Finally!

I'm so happy! Yesterday we finally got Emily's Continuous Glucose Monitor! This has been such a long process.

I had first heard about a CGM in July when I went to a meet-up of other Diabetes moms in the area. We had gone to dinner at Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth and I sat next to this woman who had a little boy about a year younger than Emily. Just before we were to eat, she turned to me and said, "Have you seen one of these before?" and she showed me this little machine about the size of a cell phone. I said, "Is it a pump?" and she said, "No, check this out! It's a live reading of what his blood sugar is." What??? I had never heard of one of these cool things. "It gives a live reading and it graphs it out. It has an alarm on it that tells me when his blood sugar is getting low or high. It helps us catch the lows and correct the highs before he gets too sick."

(I swear I heard the Alleluia chorus singing)

It has arrows telling you whether her blood sugar is going up or down. One arrow for "it's on it's way down, you need to eat/take insulin," and two arrows meaning, "fix it now!!!"

I came away from this meetup with one thing on my mind: I had to have this machine. Emily doesn't recognize her lows and we struggle with knowing when she's high because she may sneak a bit of food here and there, or tell us she ate this much when she really ate more than that.

So, I called Em's endo (endocrine doctor for her diabetes) and said, "I want this monitor!" They said they'd give me some information on some monitors that they recommend and that I could make the decision on which one we thought was best for Emily and let them know which one we picked. We had a diabetes education class a couple of weeks down the road, in August, and the nurse educator would give us the information then.

Yeah, riiiight.

We got to the class and the nurse had no idea what we were talking about. She said, "Just pick one," almost in a "duh!" tone of voice. I was mad, because two weeks had gone by and nothing had been done to start the process of getting the monitor.

Rob and I did some research and we found the monitor we wanted. When we're ready for the pump, both the pump and the CGM sensor will speak to the same monitor, meaning one less thing Em would have to wear or that we'd have to carry around. So, I filled out a form online, a representative called me to get the ordering process started and she talked me in to getting a pump for Emily. Why not, it'd be best for her health to "keep her diabetes in better control." Okay, cool, let's do this!

The rep said we'd have the pump in the next couple of days, but the CGM would take a bit longer because of insurance blah blah. She said she'd get the paperwork to the doctor's office to fill out and return and things would get rolling.

A couple of days later I get an email from the rep that had a forward attached from the doctor's office. We hadn't talked to the doctor about getting the pump, there was education we needed and a trial to go through to make sure Emily could tolerate the pump. So no, we cannot have the pump. And basically the rep stopped working on the CGM at that point, too.

Um, okay, no one told me any of this! How was I supposed to know we needed the education and trial? The rep was the one that talked me into the pump, I never brought it up, all I wanted was the CMG. I emailed the rep back to see if she could please continue the process on the CGM, since that was all we wanted in the first place. She said she'd email the nurse.

Weeks go by and NOTHING. By this time, it's October. I'm just about ready to freakin' pay cash for this thing so I can help my kid keep her blood sugar within her limits so she doesn't get sick. So, I called and made an appointment with the doctor to get some answers. I'm so glad I did, because they had the papers, they just needed a signature. The nurse practitioner I saw personally handed the papers to the doctor to sign, faxed them over and said, "It's in the hands of the monitor company now!"

Is this a freakin' long story or what??? Gah!

I assumed things were rolling on the rep's end. So we waited. And waited. And freaky-fracky waited! Come ONnnnNNnn!!! What's the freakin' deal? I emailed our rep again in mid November and she said there was a "discrepancy" on the prescription and they were waiting on the doctor. Bleepity-bleepity-freakin'-frackin'-CRAP!

We waited some more.

I think I waited too long. I'm too nice. And maybe a bit stupid.

And now it's December and at this point, I was ready to just get a monitor from another company. On Tuesday, I called the doctor's office to see where we were in the process, and they had me call my rep. Poop.

I dialed the number, closed my eyes and asked, "Where are we in the process of getting our monitor?" "Well, we just need you to sign this paper we're going to email to you, and get you to fax it back to us. We're expediting shipment and you'll have it on Thursday."

My mouth fell open. No-freakin'-way. "Okay, thanks." I don't believe you, representative lady. I'll believe it when I see it.

I didn't see the monitor until SATURDAY. But it's here, it's sitting right next to me. I can touch it and look at it and I have it and no one can take it from me. It's mine. I mean, it's Emily's.

And now, we wait for someone to call us to set up a training class to learn how to use this thing. They said it would be within ten business days that they'd call us. I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. I'm calling them on day eleven to set it up if they haven't called by then. Enough of this waiting crap. If it was just for me, I'd just learn it on my own. But it's for my kid and I'd better do it right so I don't make her sick.

At this point, Emily is not crazy about having this thing attached to her all the time. But I'm hoping she'll figure out it's for the best, it'll help her stay healthy, and I won't have to hover so much. I'm so tired of the hovering. Especially the middle-of-the-night hovering.