After The Bionic Pancreas

I have been anxious to tell you all about Ally's experience wearing the Bionic Pancreas. But I have also been in catch up mode after being away from home, my hubby and my other girls for two weeks. I've caught up on bills, shopped for school supplies, weeded my garden. I'm still catching up on snuggles though. I mentioned to Ally that I needed to get an update written for the blog. She offered to do it for me! So here you go an update on Ally's "bionic experience" from Ally herself...


If you're a kid like me, a type 1 diabetic, how many times in the past two weeks have you been asked, “Do you feel high? Do you feel low? What does your CGM say?”  I’m counting. It’s only been one day and I'm already at 12.

That was one of the great things about camp. I was monitored 24/7, but I wasn’t asked any of those questions. There wasn't any reason to. I was wearing the Bionic Pancreas.

The Bionic Pancreas, aka the Bio Panky, is amazing! It kept my numbers in range the whole five days that I wore it!  (And it required a lot less work - and questions.) The five days that I didn’t wear the Bio Panky, my CGM graph looked like a roller coaster. The reason I think it worked so well is that I wasn’t just given insulin, the Bio Panky gave me glucagon too. A Dexcom CGM was paired with an iPhone that read the CGM every five minutes and depending on my blood sugar, it would give me insulin, or glucagon.

Another cool feature of the Bio Panky is that I didn't have to count carbs for everything that I ate. I just had to tell it if I was eating a small, normal or large meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At snack time, I didn't worry about entering anything at all.

If you saw my CGM graph, you might even think that it was a non-diabetic's graph. But it really was mine...and I was even at camp getting a lot of exercise. Usually when I have that much exercise, my blood sugar goes low low low. I never went low while I was on the Bio Panky, not even at night.

Some things do need to be fixed before the Bionic Pancreas will be on the market. Glucagon is not stable for more than 24 hours at a time right now, so we had to change our glucagon pump site every day. Also, it needs to be combined all in one device. The research team told me that these things will be taken care of by the time its out on the market.

I had so much fun at Clara Barton Camp. I made new friends. We laughed and sang lots of songs together. We played fun games, like gaga and cities and capture the flag. Dance night and the talent show were fun. Swimming in the pond was pretty cool. I learned a lot at camp too. I learned how to make a duct tape pump pouch :) And not only did I learn to try a site in my stomach, but I learned to do it all by myself!

This is me inserting a stomach site
which I learned at Clara Barton Camp.

But the best part of camp was learning more about the Bionic Pancreas. I can't wait to have my own Bionic Pancreas someday!

This post is part of a series documenting Ally's experience as a participant in The 2014 Bionic Pancreas Camp Study.  


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UNTIL THERE IS A CURE

3..2..1..GO BIONIC!

MY HEART SWELLS

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

BIONIC: SUPERHUMAN? NAH, JUST SUPERHERO!

TODAY I REJOICE

I WISH IT WERE THREE YEARS FROM NOW