Insulin pump

Going public

Diabetes, Pregnancy in Diabetes, Uncategorized

A question that would have horrified me 15-20 years ago actually had me quite appreciative to answer today. It started with a trip to the Service Canada office this morning, where I had to go and change my last name on my Social Insurance Number. Seems I neglected to do so after Big Ring and I got married three years ago, but supposedly needed to do in order to apply for maternity leave EI. (I say supposedly because after waiting at the office f.o.r.e.v.e.r., and complaining about it on Facebook, I found out from several friends of mine that they too didn’t bother changing their names and had no problems obtaining maternity leave EI! What the?). On the 10-minute walk back to work, a young man, called out to me from behind: YM: “Excuse me ma’am (ouch!), I don’t mean to be a bother but what’s that thing in your […]

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Hunchbacks of Diabeticland

Diabetes, Pregnancy in Diabetes

Hiking, that’s the cure to my current state of boring, pregnancy approved exercise. While walks bore the heck out of me, and cycling is a little more challenged figuring out good solo routes from home, hiking, it’s golden. I went on an hour and half hike up Westwood yesterday with a couple of great girlfriends who I haven’t seen in forever. I was a little nervous at first as we met first thing in the morning, right after breakfast, and I wasn’t sure how my blood sugars would handle the exertion. The first 25 minutes were straight up hills, and oh man, while I was huffing and puffing (and believe me, I was) I loved it. I felt free, like I haven’t felt since my last truly good run. I could feel the endorphins shooting through my veins, I could feel the muscles in my calves contracting, working, pushing me

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No puncture wounds allowed

Diabetes, Pregnancy in Diabetes

It’s been more than 2 years since I last injected anything into my arm. As soon as I went on the pump, pretty much the only sites I used were my belly, hips, back, and sometimes upwards on my derriere. I was never a fan of injecting into my arm anyway; always felt like I could feel the cold insulin going in, a shock to the system I did not like. However, that all changed yesterday. Ever since finding out I was with thumb-sucking alien baby, I’ve been totally creeped out about inserting infusions in my belly. I mean, the needle, that sucker is like two inches long. And it didn’t matter how many times the pregnancy endos told me it was perfectly okay to inject in my belly, or the fact that I know the baby isn’t quite in that region just yet, I still keep picturing thumb-sucking alien

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I’m rubber, you’re glue…

Diabetes

The other day I gave you something that I love, and so today, I give you something of the opposite: my new Animas sleeves. Lunch bag letdown 🙁 Before I start, though, let me first preface this dislike by stating that my contact at Animas is so totally super awesome and pretty much bends over backwards for me when I have concerns about the product, which is how I ended up with the sleeves for my pump and metre in the first place. I emailed her last month to complain about the grubby state of my pump. It’s protective screen had started peeling up at the edges (likely from all the banging into walls I do) and had grime and crusty sweat and dirt and dust building up underneath, which was majorly grossing me out. However, when I got the replacement pump several months ago, there was a note attached

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Like a pin cushion

Diabetes

For almost two years I have written about insulin, and insulin pumps, and infusion sets, and cartridges, and canulas, etc., etc.. But I’ve never really gone into much detail as to how all those components come together to keep me kicking. So, today, I give you a step-by-step photo guide into infusion day, which generally occurs every three days. Step 1: The supplies Alcohol swab, check. Fast-acting insulin, check. Cartridge (also called reservoir), check. Infusion set/canula, check. Tubing, check… Oh yeah, and you sort of need the insulin pump too! Step 2: Avoiding hepatitis and other such germies. Swab top of vial with alcohol. Swab site location (skin) with alcohol. Step 3: The numbers. Draw out the amount of units required for 3 days. I usually fill the cartridge with 140 units, 15 of which somehow disappear during the whole process, and then I generally have about 35-40 units left

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