nineteen years ago today

Nineteen years ago today, I was discharged from the hospital--a five year old child, being brought home after a week spent in the hospital by parents overwhelmed with the prospect of caring for their youngest child, their daughter--a newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic.

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I called the hospital today because I've always been curious about my exact date of diagnosis. Strange--the immediate info that I can receive without the hospital having to dig medical records out of storage is that I was hospitalized from Aug. 22-Aug. 30, 1987. This puts my date of diagnosis at August 22nd, 1987. So, Happy Belated Anniversary to me.

I plan on expanding on my nineteen years with a follow-up post. But I'm mentally and physically exhausted. I spoke with the hospital, I retold my diagnosis story for the first time to a friend of 10+ years and for the first time, I asked my mom about it.

wired

Does anyone else feel like their wrapped up in wires all the time?

When my pump supplies arrive, the box contains half of the longer tubing and the other half short tubing. I haven't decided which tubing I prefer yet. The shorter tubing is a pain in situations such as sleeping, going to the bathroom, changing--pretty much any time my pump is not in my pocket or my pocket is not close to my site. The longer tubing is a pain, because it tends to poke out of clothing more often. This generally doesn't bother me, but can get frustrating after the umpteenth tuck.

Now, the problem I have isn't going to be solved by shorter tubing or longer tubing--it would be solved by no tubing at all. (Yeah, I have heard of the omnipod, but I've also seen it and it's too big! Beggars can't be choosers, I know, but I like my minimed pump, despite the last two posts). However, a couple of site changes ago, so about 6 or 9 days ago, I was sitting right here (in front of my computer). I filled the resevoir, primed it, ready for connection. Meanwhile, I'm listening to the red sox game on my mp3 player (note: not bluetooth). The future site is all swabbed up with alcohol, dried and so I stand up as is my normal procedure, use my blue doohickey (the insertion thing), removed the needle and voila, site changed.

Did you see this coming? That's right folks, I have glued (using the little medical adhesive circle) the wire from my mp3 player to my stomach. I HATE failed site changes, HATE 'EM, HATE 'EM, HATE 'EM. So I'm not easily going to give up and poke myself again--not if I don't have to anyways.

I determine that the needle has gone in, barely missing the wire to my headphones, and so the cannula should be happily in place (it's a risk I'm willing to take, if only I can finagle the wire out from under the adhesive without moving the cannula).

It took a little bit, but I managed to get it. Only had a pesky little spike afterwards, which is the usual for me lately after site changes--anyone have any tricks for this? I usually try to change my site around the time I'm eating and a lot of times that extra insulin carries me. I'm afraid to up my fixed prime anymore, because, well, it's high enough already!

MY OTHER issue with the wires is when I have my mp3 player in one pocket, my pump in the other--where is a girl to put her cell phone?

Happy Friday everyone!

< / saga >

I spoke with Minimed--I'm over it. According to the nice lady I spoke to a recertified pump is essentially a used pump that is brand new--they just can't call it new because it's used, but all the parts are new, but it's used. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around this, but she assured me that there are no built in time-bombs just waiting to break within my "new" recertified pump. I'm holding her to that :)

So, I'm slow. I don't share a lot. This is pretty good though, two posts in about a week's time and that's without any visitors! ha.

I think my basals are slightly skewed--perhaps the doctor's office really didn't have the most up-to-date rates. Somewhere between 4 and 6 am, I jump up to the mid-200s. Tonight is a basal check night, because even mid 200s wake me up. If there's one thing I can't stand it's waking up 20 mins before the alarm goes off! Wish me luck. I just have to wake up... once I'm up... who am I kidding. I am hoping for the best though. There's plenty of motivation in the thought of many sleep-filled evenings.

