My first cannula…

Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Owwwwwww!

Avid readers of your soaraway Shoot Up may recall that I’m currently on the world’s longest waiting list for a Medtronic Veo pump. So long, in fact, that I last wrote about it in 1879, when Shoot Up was published on parchment as a monthly news-letter periodical.

Tempus, however, does indeed fugit and I’m slowly getting closer to P–Day, so much so that I had my first pump-related introductory meeting up at the Royal Infirmary earlier this week. A group of about a dozen of us gathered together to be guided through the wonders of pumping. I even got to pick which colour pump I’m going to have. I really wanted to have mottled puce with a hint of emerald but those bastards at Medtronic don’t do that particular colour scheme, so I’m going with black. Ho hum.

Anyway, while we were there we had a chance to try out attaching an infusion set for the very first time. Which was exciting. In my little group I volunteered to go first and found the whole experience extraordinarily easy and somewhat painless. I wasn’t expecting agonising pain – after all I am used to needles – but it all seemed very straightforward.

After a quick discussion with the DSN I decided to keep the pump-less infusion set attached for a couple of days to a) see what it was like to be plugged in to something and b) whether I developed an allergic reaction to it.

I have rather girly skin that seems to have a bit of an aversion to anything sticky. Bog standard Elastoplast tends to bring me out in hideous little red spots which are unbearably itchy. Not being a fan of agonising itching,  finding out whether I do react is of obvious interest to me.

Two days elapsed and all seemed to be going well – I wasn’t bothered by having something attached to me and I didn’t seem to have any reaction to the sticky stuff. However, when I came to remove the set I did note a major disadvantage of pumping.

I mentioned above I went first in my group in the attaching stakes; shortly after I coupled myself up the DSN noted that some men like to shave a little bit where they’re going to put their infusion set. Note that she said this after I’d attached the infusion set.

Holy mackerel! Pulling the set off hurt like an absolute bugger; I’m not wildly hairy but evidently I have enough hirsuteness to generate an agonising amount of pain when removing an infusion set. Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Owwwwwww!

However, after my trip to the hospital I’m more than convinced of the benefits of a pump – but, by God, I’m going to go and get my tummy waxed before starting properly in November!