And you know what? I had bronchitis in Nov 2001. My sister had pneumonia and sinusitis too. But with PUMPY, I did not have a problem with my blood sugars. In 2000, I got pneumonia and ended up in the hospital just before Christmas. We couldn't control my blood sugars. It was a mess. What a difference pump therapy makes!

Hi, my name is Myriam and I am five years old. I live in Quebec City, in the province of Quebec, Canada. I was declared type 1 diabetic on April 6, 2000, at the age of 2 1/2 years-old. I am the first person in my entire family to have this kind of diabetes. My disease will not go away on its own just by eating broccoli and swimming. My pancreas makes little if any insulin, because my beta cells, which make the hormone insulin, have been destroyed by my immune system (those killer T cells we think). Don't ask me why. Even the scientists at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada) don't know why. Learn more about my ilness in simple words by clicking here.

Mommy and Daddy bought me an early Christmas present in October, 2001. They bought me a Medtronic Minimed insulin pump to help control my blood sugar levels. Medtronic Minimed has been leaders in pump therapy for the last 20 years and I know I will be able to count on them for many years to come.

My parents, who always want to know the latest in diabetes control technology, told me recently that Medtronic Minimed is very active in research and development. For instance, the company is investing annually $50 000 000 in research and is actually bringing an artificial pancreas one step closer to reality (also see this newspaper article .pdf file, 392k) .

I can't wait!

Until then, let's talk about pump therapy and how it had improved my health and brought me a lifestyle I thought forever lost.

I have heard that I was the first kid east of Montreal in the province of Quebec to be put on a pump at that time. Since then, many other Type one diabetics like me have been put on the insulin pump, and this number is increasing every month. Find out why by reading my story.

Pumpy, for a better quality of life:

* I have no more needles. Yipppeeee!!!!

* I don't have to eat (but I do because I get hungry)!

* I can eat a whole pizza now!

* I can have a cake and eat the icing too!

* I can sleep-in now. Yabadabadooo!!!!

To achieve tight glycemic control through Pumpy, Mommy and Daddy have to do a lot of counting now. They try and teach me a little bit every day. They even made an automatic calculator sheet that tells them how much insulin Pumpy should give me according to what I eat and my physiology (special thanks to nurse Jill Milliken (Ont., Canada) for providing the idea!) This is so neat! Give it a try! Click here (.xls, 179k) or on the table at your right. You can make your own tables and print them out within seconds !

With all this, I will be a great mathematician when I start kindergarten when I will be 5 years old.

By the way, do any of you adults have any idea why little kids seem to be getting sicker more often and more seriously? Click here to have my Mom's point of view on this.

1. There are less number of hypoglycemic reactions (low blood sugar) and their average is higher.

2. The amplitude of the variation is reduced, therefore, my blood glucose levels are more stable.

(So it helps out my mood!).

3. There are fewer number of hyper-glycemic events (high blood sugar).

4. The few events of hyperglycemia that I had lasted only for a short period of time. Before I stayed high (often over 15-20 mmol) all night long.

5. We have better control because we can react rapidly and correct my blood sugars when needed.

Mommy and Daddy write a lot of letters now to help support type 1 diabetics. They want more kids like me to have the same opportunity as I do. They tell me that it costs a lot of money to buy and keep a pump. That's why Mommy still has to work.

Here are some of the letters that they wrote. They want you to write too if we want to make this world a better place for us kids. Click here (.doc, 33k) for some address suggestions.

This letter (.pdf, 23 k) was addressed to Mr. Rémy Trudel (Quebec provincial Minister of Health and Social Services) in August 2001 to request additionnal funding and efforts to support people with Type 1 diabetes in the province of Quebec.

This letter (.pdf, 11 k) was written about 'what a cure for diabetes would mean to me' letter writing contest sponsored by the Juveline Diabetes Fund Research (letters@jdrf.ca) in November 2001.

This letter (French, .pdf, 20 k) was addressed to the Quebec Diabetes Association in November 2001 to request additionnal funding for people with Type 1 diabetes and medicare coverage of insulin pumps and supplies.

This graph shows the trends in my HbA1c tests since I got diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. This test is an indicator of the mean blood glucose level over a 2-3 month period. The blue columns represent my pre-pump therapy (needles) data while

the red columns correspond to my data after starting on pump therapy.

To keep track of daily information related to my carbohydrates, my insulin doses, my basal rates, my corrections, etc. Mommy and Daddy made some synthesis data sheets to gather all of this. To see this sheet in detail click here or on the sheet at your right (.ppt, powerpoint, 73k). You can print your own sheets and adapt them to your specific needs after saving the file on your hard drive. It is possible to modify any section of this file by double clicking on the main components of the sheet. An Excel format sheet will then open. The more information that you write on this sheet, the easier it will be to target changes necessary to achieve tight glycemic control!

P.S. Fill up and fax or e-mail this sheet to your endocrinologist or certified diabetes educator in the first few days after starting your pump therapy. This is what we did and it worked out well.

This letter (.pdf, 51 k) was addressed to Mr. François Legault (Quebec provincial Minister of Health and Social Services) in February 2002 to ask where does the government actually stand for funding insulin pump therapy and how is the topic progressing.

Until I got my pump I had lived 549 days of 5 injections of insulin and 5 to 8 blood sugar tests every day. That means I had at least 2745 needles and about 4400 blood tests in that year and a half. Whew! That's a lot for a little kid my age.

I now have an average value of 6.7%, which is an indication that I have already reached a very good glycemic control (as observed on the arrow chart at the left). Indeed, I improved my HbA1c by more than an absolute 2.0% compared to my 2-years needle therapy average (8.7%). Literature about this says that for every 1% decrease in HbA1c, risks of developping complications related to diabetes decreases by 40-50%.Obviously, this therapy is a great tool that is worth it!