As I keep banging on about it, beloved readers of your soaraway Shoot Up will, by now, be well aware that I was hooked up to an insulin pump earlier this week. Anyway, I’m pleased to report that I’m still alive and all seems to be going well so far.
Training started up at the Royal Infirmary on Tuesday with a small group of slightly apprehensive pumpers, accompanied by DSNs to a ratio of 1 nurse to 2 patients β so top quality training provision. We were led through how to do the button pressing on the pumps (pretty straightforward); how to insert an infusion set (pretty straightforward but slightly fiddly) and the basics of pump use (easy to get not bad control, complicated to get it perfect).Β TrainingΒ consisted of a base of top notch textbook knowledge, backed up with a tonne of useful, practical experience from our DSNs. We were all finally hooked up by midday and allowed to escape for lunch.
To make things as simple as possible, we were advised to use a flat, ;
One of those odd things where a problem actually becomes an asset – I have never had problems with doing the overnight testing, because I sleep so badly anyway. I wake up about every 2-3 hours as a matter of course, so I just test when I wake up. Means I have tons of data as to what’s happening overnight bg wise (for me, very little), without really putting me out any more than usual! Insomnia = good data π
Great stuff Tim.. Glad all is swimmingly pumptastic!!!!
Could you not have gave your DSN a call just for shits n giggles??? γγγ
@annette – hurrah for insomnia – it has a benefit after all!
@mikeinspain – you’re a bad man – no, I couldn’t just ring my DSN at 3am for fun! π
A DSN called Joan of Dark
Can be phoned after bedtime of lark.
So she uses Tim’s pump
As opium dump,
Now it’s lights out for that BG nark…
Just thought.. But I have wondered if purposely waking up to test, fall asleep, wake to test changes your hormone levels through out the night and perhaps not give such an accurate reading as if you were to be asleep all night? Emmmmm?
Doesnt appear to have any difference whether I test when I wake up or I set an alarm to test at a specific time – like, I wake up and test cos I’ve woken up and its, say 2:50am, or I have set an alarm to specifically test at 3am cos the DSN says I have to have a test at exactly that time. The differences are not noticeable. But, who’s to say that I wouldn’t have spontaneously woken at 3.10am on that specific day anyway, so there may not be a difference between the 2 situations for me? But even for a good sleeper, as you test immediately you wake, and any hormone change wouldnt affect you that fast, the initial test is valid, and then any hormone induced change would die away over the next 3 hours, thus being unlikely to affect the following test. I dont know how long such hormone levels last – anyone?
Hurrah! Glad Englebert is settling nicely into his pseudo-pancreatic role. Just hope he continues with his restrained performance and doesn’t start trying to build his part up with lots of bleeping and errors π
All sounds very positive so far. Been wondering when the first update was going to be posted and relieved to hear that the reason for radio silence has been down to your intensive training regime and getting used to the pump rather than being in a diabetic coma.
Me too Donald, me too! π
@tim Perhaps you could setup an automatic blog update “just in case” you do enter a coma.. At least then we know and could take the proverbial ****!! Just a thought, no? γγγ
@mikeinspain; you mean something like:
“Dear Shoot Up readers; unfortunately / happily [delete as applicable] I have slipped into coma / have a healthy BG [delete as applicable] and have died / am still alive [delete as applicable]. Writing for Shoot Up has always been a pleasure / tedious chore [delete as applicable] and I’ve made a lots of friends / enemies [delete as applicable] through the site. I will miss you all / continue to write drivel once or twice a week [delete as applicable]”
Sounds good to me!
Glad to hear you’re getting along with Englebert @tim π
*Jealous* – six weeks in and still testing every 2 hours through the night. Unlike lucky @tim and @annette, it seems that far more ‘goes on’ in my bg world at night than in the day π Boo!
spot on!
@bellebe Claire you must be shattered??
Yeah, @bellebe, that sounds a real drag!
yup! *yawns*.
Annoyingly part of the reason why it’s taking so long is I very quickly learnt to turn my alarm off in my sleep! oops! so I make a change to my basal rate, and plan to test to see if it has worked – test at 12…it’s fine, turn the alarm off at 2 and 4 thus disturbing my sleep but not actually waking enough to test, and am then hypo/or higher than target by 6am but am not sure where in between times it’s going wrong… so I set out to try again the next night. But I’ve been told really I shouldn’t make changes based on just one night so need a few nights in a row where I manage to wake up….
then I’ll maybe go to the gym after work one evening so making normal basal changes based on those results is pointless but I still need to test as I’m also still trying to figure out temp basals for when I exercise and tend to go low 3-4 hours after training rather than during or immediately after.
And then maybe I’ll have a glass of wine – heaven forbid I know but then those results will help with knowing how I respond to alcohol but won’t help the basal trends and if I have rice for tea and try to use a square wave well then I still need to test to see if I got that right…
Hell, nobody said this pump lark was going to be easy!
Am just telling myself that new mums have it far worse and for longer, and effort now will eventually pay off (I hope!)
I new we’d lure you into the world of the Borg eventually, welcome to the club!
*assumes robot voice* MUST KILL ALL HUMANS. MUST KILL ALL HUMANS
etc.
@tim What’s this “Assumes robot voice” LOL
@mikeinspain – right, that’s you first on the list for the robot death squad visit. π
fight ya back, using MY LANTUS!!!!!!!! π
*forms circle in playground* FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!!
Bring it on! But let’s have a pint first eh????
Definitely! π It’s your round next time isn’t it?
Most likely.. I’m sure I can either write a round or so off as expenses or get a major pharmaceutical company to collect the tab!!! γγγ
Brill news @Tim I knew you’d find it pretty easy. Testing will pay off though @bellebe whilst its not much fun lack of sleep can also effect your results so try and do a little at a time. I always find it annoying when you have to do a fasting test and 2/3rds of the way through you hypo which means you have to go through again!
@Annette As I’m on the basic Accuchek Spirit pump and still test using a normal meter can you tell me if when you do the CGS testing does that account for hormonal changes?
@mikeinspain – he he he! Sounds like a plan!
Hey @Claire – sounds like a nightmare for you. Is there any chance your clinic could lend you a cgms for a wee while? I asked mine if I could borrow one for a month, and they said I could have one for six days – not much but better than nothing. And if you don’t ask…. Good luck!
Very pleased to announce I’ve already managed to break the pump clip by bashing it off a table. Nice one Tim!
Diabetic Kat Accessories to the rescue! (or does DKA stand for Donna Karan Anonymous… or Diabetic Kooks Association? π )
Indeed – I now have one rather fetching tweed pump case courtesy of @katie!
snap! and twice i have got up from the sofa and realised once standing that my pump is dangling beside me lol….ooops (must take more care of this extra limb-type thing lol)
Don’t worry @Tim, it must have been a weak or badly made clip, or a particularly hard table, it couldn’t possibly be your fault… π (Thinks: A zillion pounds worth of pump and the clumsy sod’s broken it already. What a plonker!)