Last one for today.

MARCH 23

"Stryker!" Mom called. "Mamie and Pappy are here! They want to see your pump!"

I grinned at Willow, pausing the movie we'd been watching – she'd come over right after she got out of school. I hadn't seen her since lunch, when I'd been checked out of school, because I'd been at the diabetes center in the hospital, getting my brand-new insulin pump set up. I'd had a short training, too, to make sure that I knew how to operate the thing.

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'm super happy for you and all with your new 'plastic pancreas' as you call it, but can you take the excitement down a notch? It's getting kind of annoying."

I shook my head. "No way," I said, getting to my feet.

Willow and I went into the living room, where Mom was sitting on the love-seat, holding Kenny. My maternal grandparents sat in the couch beside the love-seat. Willow took a seat beside my mom, holding out her hands to Kensley. My sister, about a year and a half, immediately went to her. She absolutely loved Willow. Then again, all of my siblings did.

I settled between my grandparents, grinning widely.

"All right," Pappy said. "Let's see this amazing device that you and your mother can't stop talking about."

I pulled the plastic device from my pocket, careful not to get the tubing tangled. "I call it my plastic pancreas, because in some ways it acts just like a pancreas, only it's plastic and outside my body and operated by a battery."

"Okay," Mamie said, squinting at the pump, "explain it. How does it work?"

"It holds a reservoir of insulin here. The reservoir is connected to this tubing." I traced the tube, lifting my shirt slightly to show them. "The tubing connects to what's called an infusion set, which is this little plastic cap thing, the part that is above the skin. There's a thing called a cannula under the skin, sort of like an IV, I guess. But it's not a needle. It's another tube. I have to use a needle to put the cannula in, but once it's in, the needle comes back out. I have to change it every three days. So much better than taking four shots a day. And I don't have to take the long-acting Lantus anymore. Just the Humalog."

"Why's that?" Pappy wanted to know.

"Well, the Lantus gave me a kind of…baseline, I guess you could call it. The pump gives me a tiny bit of insulin every hour, just a few drops, which replaces the need for Lantus. It's called my basal rate. And then I take more at meals. The best part is that I don't actually have to calculate anything. The pump's already been programmed with my sliding scale and how much I'm supposed to take for a certain amount of carbs. I just punch in the numbers, and it does the rest for me. Watch."

I showed them how it worked, putting in zeros so that it wouldn't actually give me any insulin. "And, I can tell it how long to take to give me the insulin. If I eat something like ice cream, I'm going to want most of the insulin right away, because ice cream is a fast sugar. But pasta is really slow. The body can take up to four hours to use all of the sugar from the pasta, so I can program the pump to give me insulin over a period of up to eight hours. Not that I think I'll ever need eight hours, but it's there if I do. That wasn't an option with the vials and syringes."

"That is pretty amazing," Mamie said.

"What about showers?" Pappy asked. "And swimming? Is it waterproof?"

"It's not waterproof. I can take it off. I just twist the infusion set here." I twisted the little cap at the end of the tubing, and pulled it off. The cannula was still in the skin near my navel, but the pump was now unattached. "I have another cap that looks just like the one connected to the tubing, to swap it with. That cap keeps the water out. When I'm not wearing the pump, I can suspend it so it doesn't deliver any insulin. It uses more battery power when it's suspended, but it doesn't waste any insulin."

Pappy nodded, looking impressed. "That's pretty cool. Now, what's this I hear about you not going to Avalon University?"

I grimaced, sending Mom an irritated look.

She shrugged. "Sorry. I didn't realize you were keeping it a secret."

"I'm not, not really," I said. Although I hadn't exactly been excited to tell my grandparents. It was kind of a family tradition to go to Avalon University. I was breaking that tradition. I hadn't been looking forward to telling them that, especially Pappy. Mamie was the kind of person that I was sure she wouldn't care.

"Where are you going?" Mamie asked.

"University of Albion. They have a really good drama department. Avalon University doesn't even have a drama department, which is the reason I've decided to break the family tradition and not go there. I've been accepted to U of A. And Willow's going into nursing there, too. They've got a good nursing program. Now we're just looking for a place close by to rent."

Mamie arched an eyebrow at me. "Together?"

"Yes," I said. I wasn't really worried about my grandparents giving me a hard time about living with my girlfriend. I was pretty sure that they had moved in together before they'd gotten married.

Mom smirked. Uh-oh. I wasn't going to like whatever she said next. "Maybe by the time they move in together, they'll have actually slept together."

"Mom!" My face was burning. I was used to her teasing me about stuff like that, but in front of my grandparents and my girlfriend?!

Willow looked almost completely unfazed. I could see the faintest grin on her lips as she played with my sister and pretended not to have heard my mother. Mamie and Pappy were both grinning, too.

Mom just laughed.

Insulin pumps are so much nicer than the shots. I've had mine for about three years now, and I love it. And I'm sorry if the way that I explained it was confusing. It's a simple enough setup, but it just sounds really complicated when I try to explain it. Especially when I can't actually show you each of the parts. Hopefully it at least kind of makes sense. As always, review, review, review!