10/13 Esse AMPS 150

[Lauren & Esse]

Last thread!

Well, things did not go according to plan for our trip! TL;DR - Esse's vacation dose ended up being no insulin at all, he ripped off his Libre, we came home early, but everything was fine. Read on for details if you're curious.

• Thurs 10/9: We gave 1u in the morning. He got his usual +1.5 and +3 snacks before we left, but of course as soon as we were on the road we started getting alarms from the Libre. We made an executive decision to have the sitter skip his shot that night to drain the depot just to make sure he'd be safe, knowing he wouldn't be eating from +2 until the next cycle's pre-shot going forward.
• Fri 10/10: No alarm notifications overnight, but he still had some greens. We'd also realized that cell reception was really bad where we were (Sam didn't have any, mine was very spotty)--this worried us because it meant we might not get any further Libre alarms. My goal had really been for him to be >100 at all times and so far that wasn't the case. Because of that, we skipped that morning's shot too, and I'm glad we did--he got down to 64! So then we skipped his PM shot.
• Sat 10/11: I wake up to the dreaded "Libre failed, start new sensor" notification. Looking at his graph, I'm almost certain he's removed it himself, it didn't loosen or fail on its own. I had the sitter check--he'd completely torn off the Libre and its sticker cover (thankfully with minimal skin irritation). Obviously now she definitely can't shoot, since we have no way of knowing his numbers. At this point I was fully ready to find a way to get home by myself, but Sam and our other friend who had driven with us convinced me to stay one more day and then we'd all pack up camp and go back.
• Sun 10/12: As decided, we packed up a day early and drove back. Missing a day of the festival was totally fine with me since I was too anxious to enjoy it anyway. We applied a new Libre a few hours before his next shot, hoping to find he was still <200... and he was! We were exhausted and gave 1u just to ease him back into the insulin pool and make sure we'd get good sleep.

As I mentioned previously, this was our first time traveling together overnight since starting Esse on insulin. We learned some important lessons for next time.

Lesson 1: We'll keep working on training Esse to eat from the auto-feeder by himself, but even if he learns, I think I'd rather find someone who can stay with him full (or almost full) time vs. doing drop-in visits.​

Lesson 2: Toss out all of his shirts that aren't super long, so he can't access his Libre by working his shirt up to get it. This is the third time it's happened and I'm so over it.​

Lesson 3: If he can do so well without insulin for 6 cycles, maybe his pancreas is really healing? I haven't really seen anyone talk about this (since obviously skipping this many consecutive shots is not recommended), but could it be a sign that he's headed towards remission?​

​

If you stuck with me this far, thanks for reading. Enjoy some of the hilarious photos the Rover sitter sent us.

 

[Staci & Ivy]

Last thread!

Well, things did not go according to plan for our trip! TL;DR - Esse's vacation dose ended up being no insulin at all, he ripped off his Libre, we came home early, but everything was fine. Read on for details if you're curious.

• Thurs 10/9: We gave 1u in the morning. He got his usual +1.5 and +3 snacks before we left, but of course as soon as we were on the road we started getting alarms from the Libre. We made an executive decision to have the sitter skip his shot that night to drain the depot just to make sure he'd be safe, knowing he wouldn't be eating from +2 until the next cycle's pre-shot going forward.
• Fri 10/10: No alarm notifications overnight, but he still had some greens. We'd also realized that cell reception was really bad where we were (Sam didn't have any, mine was very spotty)--this worried us because it meant we might not get any further Libre alarms. My goal had really been for him to be >100 at all times and so far that wasn't the case. Because of that, we skipped that morning's shot too, and I'm glad we did--he got down to 64! So then we skipped his PM shot.
• Sat 10/11: I wake up to the dreaded "Libre failed, start new sensor" notification. Looking at his graph, I'm almost certain he's removed it himself, it didn't loosen or fail on its own. I had the sitter check--he'd completely torn off the Libre and its sticker cover (thankfully with minimal skin irritation). Obviously now she definitely can't shoot, since we have no way of knowing his numbers. At this point I was fully ready to find a way to get home by myself, but Sam and our other friend who had driven with us convinced me to stay one more day and then we'd all pack up camp and go back.
• Sun 10/12: As decided, we packed up a day early and drove back. Missing a day of the festival was totally fine with me since I was too anxious to enjoy it anyway. We applied a new Libre a few hours before his next shot, hoping to find he was still <200... and he was! We were exhausted and gave 1u just to ease him back into the insulin pool and make sure we'd get good sleep.

As I mentioned previously, this was our first time traveling together overnight since starting Esse on insulin. We learned some important lessons for next time.

Lesson 1: We'll keep working on training Esse to eat from the auto-feeder by himself, but even if he learns, I think I'd rather find someone who can stay with him full (or almost full) time vs. doing drop-in visits.​

Lesson 2: Toss out all of his shirts that aren't super long, so he can't access his Libre by working his shirt up to get it. This is the third time it's happened and I'm so over it.​

Lesson 3: If he can do so well without insulin for 6 cycles, maybe his pancreas is really healing? I haven't really seen anyone talk about this (since obviously skipping this many consecutive shots is not recommended), but could it be a sign that he's headed towards remission?​

​

If you stuck with me this far, thanks for reading. Enjoy some of the hilarious photos the Rover sitter sent us.

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Oh nooooooo! I am so sorry, Lauren. What a clusterf#$K!
You poor mama! How stressful for everyone!
(all of this is why I haven't left my house in over 3 years!)

The good news is Esse did very well while you were gone and his pancreas worked as ell as it could!
Now settle back in at home and he will get back om track!

Safe surfing, Esse and leave that Libre alone!

 

[Lauren & Esse]

(all of this is why I haven't left my house in over 3 years!)

I know, right?! We had told Sam's parents that we didn't want to travel for the holidays this year (they suggested doing Thanksgiving or Christmas at their vacation house in Florida) and now we have great evidence for that decision. Our next trip together won't be 'til February and at least for that one we'll have fairly solid wifi.