Calling All The Endos, Calling All The Endos...

On Friday, I placed a call to our CDE and asked for help regarding set-up.  After our initial experience with failing 2:00 a.m. sensor insertion, and then our follow-up with the sweet Medtronic reps, I felt it best to make sure our endo team had a good look at how I had set up our insulin pump.  

Not to mention that I felt pretty defeated by the entire new pump experience and wanted at least one pat on the back.    

Unfortunately, the call back did not happen.  Not on Friday.  Or Monday.  Or even today, Tuesday.  

As the week ticked on, so did our supply box of infusion sets.  While a box of ten infusion sets would normally be enough to last a month, our teen aged daughter also had an active week which included multiple sleepovers and tons of swimming pool time.  Her normally sticky sites proved not to be so sticky and before we both realized, our stock had dwindled down.  Suddenly, we were staring at the last infusion site in the box.  

I wanted to cry.  Feeling my stress, oldest daughter DID cry.  And for a second time in a row, I wanted to question my sanity as to why I thought switching insulin pump brands was a good idea.

With kindness from our t1d friends, a few offered us help with supplies to get by until our next shipment.  Thank goodness for the DOC because without them, we would surely flounder.  

However this isn't the way that I feel most comfortable.  I am the girl that loves nothing more than a plan and a routine.  The last few weeks have been more than rough on my needs.  Nothing like flying by the seat of your supply pants.

I even attempted an online order for a cartridge product that allows infusion sites from Animas to work with Medtronic in an effort to use what we already have.  My thought was that if our endo group was going to wait, maybe I could take care of the supply problem myself.  

Efforts were thwarted with that idea because on Monday, I received a call telling me that the online company needed a script in order to send them.  Sigh.  Nothing I could do on my own.

So, I reached out a second time on Tuesday and called our endo team back.  

As it turned out, our regular CDE happened to reside in a pocket of town that received a freak heavy rain storm, causing major housing flooding, making it difficult to leave or get to work.  After explaining this, our endo receptionist staff forwarded my request to another CDE and marked my call as 'priority' for a callback.

And this is the magical part of the story where sometimes fate intervenes in a big, positive way.  The CDE that returned my call was AMAZING!  She reached right through the phone to give me a big giant hug with her kindness and understanding.  She also offered both solid advice and more encouragement.  She happily took my new CareLink information and promised to review everything and call us back.  Then she straightened out the supply order, noticing that we should have received 15 infusion sites for the month and promising a quick delivery of five more.  

Not even ten minutes later, I received a second call back to let me know that she wanted to make sure she had the correct color of Mio's because "Kid's color choices are important".  

Amazing stuff.  

And maybe that is another reminder of why it is so important to have such a great team around us at all times.