Perils of the pod

What is that noise?

I’m standing in the hospital bike locker and I hear a distant alarm going off.

At first, I don’t think much of it.

I’m in the city, after all, car alarms are a dime a dozen.

It won’t stop.

My brain has taken note of it.

The constant drone turns into a incessant beep.

I look all around.

It sounds near, yet far.

Oh no.

It’s not far, it so, so near.

Too near.

It’s my freaking pod.

Dear friends,

I want to love biking to work, I really do, but after last week’s pod debacles (note the plural), I’m feeling pretty discouraged.

I bike commuted twice last week.

The first day, my blood sugars surged for no reason shortly after starting the ride and kept surging throughout and beyond. I suspect it had to do with starting a new rotation in my internship causing the stress hormones to kick in and be complete turds.

The diabetes drama didn’t stop there.

My pod decided it wasn’t going to work anymore – 15 bloody minutes before I reached my hospital destination it completely crapped out.

I had no idea.

Fuuuuug.

I suspect the error was due to my new cycling bib shorts and the location of the pod being directly next to the bib suspenders, which were probably rubbing against the pod, shifting it in a way it didn’t want to be shifted.

Sigh, the things we need to think of when cycling with T1D.

The second ride of the week, I wore my commuter cycling shorts and had my pod high above the waistband to make sure there were no further pod irritation issues. Yet, 20 minutes before reaching the hospital, the pod again crapped out!

This time I actually heard the alarm during the ride, which made the remainder of the ride super pleasant – note the sarcasm!

What the frig?

In the 1.5 years since I’ve had the Omnipod, I never set off the alarm. Not even when I was intentionally trying to set it off could I set it off. But here I am, not quite a month into my bike commuting life and I’ve set it off THREE times!

I’ve set it off when inserted in the stomach and the arm. I don’t know if it’s the location of the pod, if it’s the clothes I’m wearing, or the bumpiness of the route, or what.

Regardless, I’m not super thrilled about it.

I’m tired.

I’m waking up between 5 and 5:15 a.m. to get on the road at a time that will safely get me to work – on time.

My legs are tired.

I don’t know how people manage to bike to work every day.

My diabetes is tired.

I know this is all just part of the trial and error growing pains. But for someone like me, who finds pride in controlling my diabetes, not the other way around, experiencing these peaks and valleys and the effects of them is exhausting.

So incredibly exhausting.