"The automated insertion is what
really won him over. It's quick and
simple and it doesn't hurt."

 

At age 12, Luke Gregson was in his prime growing years, but he was starving. As his mother notes, “If he chose to eat, he’d need a shot, so he just wasn’t eating. He was too thin to inject in his stomach, and his legs had gotten so tender that it hurt to walk. Meanwhile, we could barely sleep at night out of fear.” Luke was no more interested in a traditional pump with tubing than he was in shots. Then the Gregsons heard about the OmniPod System. There was no tubing. It was discreet. And Luke mastered the PDM immdiately. Now he eats when he is hungry, swims and plays basketball with his peers—and has grown more than 5 inches. For the Gregsons, OmniPod has made a huge difference. Dustie smiles, “It has changed our lives.”

 

 

Luke, his dad Andrew, his two younger brothers David Cole and Jacob, and I live in the country, near their grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. There are 18 of us and we do everything together. The key to our life is the relationships we have with one another – everything we do revolves around family. It was amazing how Luke’s diabetes affected all of us.

When Luke was first diagnosed with diabetes, I didn’t even know what that really meant – it doesn’t run in our family or anything. It was April of 2004 and Luke was 12 years old. He’d been sick for two months and was very tired and drained, but he was just starting his first year of middle school, and he’d had a few viruses, so we didn’t make too much of it. Then on Easter weekend, he wasn’t doing well; he started urinating an incredible amount and drinking non-stop, so we thought it was a bladder infection. But on the way to the doctor, he started seeing colors.

He ended up in the hospital for a week, and he struggled with the injections. But we couldn’t leave the hospital until he could give himself a shot.

I thought it was scary bringing him home from the hospital as an infant but this was much scarier. It would take us 10-20 minutes per shot in the beginning, and he was up to 6-7 shots a day. Here he was at the prime of growth, but he was starving. If he chose to eat, he’d need a shot, so he just wasn’t eating. He lost a tremendous amount of weight. Sometimes we had to fight over every shot. He was too thin to inject in his stomach, and his legs had gotten so tender that it hurt to walk. Meanwhile, we could barely sleep at night out of fear.

The doctors wanted him to consider an insulin pump, but Luke had seen the way traditional pumps were inserted, and he was totally against it. Then we heard about the OmniPod. Luke loved the idea of no tubing! It was a whole new way of thinking.
The automated insertion is what really won him over. It’s quick and simple and it doesn’t hurt.

At this age – or any age – you don’t necessarily want people to know that you have diabetes. With the OmniPod, everything is hidden because the Pod is small and worn underneath his shirt and the PDM (Personal Diabetes Manager) is in his backpack.

Plus the glucose meter is integrated into the PDM, so Luke doesn’t need to carry a separate meter around. He just carries the little PDM in his pocket, and when he takes it out people think he’s using a handheld computer.

With the OmniPod, Luke can take part in any kind of activity without worrying about tubing that might get caught, tangled, or pulled out of his skin. He loves basketball and playing in the woods and wrestling hard with his brothers. He played a whole season in his community basketball league this year, and he never had a single problem with the OmniPod.

The first time we met with the diabetes educator, she was shocked at how fast he could get around the System. He was ready to have it filled with insulin the very next day! The PDM is so easy to use, even I can manage the features with no trouble. I can scan through his “history” to see when he gave a bolus dose or if we need to adjust his basal rates.

Luke’s activity is only going to increase, and we’re not always going to be there – using the OmniPod just gives us so much peace of mind as parents! He’s grown about 5 inches and gained weight, because now he eats what he wants, and gives insulin doses without a struggle.

If it weren’t for the OmniPod, he would have stuck with injections and kept on agonizing over his diabetes.

Now Luke’s whole attitude towards life has changed, and that affects the whole family. Recently his grandmother came over and said, “Luke I just know one day they’ll find a cure for diabetes,” and he said, “It’s all right. It’s not so bad now.”

Diabetes can take the pleasure out of things you used to enjoy, like going out for meals or ice cream with the whole family. But now the joy is back.

Diabetes is a daily battle, but the OmniPod has taken so much of the stress out of it for us. Luke is not only physically healthier since he has been on the OmniPod, but he is happier – we now have our son, brother, nephew and grandson back!