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Islets of Hope real people - stories from business owners living with diabetes |
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Interested in sharing your story? Visit our Contact page to learn how From the Pump Wear website: In designing PUMP WEAR products, our goal is to allow "Kids to be Kids" and let Adults have fun. Wearing an insulin pump shouldn't take the fun out of being a kid or being an adult. All of our products are designed to give kids and adults the freedom, comfort, flexibility and fun they thrive on. Our line encompasses all ages. A full line of diabetes awareness and support items, also help us spread the word for a cure.
Pump Wear Inc. is committed to offering a growing line of items specifically made with children and adults in mind. Insulin cases that grow with you and a clothing line that affords you the comfort you deserve. Pump Wear Inc. "Where Kids are Kids" and "Adults just have fun". Pump
Wear Inc.
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Business Owners Living with Diabetes
There are real people behind the company known as Pump Wear, Inc. They have not only found a wonderful way to help others diabetes by offering quality pump wear and other diabetes goodies, but they understand first-hand what living with diabetes is all about .... three of the Pump Wear founder's children have type 1 diabetes. Back to main People.IsletsofHope page
Our daughter Nikki Tyler DeFruscio was diagnosed on June 19, 2000 with Juvenile Diabetes. Like so many other families this was the day that our lives and the lives of our family changed forever. We became a family that counts every carb, measures all of Nikki’s food and constantly tried to predict when the insulin would peak and how much food Nikki should be eating. We also were dealing with the very unpredictability of a 2 ½ year old Nikki Tyler. One minute she would want to eat and the next she would refuse to eat. We were on an emotional roller coaster with no end in site. I would become very frustrated when Nikki’s HbA1C’s would go up rather than down and would take her numbers as a personal reflection on our ability to control her diabetes. Grasping for support I started to attend our local support group meetings along with gathering as much information about diabetes and what was out there that could help us. We discovered that many children in the 10 to 12 age group were using insulin pumps. The parents I knew were reporting better numbers and greater flexibility in their lives. So when I took Nikki to her next doctor’s visit I inquired about the insulin pump. At that time the doctor we were seeing would only put older children on the pump. Everything I read and everything I was told lead me and my husband to believe that we could gain better control with Nikki on an insulin pump. Why should we have to wait until she was 10 years old? For us that would be 7 years away. 7 years of this emotional roller coaster. 7 years of blaming ourselves because we just could not bring the numbers under control. After a lot of thought, investigating and consulting with other parents we decided to switch doctors. We found a wonderful doctor by the name of Dr. Jill Abelseth and her nurse RN Diabetes Educator Eileen Hogan. With the help of these 2 people we were given the opportunity to gain some control of our lives back. Nikki went on the pump on April 10th of 2000. The pump rep had given us a very medical looking harness to hold the pump. An item that looked terrible and was not acceptable to Nikki or me. I still remember the first day that I put this harness on her. I cried all day. On top of dealing with all of the pump mechanics we had to look at our beautiful daughter wearing this very medical looking item. So I started having a friend take Nikki’s favorite t-shirts and putting pockets on the back of them. This gave me easy access to the pump and Nikki could wear what ever she wanted and still wear the pump. When you now look at our daughter and if she is wearing one of our undershirts you don’t even know that she is on an insulin pump. This made my best friend and I think why should Nikki and every other child wearing an insulin pump have to wear unattractive items. Or items that call attention to the fact that she has to wear this pump for life support. Why not make wearing insulin pump a positive experience for children and for their parents. Why not offer parents a place where they can show their children items that will hold their insulin pump as well as look fun and cool. That’s the reason for us creating Pump Wear Inc. www.pumpwearinc.com. It’s a company where we want “Kids to be Kids. These children and families already have so much going on in their lives that they shouldn’t have to deal with where to hold an insulin pump. Today Nikki Tyler is enjoying better numbers, greater flexibility and our family finally feels like it has some control on the situation. Yes we still have our ups and downs but the insulin pump has given us a way to control the ups and downs. It’s allowed us a freedom that we thought we had lost forever. It’s important to note that life on the insulin pump is not the answer to Juvenile Diabetes and we still have plenty of ups and downs. A small child like Nikki has to be tested even more often on the pump to ensure that we don’t hit lows and highs so anyone thinking that the insulin pump is the answer or cure for Juvenile Diabetes will sadly be mistaken. However if you are a parent or caretaker that is willing to put in the time and dedication needed to make the pump successful I have no doubt that you will be pleasantly surprised at the results. The insulin pump has afforded us better control, flexibility and allowed us to gain something very precious to us our life as a family back. Two years after Nikki Tyler’s diagnosis both of our sons then ages 13 and 11 were diagnoised with type 1 diabetes. They were diagnosed only four months apart. Talk about devastating ! We as a family refuse to let diabetes control us and as a family have banned together. All three of our children are now on the insulin pump and living normal happy lives. We believe that the pump has given them the freedom to be kids! Today they are Nikki Tyler 10 years old, Adam 19 years old and Patrick 15 years old. As you can see we have various ages and age groups to deal with and they each have their own set of issues like driving!! We believe in dealing with diabetes in a positive way and encouraging our children to do their best, have fun and be a kid.
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| Contact Us | About IOH | Our Mission | Elizabeth's Story | About the Founder | Join IOH | How To Help | Advertise | Privacy Statement | Site Index | Page Updated 11/29/2007 |
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