Prep equals success
Scott Benner
The other day Arden’s OmniPod experienced an unexpected error and shut down, which happens and is no big deal, unless... Unless she is sitting on the school bus waiting to depart the building and isn’t old enough to read the error message on the PDM screen and understand it. Then it might be a problem, right? Nope, not a problem and here is why. Arden got out her cell phone (which she is allowed to carry because of our comprehensive 504 plan) and called me. She said that she thought that, “the pump had an error and shut off” and that she pushed the button to stop the beeping but wan’t sure what to do next. I asked her to take her phone to the bus driver while I called the nurse’s office. The nurse went directly to the bus port while I spoke to the driver. Now does the driver freak out? No, and why doesn’t she... because we have had multiple conversations about Arden and she understands the situation. She is also comforted by the laminated instruction sheet that she carries on how to deal with high and low BGs, in short she is educated and mentally prepared. The nurse called me from the bus port and we discuss if Arden will be okay without an insulin source for the ride home and we decide that she will. Then our driver scraped the bus route and brought Arden directly to our house, she was home in less then ten minutes. No one was upset, confused or shook, all because we prepared. Now this wasn’t a real emergency, Arden was never in any danger but it did serve as a look at the way the people Arden counts on when she is at school will react if an emergency ever arises... and everyone was fantastic! This pod error was kinda like a fire drill for us, I’m glad in a strange way that it happened.