Those with a working pancreas only tend to see the big stuff when it comes to diabetes. The dramatic hypos, scary injections and lots of stabbing and bleeding. What I find really hard to explain is the minutia, the ;
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This reminded me of the last christening I went to. Pump tucked in bra (due to posh frock). I’d got hold of my ittlest niece (who was the christenee) – 3 months old, fast asleep snuggled up in my arms, head resting on my pump. I was on a temporary basal at the time, so the pump beeped every hour, on the hour, just in case I’d forgotten. Ever seen a 3 month old jump out of her skin? I couldn’t stop laughing at her. Bless her sould, she looked around startled, then snuggled back (into my pump) and went back to sleep. Can’t have been comfy for her, but she didnt seem to mind…
It’s amazing how much time it takes, just ‘Being’ diabetic. Never mind all the extras (hospital appointments, major hypo/hyper problems, etc), just the everyday minutae that adds up.
But if I relied on my husband to carry my glucotabs, I can almost guarentee that when I needed them, he’d have wandered off to talk tech or cars or something to some other like minded geek, and I’ve have to find him whilst in hypo fog. So I always carry my own…Do you keep yours on a leash @alison ? 🙂
I find a leash is the best way Annette, I thought everyone did that? 😉 What actually happens is I convince him to carry them when I know we’ll be at the same event in a relatively small space. I find it pathetically liberating not to have to carry my own fruit pastilles on occassions, it’s sad really but that’s my guilty pleasure!
All sounds about par for the course (though I would never have managed that well with a buffet – always causes complete BG meltdown).
I’ve only just become aware of the brilliantly stupid temp basal reminder. Is there no way of turning that off?!? You set a temp rate for a defined amount of time and the darned thing insists on bleeping or buzzing at you every so often. Makes them completely unusable at night for me. Rubbish!
I hate the temp basal reminder too. I know I’ve set a temp basal for 4 hours, so why do you feel its necessary to remind me of that fact every hour on the hour? It irritates the hell out of me.
First time it happened I thought it was an *actual* alert, then thought I’d imagined it… eventually I had to look it up in the manual. Should be optional at the very least. Tch!
I don’t have that many alerts on a temp basal on my pump, it only alarms when its ending.
However there are a stupid number of confirm this, snooze, ok to that, snooze, yes damn it I know that already alarms to deal with on it – delivering a basal & having the cartridge run out is always a fun one.
And being alerted every 30 secs when the pump stops is always annoying – why not every 5mins, if my blood sugar can change from 30secs of basal loss I’ve got bigger issues!
[End rant]
This is a fabulous post Alison! Thank you. I have never taken my pump for granted, and this just makes me want to celebrate it even more. Remember before your pump, when you say ‘bolus’, that would be ‘calculate bolus in head using ratio cooked up without much trial and error for fairly randomly counted (because let’s face it, what’s the point) carbs, then take out injection, dial up calculated amount, stop and think about whether you will round your calculation up or down to the nearest whole number, pull up/down clothes, stick needle in self, push in insulin, cope with any ensuing sting, remove needle and wipe up any ensuing insulin leakage/blood, deal with horrified glances from fellow diners/train travellers/squeamish family members, put all kit away in bag, and bob’s your severely over-burdened uncle’. Aye, I love my pump. ‘Bolus’ now means ‘input blood sugar to pump wizard, press buttons to do what it suggests, put pump away in bra again and deal with any horrified/admiring glances from boob phobes/enthusiasts’. Life is sweet.
That shows how much I take my pump for granted now, I hadn’t even thought about how it was pre-pump.