Three-year-old Molly Dillon is an easy-going, cheerful child—but it hasn’t always been that way. After she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 20 months, it took both her parents to hold her down for injections. In an effort to match her insulin to her actual food intake, they would wait until after a meal to give her insulin; by then her blood sugar was skyrocketing. In retrospect, her mother thinks she was always either high or low. Then they found the OmniPod—and everything changed. Molly’s A1C has gone down over 2.5 points in less than a year. She can eat when she wants, totally eliminating meal-time stress. And her behavior has transformed. Her mother, Heather, smiles, “Molly is like a new kid, a really sweet little girl.”

 

 

In September of 2006 our daughter started losing weight. She was thirsty all the time, not sleeping, wetting all the way through her diaper. My mother had Type 1 Diabetes, so we sort of knew what was going on. We were denying it, but we knew.

Molly was 20 months old when she was diagnosed. And we were overwhelmed.

Even though I knew a lot about diabetes because of my mother, it is different to draw up insulin and inject it into your screaming baby. It would take two of us to hold her down—and we did that at least 4 times a day, an injection with every meal and a basal shot at night. Being a 20-month-old, she was a picky eater; we would want her to eat everything to balance the insulin, but she wouldn’t. We tried waiting until after she ate to give her injections, but then her blood sugars were skyrocketing before they would come down. Mealtimes became incredibly stressful for the entire family.

It is so much easier now with the OmniPod. Molly is definitely still a grazer; now she can graze. This morning I gave her breakfast and she walked away from it; in an hour she will ask for a snack. I can give it to her and just give her more insulin. And I don’t have to poke her. It is beautiful.

It also means she is in much better control. In fact, her A1Cs have gone down over 2.5 points in less than a year. Not only is her blood sugar much more even, so is her behavior. I used to think that I had a really challenging child; I would be exhausted by the end of school vacations because she was cranky all the time. Now I think that she was always having either a high or a low.

Since she got the OmniPod, Molly is like a new kid, a really sweet little girl. It is fun to do things with her. She has much more focus and concentration. She can sit for hours listening to books, which was impossible before. That is not just developmental, it is the OmniPod; she is a different child. We can also tell if she is having a high or a low, because that erratic behavior is much more unusual.

When we were thinking about pumps, our doctors told us to do the research and let them know what we wanted. OmniPod’s automated insertion was a key point for us. We tried some of the other infusion sets on ourselves to see what they felt like; Molly gave us such a hard time with injections we couldn’t imagine holding her down to put something like that on.

No tubing was another amazing benefit. I can’t imagine having a traditional pump. She would be caught on things all the time or ripping it off; this is so much more practical for a child her size…and she is small for her age. Plus, with a traditional pump little kids have to walk around with a pack all day; how annoying would that be? And so obvious. The Pod is just under her clothes, on her belly. People don’t even notice it. It is just a little piece of plastic stuck to her body that makes life normal. Really.

Our lives are more normal too. Molly is in a home daycare. Before the OmniPod my husband used to have to leave work to give Molly her insulin at lunch. Now the daycare provider can just use the PDM. It is so easy, we are starting to teach our 11-year-old how to help a babysitter use it too, so my husband and I can even go out on dates. We have much more freedom.

We also have fewer interruptions. If Molly has a high blood sugar in the middle of the night, we don’t have to disturb her. She can also have a snack in the car, and we can give her insulin without everyone having to stop and get out of the car to reach the buttons on a traditional pump. We don’t have to carry around—or even remember—a bunch of separate things. It is just a lot simpler in every way—and she is more like a normal kid.

Of course, Molly’s diabetes is still there. We are always thinking about her carbohydrates. But we used to live with a constant level of high stress, and now that is gone. I can’t imagine not having the OmniPod; I have been telling everyone I know about it.