Pumping!

[Sugarbum]

Carry on Pumping....!

Thanks Julie!

I have headed homewardbound today to visit my mum in Hampshire. What I have realised today is that I might never cope in my life with a baby, if were to ever have one....as I have just realised for the first time how much stuff you need to travel with for a machine the size of a creditcard! It is truely unbelieveable.

Even worse it is only going to be a four day trip. But of course, you pack up for the pump 'baby' as it were everything but the kitchen sink. Unfortunately I possess a bit of an occupational hazzard to plan for worst care scenario. I feel like I am the diabetes machine! And I have packed.....

7 quicksets (bulky!)
7 reserviors
2 Quickserters (incase one breaks! unlikely!)
2 vials of insulin (incase one smashes)
3 spare batteries
Pump holder for belt and bedtime sock
Medtronic pump manual
prescriptions
Medtronic BM monitor
Lancet
Test strips
Lucozade tablets and low carb booster bars
Novopen with novorapid
Spare novorapid catridges (have sat unused for nearly one month and may not work if needed)
Gone but never forgotten.....Lantus in the Autohell Pen
Large Frio pack
Needles, one box
My last pre-pump meter One touch, spare lancet and 2 pots of strips
The pumping insulin book by John Walsh and....
The Insulin pumping demystified book to quash the final few chapters!

......thank god big handbags are in this year! Travelling light? I think not...
I wrote that list out because people may not realise the logistics involved in what you need in supplies and back ups. Essentially, everything that you used to pack for daily injections still comes with you, and then all your pump stuff. I wonder what on earth supplies for a two week holiday looks like?! The quicksets are soooo bulky it must mean boxes worth and then there would be the spares....

Today I have been to a family BBQ and eaten like a pig, heavyish in carbohydrates. I bolused, dual waved and temp basaled higher! Didnt achieve the greatest of numbers but a good experience all the same. I am not happy with the position of my cannula today and looking forward to changing it tomorrow. God knows Ive bought enough supplies, I might go raving pumping mad and have a new one each day 😉

🙂Lou🙂

 

[tracey w]

Thanks Julie!

I have headed homewardbound today to visit my mum in Hampshire. What I have realised today is that I might never cope in my life with a baby, if were to ever have one....as I have just realised for the first time how much stuff you need to travel with for a machine the size of a creditcard! It is truely unbelieveable.

Even worse it is only going to be a four day trip. But of course, you pack up for the pump 'baby' as it were everything but the kitchen sink. Unfortunately I possess a bit of an occupational hazzard to plan for worst care scenario. I feel like I am the diabetes machine! And I have packed.....

7 quicksets (bulky!)
7 reserviors
2 Quickserters (incase one breaks! unlikely!)
2 vials of insulin (incase one smashes)
3 spare batteries
Pump holder for belt and bedtime sock
Medtronic pump manual
prescriptions
Medtronic BM monitor
Lancet
Test strips
Lucozade tablets and low carb booster bars
Novopen with novorapid
Spare novorapid catridges (have sat unused for nearly one month and may not work if needed)
Gone but never forgotten.....Lantus in the Autohell Pen
Large Frio pack
Needles, one box
My last pre-pump meter One touch, spare lancet and 2 pots of strips
The pumping insulin book by John Walsh and....
The Insulin pumping demystified book to quash the final few chapters!

......thank god big handbags are in this year! Travelling light? I think not...
I wrote that list out because people may not realise the logistics involved in what you need in supplies and back ups. Essentially, everything that you used to pack for daily injections still comes with you, and then all your pump stuff. I wonder what on earth supplies for a two week holiday looks like?! The quicksets are soooo bulky it must mean boxes worth and then there would be the spares....

Today I have been to a family BBQ and eaten like a pig, heavyish in carbohydrates. I bolused, dual waved and temp basaled higher! Didnt achieve the greatest of numbers but a good experience all the same. I am not happy with the position of my cannula today and looking forward to changing it tomorrow. God knows Ive bought enough supplies, I might go raving pumping mad and have a new one each day 😉

🙂Lou🙂

lol you are so funny, think im just hysterical as will (hopefully) be me in a few weeks. Gotta laugh though eh?

Re pumping Insulin, tried to order today from Borders and they said could not as american, can i ask where you got it? do i need to order on internet or what? thanks

 

[bev]

Sugarbum

I am a bit worried you havent taken your DSN and pump rep with you? You really need to get your self organised in the future!


