I’ve had spasms shooting up my neck now for two days. And I got to say, they’re really not all that pleasant feeling, in fact, when they hit, my one hand instantly grabs the side of my neck and the other shoots up to my head reactively trying to stop the long, dull ache in its tracks. It doesn’t work. I’m sure there’s a multitude of potential reasons for the spasms, like maybe I overdid it the other night with my run and then my hard trainer ride, or maybe I slept on it wrong, or maybe I didn’t sleep enough. But no, I don’t believe any of those to be the reasons for my spasms. I blame stress.
See, the spasms started yesterday morning, shortly after the arrival of my fancy schmancy new insulin pump. Why would a new pump be causing me stress? Well, just look at this photo of my old pump and my new pump.
They look similar right, but not identical. The new pump is smaller than my pump, and it says Animas on the front instead of One Touch Ping. Hmm … did they upgrade the product since I purchased mine a little over a year ago … or did they send me the wrong pump? Ding. Ding. Ding. And let the stress spasms begin!
So here I am, Day 3 of operating on a half-working insulin pump, which to be honest has improved since Day 1, but the fears of it conking out outright keeps those spasms firmly in place. Initially Animas wouldn’t guarantee getting me a black replacement pump by today, which would mean waiting until Monday. That wasn’t good enough. They tried heavily to push a different colour pump on me, perhaps silver, that they could get to me quicker as it would come out of the Vancouver office (which didn’t have black) but I didn’t want that. I chose black because it goes with everything, and given that I’d be stuck with this pump theoretically for another three or four years before being eligible for an upgrade, I didn’t want to be stuck with a colour I didn’t want. By the end of the conversation, the customer service chick told me she’d put a rush on the order and that yes I would have it by 10:30 a.m. today. I still don’t have it. Apparently it didn’t leave the warehouse. Oh. Joy.
My contact at Animas called me as soon as she found out (after I sent a frantic email) and told me to use the lesser model they sent out, no worries, and by Monday, I’d have the replacement. For sure, she said. So, at least a little bit of the stress was removed, especially given that I had another date with the pool this evening – the culprit of the problems in the first place.
How do you calm stress?
TONIGHT’S AQUA JOG
- 5 p.m. BG before: 5.7 (granola bar, no bolus)
- Temp. basal -70 per cent (1 hour)
- Time: 50 minutes no safety belt!
- 6:45 p.m. BG after: 3.1 (ouch!)
- Temp. basal +40 per cent (1.5 hours)
Due to the water-logged insulin pump drama the other night I didn’t really get a chance to go into full detail about my comeback run. To be honest, it wasn’t my best run, my feet felt heavy at times, I was nervous going out and my head was, for a good portion, focused more on whether I’d feel a flare up of pain in my ankles than the beauty of the road, and that nasty wind on the way back was a bitch to fight through. It wasn’t a long run, it wasn’t a knock-the-wind-out-of-me hilly run, it wasn’t a super satisfying, I kicked that run’s butt run. But still, it was a most brilliant run. Why? Because I was running. Plain and simple. And the best part, there was no pain, not one ounce of pain, and still no pain.
So here’s the plan: I’m going to keep up my trainer rides (I rode pretty hard on Tuesday, pushing the pedals quick and vicious, breathing all heavy, and sweating like I was cycling in the tropics) I’m going to keep up my aqua jogging, and increase my road runs. When I had pain in my ankles, it generally showed up at around 6 to 8 km, so on Sunday, those are the kilometres I’m going to do, and if there’s no pain, I’ll increase them again, and then again and again. And if the sports radio dude can start training now for a marathon in 5 weeks, which he announced on the radio yesterday, I’ll be golden for mine in 7 weeks!
Stay tuned for a surprise announcement in the next day or two. Dare I say, it may even shock you 😉
Drugs. Copious amounts of drugs. This is my Rx for stress. But the downside of drugs (there’s ALWAYS a downside to everything) is they make you stoopid. You know what I think would be the IDEAL antidote for stress? One of them isolation tanks, like in that movie with William Hurt where he travels back in genetic time and emerges looking like Robin Williams on a VERY bad day. So you don’t want to overdo it 🙂 I bet Neanderthal women got VERY few dates, one reason the species went extinct. Not even Neanderthal men could make it with a Neanderthal chick!! Anyway, in an isolation tank (I’ve been in one!!) you kind of disconnect from your body. Of course, I have more reason to disconnect from my body than most people, but that’s another story. The isolation tank I found was very RELAXING. Sounds to me like you’re getting all twisted up, literally, about your insulin pump. And anybody would feel the same, I think. The solution, in your case, is likely the one you’ve already found: running. It’s something you love; something in which you can lose yourself. So maybe you could run far enough … and hard enough … to leave all the stress behind without the hurt? Just wondering 🙂
I am glad to hear your run was good and pain free. Are you planning on running in Abby on Wednesday? I would love to run with you again and we can do the Sandon Loop which is only about 4km. Lets not get back into the hilly 6km route just yet….