Artificial Pancreas Someday

Wearing the iPro & the pump reminds me often of the possibility of an artificial pancreas. An artifical pancreas will sense the glucose like the iPro, send it to a computer algorithm, which then tells the pump much insulin to give or withhold. I've been reading tonight, and they have already done this on teenagers overnight! There are still issues, but the research is very exciting! I don't think Andrew would be excited, though. It's not fun to wear all the machinery. What is exciting is that doctors think they can get much better control than anything we can do right now. That is good news for his eyes, heart, kidneys, nerves, etc. Here is an interesting link to read: http://www.endocrinetoday.com/view.aspx?rid=43543

One doctor thought the first models will be available in five years. Insurance won't cover it for longer than that. They are just now starting to cover continous glucose monitoring, and even the best companies only cover 80%. I hear that the CGM supplies cost even more than the pump supplies.



In the meantime, Andrew continues to live an active life. Here he is with his trophy from tonight's end of year soccer party with Gene, who helped coach his team. Andrew starts basketball on Tuesday!