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by Alison

Making life more boring with Timesulin

15 February, 2012 in Kit & equipment, Living with diabetes, news

Things would be much easier if diabetes was the only thing on my mind. If the only challenge in my day was to calculate my carbs and stick in the right amount of insulin. That would also be quite a depressing way to live, I admit. So, in the interest of preserving sanity, we diabetic types tend to introduce something else into our existence, commonly known as life.

Life is fun. But it does tend to take up brain space. Unbelievably for those not reliant on stabbing themselves daTimesulinily to stay alive, it is possible to have an injection without spending the whole morning fretting over it and the whole afternoon talking about it. It’s like brushing my teeth, it happens regularly but often while my brain is thinking about something else entirely.

When I started on the pump, one of the unexpected pleasures was the discovery that I could check the screen to see when I’d last bolussed. This has removed hours of frustrating conversations with the husband – did I inject for dinner? I can’t remember. Did you see me inject? Well I saw you take your pen out, but I’m not sure if you actually used it. Or maybe that’s yesterday I’m thinking of. All these injections tend to merge into one, you need to make each individual injection experience memorable and unique in some way, so we can clearly remember them. Did I inject? Ah yes, that was the one with the goldfish, I couldn’t forget that. What about breakfast. Well of course, that was when you stood on one leg and pirouetted as the needle went in.

Apparently there is now a duller alternative to the unique injection approach. A clever pancreatically challenged type has invented Timesulin – a handy little cap you can fit onto most insulin pens that records when you last injected. So rather than spending hours trying to rewind and replay your life to remember if you injected, you can simply look at the cap of your pen.

If such a boring form of existence appeals to you over the living by the seat of your pants, did I inject, I don’t know, let’s explore it through the medium of shared recollection and then conclude we’ve no idea approach – you can splash out 25 of your hard earned pounds to purchase one.

I have no idea if they’re any good and I have no intention of stopping using my pump just to try them out. But I really like the idea and their website tells you everything else you need to know.

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by Alison

The good old days

11 May, 2011 in Kit & equipment, Living with diabetes

A vision of sleekness

Beauty and the obese, plastic beast

Last week I found something in the back of my cupboard that changed my life at the age of 9. Allow me to reminisce…

It’s the late 1980′s. Kylie and Jason have just got married in Neighbours, shellsuits were the nearest to fashionable they’d ever get and Sunday afternoons were spent recording the Top 40 onto cassette from the radio. Amidst all of this, a beautiful apparition showed itself to a young girl with diabetes. She used ugly plastic syringes to stab herself with twice a day and life was ok, but a bit restricted. Then along came…fanfare please…the Novopen! A sleek, elegant piece of marvelousness that allowed her to double the number of times she stabbed herself every day. That’s surely not a good thing I hear you cry? A poor child with twice the number of puncture holes in her body, which monster would advocate such a thing?

This piece of fabulousness meant that the child could eat pretty much what she wanted when she wanted. By injecting 4 times a day (or even more sometimes, shock, horror!) she could adjust her insulin according to what she was doing and what she was eating. And that child had the special knowledge that only the pancreatically-challenged have – injections don’t actually hurt that much – sssh, don’t tell anyone, we’ll lose the sympathy vote. Aged 9, that child had a portion of fish and chips for the first time. Previously there were always too many carbs in it for her to have more than a couple of chips. Now life was good!
 

That thing of beauty – the Novopen – went with me everywhere. I never left the house without it, because it gave me freedom. If a friend asked me to stay for lunch, I could call home to check and the only question I was asked was “Have you got your pen?”. If I answered yes, I was free! I just needed to be back for my evening injection of long acting via syringe.

My silver, metal Novopen was with me from the age of 9 until I was roughly 22. It survived school, holidays, going away to uni, getting engaged, getting married, starting work, moving house. I discovered the delights of having a partner – if we went out together I could get him to put my pen in his pocket, rather than carrying it myself. Yes, I am easily pleased!

