Naming Pumps

Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days!  I was on a dude ranch ;)


I spent a good two or three weeks prior to the arrival of my first insulin pump thinking up the perfect name for it.  I was nine years old and the thought of carrying a purple, plastic box in my super chic fanny packs seemed awesome.  (Oh, yes…I wore fanny packs for a solid two years.  They were such a hit my friends would put in requests for the print I would wear the next day.  Sadly, the trend didn’t catch and I was still the only one wearing them…  But I still felt cool!) 

I looked online to see what other people named their pumps: Forrest Pump, Gretta Carbo, Pumpkin….  All so creative, yet I was stuck.  I consulted the parentals, the grandparents, the friends and we still came up short.  I mean, how great would it be to say “Forrest…Forrest Pump” when I pull it out or yell “Run Forrest, Run!” as it slowly delivers my insulin?  But I couldn’t steal that name.  My pump’s name needed to be original.


The day that my pump arrived, I had a meager list of names on my dresser.  I was feeling discouraged at my lack of creativity and inability to give a name to my battery-powered lifeline (because my insulin pump does in fact keep me alive!).  I lifted the lid and there she was: packaged in a big box, surrounded by directions and manuals and resting in an indent in the plastic perfectly made for her.  And then it hit me.  Lola.  Lola would be the name of my pump for the next four years.  No, it wasn’t clever or punny or from a movie.  But it did seem to fit my pump.


I absolutely loved Lola.  I couldn’t start using it for another week.  But during that week, while doing homework or watching TV, I kept Lola sitting on a blanket right next to me (I was 9 don’t judge! :)  We bonded and every time I looked at her I could tell that I made the correct decision with her name.  This was affirmed when I went back to school.
I showed Lola off to all of my friends and surprisingly enough, one of them became jealous that I carried around a little friend with me 24/7 and told me she wanted one.


Moral of the story: make the best of every situation!  My insulin pumps could represent all the time I put into T1D, the needles, the finger pricks, etc.   They could also represent fun personalities with cute names like Lola, Mia and Crystal.  I had two choices and I like my decision.