Wow- thanks for the list - that will come in handy for A when we start pumping! Quick questions, how often do you change the insulin? I read on an american site that they change the resevoirs every 2 days! Also, do you take insulin pens around with you normally?🙂

Have a great time at your mums - i am sure you will be pampered!
p.s. Anything you need for a baby can be bought from normal shops - so very different from all the pump stuff - so stop making excuses for not having a baby!😉Bev

 

[Northerner]

Maybe you should have gone for the Pump-O-Dyne Eight!

Have a good time at your mum's!🙂

 

[Adrienne]

Lou

You are hilarious. Your list is right though. You are also right about the baby bit. When Jessica was tiny and we were away or whatever I had to take all the medical equipment and Jessica didn't use insulin pens then so we had bags of syringes, vials of saline (lots in case of smashage!!) huge tubs of heavy maxijul for hypos and cartons of ready mixed milk for the maxijul for the hypo enroute.

On top of that we had normal baby stuff ie nappies, hundreds of clothes even for a weekend.

I invariably forgot stuff for me, nightie, knickers (seriously), shoes. I have bought so many extra pairs of shoes and knickers over the years due to forgetting them you would not believe.

You will eventually not need the manual, boy that is heavy, nor the other books etc.

Your message has made my night. Its funny to think we are all on the same page and all understand it.

 

[Mand]

Oh Lou, you have really made my morning! You are so funnny, yet so right! I hope you have a great trip! We have a 'check list' same size as yours!

Tracey, I ordered pumping insulin book on internet from Amazon.

Bev, we change sets every two days and only put in enough insulin for those two days. Does anyone do it differently?

Let us know how your trip went Lou! xx 🙂🙂 xx

 

[sofaraway]

Hope you enjoy your trip, I like that you had loads of everything then there was a single lancet 🙂

 

[Patricia]

Lou, sorry to have missed the riff on this! Loved it! We are going away this Saturday for two weeks (Scotland) and I'm reading your list with interest....When we went away last weekend, we stuffed everything into a separate backpack and that seemed to work well. All within reach...

You do make me laugh. Such a relief.

Re numbers Lou: they will come. Correct as much as you can, when you can, and keep track of when you do it...then you will know if you need to shift your pattern/basal? This is what we've done with E to try to see if adjustments are necessary...

Glad though that another pattern has come on board -- phew! Much needed.

Feeling out of touch! Argh! Take care though, and have a great visit with your mum.

You've reminded me that I need to go order some supplies....

xxoo

 

[Sugarbum]

lol you are so funny, think im just hysterical as will (hopefully) be me in a few weeks. Gotta laugh though eh?

Re pumping Insulin, tried to order today from Borders and they said could not as american, can i ask where you got it? do i need to order on internet or what? thanks

Hi Tracey W

I got the book on Amazon.co.uk, free delivery as I spent over ?15. It is the new Fourth Edition which I havent started yet because I am still reading the other one. I can absolutely recommend (I sent a PM to Northener to suggest he buy it too) Insulin pump Therapy Demystified by Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer as well. I cant recall the cost but I think I spent ?26 as I bought those 2 and the small pocket Collins Gem carb Counter too. AMAZON! FANTASTIC!

I meant to say thank you to you all at the end of last week thank you for making me push for patterns. It prompted me to go into my DSN meeting knowing what to ask for (she is excellent as you know) but I do love a bit of the "knowledge is power" thing!

All is nice at my mums, it was her birthday today and I was rather shocked as she tottered down the clinic to replace her hearing aid batteries this morning as they ran out AGAIN.....it seems completely incomprehensible having lived on the same battery in my pump for one month that her hearing aids should only last for ten days!!! RIDICULOUS! Anyway, I tried to tell her how marvellous my pump battery life is, but she couldnt bloody hear me .....it was probably me who wore them both out spontaneously!

Good news, I had 2 peices of her birthday cake and before eating was 7.9mmols, got the recipe and worked out the total to be precisely 62gms which of course you can enter into the pump exactly, and 3 hours later was 5.7mmols pre-evening meal. Great numbers for me! I am very pleased. Feeling some degree of confidence in my basal now.....made a change this evening to my standard pattern. I'm back in the 3am club...miss me anyone?! at 0300 I was 11.1mmols, and at 0830 was 13.5mmols 😡 despite upping to 0.6u/hr basal. I will keep chipping away at that one until I get a better result. My DSN wants me to experiement for the new basal and patterns but I must 3am test again.

