Seems odd to think of an anniversary of being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as “happy”, but we have real reason to celebrate today! No, we didn’t discover the cure, and no, I didn’t figure out a way to turn back the clock to a time when Medium didn’t have diabetes. But our lives have been altered, the path of our journey has changed course and we have a new normal, so different things make me happy now. Like Medium having an A1C of 6.8. Oh yeah baby, sweet! The hemoglobin A1C test is the litmus test for diabetics to make sure they are staying in range. A diabetic only knows what their blood sugar is when they test it and who knows what it is doing the rest of the time. The life of a red blood cell is 90 days, so the test is able to look back and tell you what your average blood glucose was over the last 3 months. A healthy, “normal” A1C is between 4-6. When Medium was diagnosed and in the hospital his A1C was 11.4 which told us that his average blood sugar for the 3 months before diagnosis was in the low 300’s. I bought a home A1C kit which had two tests in it and we took one at his one month mark and it had gone down to 8.6 and now at the 2 month mark it is 6.8. Now, I don’t know how accurate the home kits are, but most research I have done says they are accurate within 20%. We will get an official A1C at the endocrinologists office when he goes for his 3 month follow up. I will probably do a home test before we go to compare it to the doctor’s office test and check for accuracy. But none the less, I am so excited that his A1C is so good. It is almost in normal range and that is even with one month of pre-diagnosis, non-medicated blood cells on board! So basically we are kicking diabetes’ ass, even without a pump!
And speaking of the pump…..that leads me to my next reason to celebrate today. I found out yesterday that the insurance company paid the claim for the pump! They denied the claim for the continuous glucose monitor but after a few phone calls, I am fairly certain that will be paid, too. (They only cover the CGM for one diagnosis code and they must have overlooked the code on his script because it was on there). So we are spending this weekend going through the all the instruction manuals and taking the online lessons so I can call on Monday and we can schedule our pump training. Woohoo!
We spent the evening with some of my oldest friends (they aren’t old, I have just known them for a LONG time). One of the families lives out of town and the other family lives about 25 minutes away and we just don’t get together very often. There are 8 kids between us and they are all between the ages of 5 and 12, all boys except one girl. The kids all had a great time together and Medium was right in the mix, hoopin’ it up having a great time. And I couldn’t help but get a little choked up watching him. Because while we still have a long road ahead of us and a lifetime of managing this disease, I took comfort in seeing just how far we have come in 2 months and watching Medium having a normal, happy Saturday night with friends.
But I still hate diabetes.
Me and "My Savior".
WifeMomPancreas 
YAY! So glad you are finally getting to use some of the equipment you really need to manage this. Looks like you’re kicking diabetes’ butt!
Yeah, we will see. I have been researching and a lot of kids don’t like “wearing” all the stuff and I can see Zach being one of those kids. We will just have to see how it goes. But at least we have it, so that is good! It’s a start anyway!
Please help. Are you saying that insurance paid for your Medtronic My Sentry? I have an adolescent niece with type 1 and she is not managing herself well at all right now. Thinking this would be so helpful.
Carrie, unfortunately, no. Insurance won’t cover the MySentry because it is too new. Maybe in a few years when Medtronic can provide them with all the evidence the insurance companies require that it is a useful tool. We will be making monthly payments for a long, long time to pay for it! But at the time of diagnosis, I needed that reassurance. But here is my honest opinion. The MySentry is only as good as the CGM sensors, and those aren’t very good. Again, this is my opinion based on my experience with my son. First of all he HATES the sensor. It hurts going in and it bothers him to wear it. But more importantly, it is not very accurate. And if it is not accurate, then the MySentry will alarm when it shouldn’t, possibly keeping you up all night. So you could have a night where it alarms saying that you are either above or below the limits that you have set, and then when you confirm with a finger stick, you are totally fine. So you use that finger stick to calibrate the CGM sensor and go back to bed. Then 30 minutes later, it happens again and so on. The MySentry would be 100% peace of mind and an extremely useful tool, if the sensors that trigger it were more accurate. Again, that has been my experience with it. My son hasn’t worn a sensor in 5 months so we are making payments on the MySentry and we aren’t even using it anymore. Until there is a better way, we are back to setting our alarm and doing nightly checks. Hope that helps some. Let me know if you have any other questions. I’ll keep your niece in my prayers!