe people become advocates when they realize that they care more for another person than they do for themselves. This was that moment for Sierra. When she left that conversation with McCall she was a different person, and that person didn’t want McCall to be worried about what other people would think.
It only took Sierra a second to decide that she was going to walk on stage wearing her insulin pump, “I have to do this for McCall”, she thought.
“It was really scary (to walk out on stage) but thinking about McCall gave me a whole new confidence”. Suddenly Sierra didn't care what the audience or the judges thought and the prospect of becoming Miss Idaho or Miss America became secondary.
When she came off stage McCall walked up to Sierra and said, “now I want to get a pump”.
Sierra and McCall
Sierra “balled her eyes out” when she realized that something she had done helped another person to find the confidence to be him or herself.
If this story stopped here it would be amazing and completely worth sharing. It’s a story of two strangers who find each other by chance, both unaware of how much they are in need of the other’s support. A simple and beautiful story of humanity, empathy and the power of sameness. But social media had other plans for this moment and later when Sierra shared a photo of herself and McCall on Facebook, along with a brief description of how they met backstage and the events that transpired immediately after, Sierra found a community of loving people living with diabetes that she didn't know existed - and they had her back.
The outpouring of support that she received on Facebook prompted Sierra to share a different photo, this time of her walking on stage in her black bikini with her insulin pump on her side. This is the first time that she would use the hashtag #ShowMeYourPump.
In an instant 20 year old Sierra Sandison went from being a hopeful pageant contestant who got caught up in the desire to support a little girl, to the face of confidence and security for people everywhere who live with insulin dependent diabetes. Her image was about to inspire countless thousands to share pictures of themselves with their insulin pumps on social media. Sierra’s very unintended coming out party was suddenly and gleefully part of the ethos.
Now everywhere you look on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and the rest of social media, people with diabetes are showing their pumps to the world in an effort to become invisible. The chain of events is continuing on. Sierra’s decision to support McCall has become a phenomenon of strangers holding up their pumps in support of Sierra, and in support of themselves. We are witnessing humanity at it’s best, we are witnessing people whose desire to support a stranger is helping them to overcome the same insecurity that brought Sierra and McCall together.
All any of us want is to be anonymous and in a world where different is often looked upon with fear, the people who want, need and deserve that anonymity sometimes have to stand front and center to get it.
Show them your pump, until no one sees it.
Today, because a little girl noticed and insulin pump on a strangers hip, people who live with diabetes are a lot closer to that goal. I told Sierra that my hope is that one day soon another girl will walk onto a stage wearing an insulin pump, and that no one will notice. No one will post a picture, ask for an interview or bat an eye. That’s the world I want to live in, it's the world McCall needs and the world that Sierra Sandison’s bravery brought us all one-step closer to… when she showed us her pump.
#ShowMeYourPump