Disaster struck in my early 20’s. It was announced that the slim, slender, elegant, metal Novopen was being replaced by a new generation of obese, plastic siblings. Apparently, my slim little pen didn’t contain enough insulin for the ever growing insulin hungry type 2 market, so it was being replaced by a model that could hold twice as much insulin. From that day on, all pens had extra girth and a certain cheapness about them. To say I was unhappy is like saying I think my pump is just ok. It’s a complete understatement.

Look at the picture, how is replacing the beautiful, stylish, slimline Novopen with an oversized piece of plastic a step forward? Ah, the good old days, when pens were beautiful, remember them?

Avatar of Tim

by Tim

Back to MDI from a pump

30 July, 2010 in Kit & equipment

Mark Mansheim – friend of your soaraway Shoot Up and frequent contributor – has written an article over on his blog about his experience of reverting back from a pump to MDI. He covers off the pros and cons of each and gives an interesting view of the benefits of pumps. Well worth a read!

See: The Jagged Edge

Avatar of Alison

by Alison

One of those days

28 August, 2009 in diabetic days, Kit & equipment, Living with diabetes

I went to London for work yesterday. Not a major event really, I go a few times a month and it’s only a couple of hours by train. For some reason though the world was against me yesterday.

- 0630: Leave the house.

- 0635: Return to the house having remembered that I haven’t picked up my meter.

- 0705: Get to the station and ladder my tights getting out of the car.

- 0715: Get on the train and spill my hot coffee on my leg, luckily though I haven’t changed the laddered tights yet, so at least that’s something.

- 0800: Go to the bathroom to change my tights. Somehow during this escapade I manage to pull my infusion set out.

- Because I’m a bit of an idiot and am allergic to carrying lots of junk around I don’t carry a spare infusion set when I’m only out for the day – bad diabetic!

- Because I’m not a complete idiot, I do carry a syringe so that I can get insulin out of the pump should I accidentally remove an infusion set on a train.

- 0805: Stop muttering about the infusion set nightmare and get on with dealing with it.

- 0806: Realise I’ve forgotten what it’s like to use a syringe in public – the man opposite me looks at me a bit strangely as I disassemble my pump and use the syringe to draw insulin out of the reservoir.

- 0807: Wimp out of starting a diabetes education session with the man opposite as my brain is occupied with calculating how much to inject to compensate for the basal I’m going to miss, conscious that I have an important meeting at 1100 that I don’t want to hypo in.

-  0808: Realise that my diary is back-to-back with meetings pretty much all day which will make injecting every couple of hours a bit of a nightmare. Decide to keep an eye on CGMS, aim to inject every 2 hours and deal with problems as they arise.

- 0820: Realise that for all the time I’ve been dealing with the infusion set issue and wondering how I’m going to keep myself alive for the next 12 hours the woman across the aisle has been doing her make up. Why can’t my life be that simple?

- 1127: CGMS alarms to tell me I’m high. Normally I’d press a button for a quick bolus of insulin and no one would notice, but my only way of getting insulin is to take my pump apart and use a syringe. I decide that my kidneys won’t fry from sitting in excessive glucose for the 30mins it’ll take to finish this meeting.

- 1200: Most important meeting of the day is over and CGMS shows 14.6. I resist the instinct to just press a button on my pump and get the syringe out again for a splash of insulin to correct the high and some more basal to cover the next few hours.

- 1405: Why can I smell insulin? So that I can keep track of how much insulin I’ve injected, I’ve been bolusing the same amount on the pump every time I inject. This info is incredibly helpful but as the infusion set isn’t actually in my skin all this insulin is running down my leg and my tights smell of insulin. Nice!

The day continues – check CGMS; thank the god of diabetes tech for CGMS which makes this whole palaver slightly easier; inject; do my job; repeat.

- 2000: Arrive home and insert new infusion set, I feel whole again! Blood sugar is 13.8 which isn’t at all bad after a busy day of managing with only fast acting insulin and a syringe.

- 2245: Jump out of bed to put a couple of new syringes in my handbag for any future emergencies.

- 0257: Remember that I know someone in the London office who also has a pump and who could probably have given me an infusion set. Idiot!