Double Awesomeness

Yesterday was busy, as I had an orchestra concert. So I'm posting this now.

A couple of months ago, I got a letter from Smith's Medical/Deltec saying that a new Deltec Cozmore system was coming out (looks the same, but with many new features, new software, etc). And it was free to me if I wanted to upgrade. I'm not going to say no to a free upgrade, so I did the online training and the little "what have you learned from staring at pump demonstration videos for two hours" exam. A couple of weeks ago, I finally faxed the form into my pediatric endocrinologist. I never heard anything back from my endo about it.

Meanwhile, since I am going to Germany soon, my mom mentioned that I may wish to get a new digital camera; my camera was between four and five years old, and I would want something little and light that I could shove into my purse. So, after much deliberation and trying out the lovely features of the Canons I was considering at Best Buy (including the "Come on, random person in the video game section. Look over here so I can try out the face detection! Why can't you read my mind!"), I settled on the Canon 800 Elph (something like that. I have also heard this series referred to as the Ixus series, and the model number in Europe is different, I think). My dad and I ordered it online.

After I got home from school, I remembered that my camera was supposed to come in within hours, and since there were no notes on the door from our friendly neighborhood UPS man, it hadn't come yet. Soon Radar, our chihuahua, started barking; there was a UPS truck outside. A guy walked up to the door with two medium-sized boxes. Thinking it was my new camera, I excitedly asked who to sign for. The UPS man, not knowing exactly what I meant, replied "Smith's Medical." (I was actually asking if I should sign one of my parents' names, since they had given me permission and my mom was nearby anyway, but whatever.) Just hearing the word "medical" took a little of the magic out of it (I thought it was infusion sets or test strips), but my mom signed (she came over partially out of curiosity and partially because I don't know how to deal with delivery guys that well) and we got the boxes. We then realized that one of the boxes was from Amazon. And then I realized that Smith's Medical was my pump company. I always think of it as Deltec, which sounds waaay cooler than anything "medical," so I hadn't realized what the box contained. But my camera and my pump came in on the same day!

I won't go into camera specs here, but I will mention the pump. It has amazing new features, such as a basal testing feature complete with blood sugar testing alerts, a disconnect-reconnect bolus feature, and a weekly schedule for bolus alerts and basals. It even has HypoManager, which tells the user how many grams of carbs to eat if he or she tests a low blood sugar. There are a few other features as well, but my favorite is CozFoods. CozFoods is a database that is located and edited on the computer using the new software provided with the pump. Over 400 foods, complete with carbohydrate, serving size, and other nutritional information come pre-loaded. The database is downloaded onto the pump, and the MealMaker feature can be used to add up the carb total for a meal. The user only has to find the food he or she is eating in the well-organized database and enter how many servings he or she is eating, and the pump calculates the bolus and adds it to the MealMaker total. Once the MealMaker has all of the components of the current meal, the user pushes Done and can double check the bolus and change it. Extended and Combination bolus options can even be used with MealMaker. It's amazing. If you want a new pump or are considering pumping for the first time, definitely consider the Cozmo and the CozMore system. The pump has a blood sugar meter attachment that can tell the pump one's blood sugar, and the pump can decide how much insulin or how many carbohydrates are needed. The software is easy to use, but if you use Macintosh computers, you will either have to break down and buy a Windoze computer or use Parallels/Boot Camp/some other emulator. And you need an IR port. The pump itself is wonderful as well. Check it out.