Luke's Necessities

I thought I would do a little informative post on all things regular and necessary for Luke. A lot of people ask... Ho do you do it? How do you give him insulin? Aside from that, a lot of people don't realize how much "stuff" is needed to keep Luke, and I hate saying this but, alive.
Here is a look at our stock of supplies

In this cabinet I have numbing cream that we use to change his site. We have alcohol wipes to keep everything clean. There are extra meters. There is a ketone meter along with test strips specifically for that type of test. There are drums to re-load his lancer, and extra lancing devices. There is extra tape and bandages for the times he will get wet or in case something comes loose and its not time to change it yet. There are the pump supplies to change his site and re-load his pump with insulin. There are replacement sensors for his continuous glucose monitor.There are extra syringes for the times there is something wrong with his site and he needs an injection. There are insulin pens, in case for any reason the pump doesn't work and we are waiting for a replacement.  And there are extra lithium batteries, we can't forget batteries! Not to mention the boxes of supplies in the basement... this is just what I can store upstairs that needs to be easily accessible.

This is Luke's life support. Everything needed is on this table.

This is Luke's pump. This little blue guy holds his insulin and has all of his carb ratios as well as his insulin sensitivity factor programmed into it. This device is awesome!

This is one of the few pouches that holds his pump. He also has a superman one, a camouflage one, and a special stretchy one that is great for when he is active. If we could only find a ninja turtle pouch!!

This is the site where he gets his insulin. We alternate between butt cheeks and belly sides.

The blue piece detaches easily when we need to disconnect, like when we are at the beach and we don't want anything to happen to his pump. Or if his sugar is low and he is very active, we usually disconnect him. Thank goodness we have this pump, because I believe I forgot to mention he doesn't get injections because of this!

This is the Dexcom G4 Platinum. Sounds pretty amazing right? I love the name of it. This little thing is the receiver of his continuous glucose monitor. This bad boy gives me a blood glucose reading every 5 minutes. I have alarms set for when his sugar goes above 250 or below 70.  This thing is a godsend, not that it is 100% reliable, but it is pretty darn close. This means that I don't have to set an alarm every 2 to 3 hours at night to check his blood. YAY!!!

This is the computer part of it. This is "the brain."

Here it is on his little heiney. We only put it on his butt because it is a little painful going in and it stays on for a week.

And this is the contraption that I insert it with. After all this wouldn't you think I could be a nurse?
I know it seems like a lot for a 4 year old to deal with, but Luke is awesome! He does complain, but who wouldn't?!