In Fall 2014 Benson got a new pump from Medtronic. With the pump he also got a sensor that checks his blood sugar every 5 minutes. It alarms us when he is high or low and shows us the trend line of his BG. It's been a big blessing knowing the trend and seeing the graph and has helped us maintain tighter control of his blood sugars and feel more at ease keeping him at a more normal range. Before this we had to always error on him going low because he can't feel his low BG's and that is very dangerous for his health. Now I can keep him at a normal number-- like 90 and not feel like I need to give him 15 grams of sugar just in case he is going lower. I can look at the trend line and it will tell me if he is stable, going high, or going low and how fast.
It wasn't easy getting this pump. It is FDA approved for people over the age of 16. The Mayo Clinic hasn't had anyone approved for the pump under 16 until Benson. Our Medtronic rep said Benson was her first case of someone his age that has been approved by the insurance companies (other people have paid out of pocket-- but they are much wealthier than we. The pump cost $7,500). I went through a couple loop holes and found a way to get the insurance company to accept us--- I have learned quite a bit about insurance companies throughout these past 6 years dealing with all the diabetes supplies and such. It helps to ask lots of questions and do your homework--- and I must add I am confident we had some divine intervention that helped us out as well!
So we got the pump and sensor and were so grateful for it. It truly changed mine and Spencer's life. Managing Benson's blood sugars is so much easier with the sensor. It got Spencer and I excited to see what is going to come in the future with pump therapy-- my goal and hope has always been that by the time Benson goes on a mission there will be a pump that will read BG's and be able to give insulin without Benson programming it to do so. It will act like a pancreas and take care of it all on it's own.
When our Medtronic rep was in our home teaching us about the sensor and new pump-- she mentioned the MySentry alarm clock. She said that it reads the sensor and will show us what his pump screen says. WHAT!!! Seriously-- this has been a dream of mine since Benson was diagnosed. I have said probably hundreds of time (in my head) "I wish there was a button I could push that would give me Benson's BG's in the middle of the night". We have been very blessed and whenever Benson gets super low something will always wake me up-- sometimes it's a dream, a kid will randomly start crying or fall out of bed… something wakes me up and I always know that I have to check Benson. Most of the time he is low and I give him sugar. Every now and then it's my paranoia and his blood sugar is fine. But that is why I wanted a button to push that would show me the BG so I would know if I really needed to get out of bed or not. The other great thing is we can send him to bed with a much lower BG because the alarm will go off if his BG is to high or to low and we can see the trend line telling us where his BG is headed. MIRACLE!!!
Now we have to talk about the finances. This wonderful device/alarm clock cost $2,400. EEK!! They told me no one had been approved through insurance but I still pursued my options. I went a couple different routes and then came to a dead end-- I had multiple Medtronic and Mayo people tell me it wasn't going to happen and not a single person had been approved. I was sad, but I then almost 9 months pregnant and started worrying about other issues.
Well, randomly in the mail I get a letter during the 2nd week of January telling me that our insurance had approved the MySentry device! WHAT!! I thought our case was closed but apparently by some miracle (I know God had a major part in this) our case kept going through all the different levels of appeal and it finally got approved. They said it was the first to be approved!!! I couldn't believe it. We ended up paying $750 and felt like it was worth every penny to have better control of Benson's BG's.
This is the MySentry device:
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