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| Last updated at 2:22 PM on 29/10/08 |
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Aaron and his mom Shannon get his pump ready for its next three days of use. |
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New lease on life 
11-year-old winning fight against diabetes
CLAYTON HUNT
Coaster
"It's like having a new lease on life. I don't have to give myself needles every day now. I'm more active than I was before because I'm getting the right amount of insulin now."
Aaron Stone, an 11-year-old resident of Harbour Breton, was referring to his new Paradigm 722 insulin pump that he has been using since April 2008 to treat his Type 1 diabetes when he made the above statement.
Aaron was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2005. Aaron's mom Shannon related Aaron's story.
"In January 2005 Aaron had experienced a drastic weight loss and was thirsty very often. My mom said he had some of the symptoms of diabetes so we used her diabetes monitor to check Aaron's blood sugar levels," Mrs. Stone said. "His sugar level was 27.9 the first morning we checked. We kept checking it throughout that day and it remained very high. We contacted our local hospital that evening and they said to bring him in right away. The kept him in overnight and took him to Grand Falls-Windsor the next day where he was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic."
Type 1 diabetes appears suddenly in children and young adults and progresses rapidly. In this form, the pancreas ceases to manufacture insulin, a hormone necessary to convert the food we eat into energy for the body. Victims of insulin-dependent diabetes must take one to four daily injections of insulin to stay alive.
Aaron's first treatment for his diabetes was two injections of insulin a day - one in the morning and one at about 5 p.m. He later started using a Huma Pin, a device that allows the user to dial the amount of insulin they need to take and keeps the dosage date and time of the previous 16 shots in order to keep the victim from overdosing. He was using this pin about four times a day.
It was in the summer of 2007, while attending a diabetes camp at the Lions Max Simms Camp, that Aaron and his mom were introduced to the insulin pump he now uses.
"We were at the diabetic camp in Bishop's Falls when I saw a girl with a device on her arm, which I thought was an MP3 player," Mrs. Stone said. "Aaron later told me that the device was an insulin pump that the girl was using to control her Type 1 diabetes. I immediately wanted to find out about the treatment."
Mrs. Stone's interest and Aaron's willingness to try a new type of treatment led to his use of the MiniMed Paradigm Real Time Insulin Pump.
"I contacted the diabetic nurse Aaron was seeing about the pump and she was all for it. We started travelling to Grand Falls-Windsor in January 2008 to attend instructional lessons on how to use the device and Aaron started using it in April of this year," Mrs. Stone said. "It was overwhelming at first. We had to travel to Grand Falls-Windsor every three days for a while. There was so much to learn and at times I wasn't sure the item was right for Aaron. The pump does take a bit of getting used to but Aaron was determined to give it a try. I'm very glad today that we stuck with the program and that Aaron is using the pump. The travelling and the lessons were all worth it in the end.
"The monitor on the pump is radioactive. As soon as Aaron checks his sugar the reading automatically shows up on his pump and the pump injects the needed amount of insulin in his body through a needle, which attached to the machine through the tube. When we download his readings we only have to put a chip into the computer like a USB port and it automatically takes off his readings."
Mrs. Stone said they send the readings to the Grand Falls-Windsor hospital electronically and the doctors only have to click his name and his readings are there.
"They call me for adjustments we have to make with the pump. We only have to visit the central hospital about every three months now that Aaron is used to the pump," Mrs. Stone said. "The pump puts my mind more at ease than the two previous methods he was using to control his diabetes because I know he's getting the right amount of insulin when he needs it. Before the pump he may have been getting insulin he didn't need or may not have been getting enough insulin at times.
"The pump is better for Aaron...it's a life change for him. He doesn't have to bother with the inconvenience of daily injections, he's more active and overall this device will reduce his risk of long-term health complications such as kidney failure and vision problems," Mrs. Stone added. "The better Aaron controls his sugar levels now, the better his health will be in the future."
How it Works
An insulin pump is a battery-operated device about the size of a pager. It is worn externally. A pump supplies insulin to your body through an infusion set consisting of tubing connected to a soft cannula or needle that is inserted under the skin.
The pump is programmed to deliver insulin according to your individual need. An insulin pump delivers insulin in two ways: continuously (called basal delivery) and on demand (called bolus delivery)
When you manage your diabetes with an insulin pump, you can program different basal delivery rates for different times of the day or night. With the simple push of a button you can give yourself a bolus of insulin whenever your food intake or blood glucose reading requires it.
Insulin pump therapy and frequent blood glucose monitoring can help you achieve excellent control and, at the same time, live your life your way.
Up to 97 per cent of people who switch to insulin pump therapy stay with it because it provides less pain, fewer social limitations, fewer hassles, less life interference, more flexibility, convenience and less burden.
The previous information is taken directly from literature Aaron provided to the Coaster about the insulin pump.
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28/10/08
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Sam from BC writes: The monitor on the pump is radioactive is an incorrect statement. The glucose monitor and the pump may communicate via radio waves but they are not radioactive.
Matthew Molloy:
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| Posted 30/10/2008 at 12:21 PM | Alert an Editor | Link to comment |
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