If anyone is reading this, I'll try to share a little bit about who I am outside of the world of Diabetes, although I'm in that world so very often.
(1) I'm a habitual proofreader--I find typos in books, overheads, my coworkers' writings, etc. I don't try to look, I'm just a little uptight about the whole thing. You will notice, however, that when writing blogs and such, I am not a stickler about my own punctuation and I fluctuate as to the importance of capitalization. Spelling is what bothers me beyond anything else, so if you see a spelling error, go ahead and correct it... it'll irk me that I've spelled it wrong (or typed it wrong), but it's a humbling experience.
(2) I'm a dog person, who fell in love with a cat. Her name was/is Gus. Although, since having to give her away to, I'm not so sure Gus is still her name. See, I wasn't a cat person, so she technically got her name before I bothered to find out that he was a she. My dog, lives with my mother. Charlie is a 14 year old toy poodle, who looks more like a bichon than a poodle, poor thing. He has the manners of a mutt too, but it's endearing, really.

As good a time to start as any...

Well, I'm jumping in to the world of diabetes blogging--it does seem like it's own little world. I have a folder devoted to diabetes bloggers among my many feeds. I read about other people's triumphs, failures, frustrations, and humorous tidbits daily. I feel as though I ought to offer a little something back and since the idea of verbalizing my thoughts has been on my mind a lot lately in regards to my dealings with diabetes, there seems no better time than now.

Why you ask?


My pump died... again. And while friends and family can say, wow shots every two hours, waking up throughout the night, didn't your pump break before, how can it break, etc. No one really understands how frustrating an event like this can be. Coupled with the thoughts that there will never be a cure and I will always be dependent upon some technology or a syringe filled with insulin and you've got a more than just unhappy camper on your hands.

So it beings--Late last September I began pumping. Three weeks later during the first battery change I lost my beloved pump and started shots every 2 hrs until my new pump arrived (32 hrs later). (The first "breaking of the pump" really was a lame situation (perhaps it was slightly my fault that it broke). Hearing the minimed tech guy ask me if I've tried to open the battery case with a butter knife (a big no-no and I said, "No I haven't tried that" and hearing him say, "Well I think you should" at 2 am did warrant a laugh on my part.

Last week I changed my site, but had a hang up with an A33 error. No evidence of the error in the manual and a successful third try had me confident that I had fixed the problem and it would no longer rear its ugly, insulin propelling head (yes, insulin shot out of the cannula about 2 feet across the room--imagine my surprise!)
I was wrong. Yesterday morning, 10 am, site change (at work--see I have a cool job that allows me this comfort and I'm too lazy to worry about site changes at 7am)--error, A33. This had me more concerned, so I google it. It's beginning to look hopeless. The information I gathered: A33 means some sensors in your pump are either dead or they will be dead soon (great monty python scene-scroll down a bit or search the page for 'Bring out your dead' ). Call Minimed, they advise that I do not use the pump again and I begin the every two hrs crap again. Oy. It was not a happy day. Numbers fine for the first 6 hours. Downhill for the next 6 hours. One ok reading, an alright but not great one, and some more mid-200s and it's morning and time for work. Finish the 24-hour period off where I started--mid 90s.
10 am this morning--ambush the UPS guy and rip my fancy new (read: once again refurbished and probably going to break again soon, just like the last refurbished pump, but I'm not bitter) from the box. Reprogrammed and hooked up within 5 minutes.

Some happy thoughts about the past 24 hours:

-In the next couple of days I'll be speaking with minimed about my disappointments with their company and testing the waters for a NEW (read: new) pump.
-I didn't wake up once all night because I was laying on my pump (although I was up every two hours to test and shoot)
-I work in an environment where it's ok to take 45 mins off at 10 am to track down some pen needles and your basal rates from your dr's office.
-It could always be worse. I'm lucky enough to have a job and insurance that will pay for such and expensive piece of equipment at no cost to me.

So, that tells you nothing concrete about me, but I've been able to share the death of a pump with a community that truly understands. :) If you've made it this far, thanks for forging ahead through what may have been a disappointing retelling of my story.