.....so see you again at 3am then anyone?! Adrienne, you never disappoint!

By the way, did anyone notice Balance (ssssss!) is for sale in WHSmiths this month now? ?3.50 I think it was 😱. Anyway, I pushed them all to one side to get my copy of "Sweet"!

Night xx

 

[Mand]

Good morning Lou!

Glad all going well at your mom's! I think you need to talk a little less for the rest of your visit so your poor mom does not have to making the trip to get new batteries!!! Only joking!! Hehehe! You are right though, it amazing they only last 10 days!!!!!!!!! Thank you for making me laugh so early in the morning! What a lovely start to my day! 🙂

I was right with you at 3am this morning! Blimey its a devil of an hour, isn't it! But i am getting used to it (sort of!) and managing to get back to sleep before next check!! Also my husband generally does the 11.30/midnight one so i sometimes go to bed at 9 or 10 and sleep till 3am which is not bad going.

How were your numbers last night? Any better? My son is the opposite at moment. He is between 3.9 and 4.9 at midnight, around 5.0 at 3am and then between 6.1 and 7 at 7am. We give him something at midnight but we do not at 3am and he just rises to a nice number by 7am.

His dsn coming to our house this morning to take a look at his diary and advice us re settings etc. So will update my thread later. Sorry for hogging yours a little here!! Oops! 😱

Keep your posts coming! I so interested in how you getting on and also your lovely sense of humour is a ray of sunshine to me!

Love Mand x 🙂

 

[Sugarbum]

Hi Mand, (and all, of course!)

How are you? Am logging on to yours after I have replied to find put about your DSN visit and update!

Thank you for asking about my numbers overnight because I feel the need to share, I had a small rage against the machine this morning!

Does anyone else do this? Take their blood sugar.....14.9mmols.....that can't be right surely.....take it again on another finger and the result is 12.0mmols......do I have more diabetes in my index finger than I do my ring finger? Surely not......where is my one touch ultra?......test again......10.9mmols!!!! Just what the jolly birk-in-head is going on here?😱😱

Last night I increased my basal from at 11pm from 0.60u/hr (previously at midnight) to 0.650u/hr. At 3am I was 9.7mmols, so how can I still hit double figures at 8.30am when I have had an additional 4.5units go in as basal overnight and I had a small light early evening meal. I can only speculate that the "dawn phenomenon" only knows my name, stalked me here to hampshire after painting a big red cross on the door of my London flat and all the insulin in the world wont keep it at bay (.....sounds like an episode of the X Files?).

I had a good day bolusing. I went to a country show and as I went round sampling the whole of the food tent I kept hitting that bolus button! I told a woman who had clearly slaved the skin off her fingers making a "diabetic jam" just how philastine she was...."we" are moving away from labelling now, she would attract more punters to her "low sugar" jam instead, afterall, lots of people are interested in being healthy. She clearly thought I was mad, but I would just like to mention she was the one in some victorian fancy dress gettup, not me.... I didnt mean to get on my Diabetic Jam soap box but Diabetic Jam really gets on my nerves.

Enough babble! I hope you are all well. Be prepared for the statistical presentation of LOUISA V DAWN PHENOMENON tomorrow. A good graph excites me!

Thinking of you at 3 am my 3am buddies xxx

 

[Northerner]

Hi Lou, great updates - thank you! Regarding the three fingers thing - I had a thread about this a while ago:

http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=544

 

[Mand]

Morning Lou!

Sorry to hear that you are possibly being stalked by the dawn phenomenom! Once again you had me chuckling! You are a good tonic for me!

Anyway, i am looking forward to an update of Louisa v dawn phenomenom. Does sound like a plot for the x-files! or a good thriller! Perhaps you could sell the script!

Serously though, it is frustrating and i hope you can alter your basal to get it sorted. Keep us posted.

Yes, we have the same problem with different readings too! My son does have more diabetes in some fingers than others!!! Hehe! One time he did not wash his hands (and i do remember that they looked perfectly clean) and his reading was 'HI'! We thought aaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! We then realised he not washed his hands and he was 12 when we tested again.

Another time, he had washed his hands and was about 15 which we did not think could be right so we tested again and he was about 8. Which was right? So we tested a third time and he was about 7 so we went with that.

We have a spare monitor and we use that occassionally as back up re-assurance if we in any doubt.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed the County show and were able to nibble as you went round. Now, that is one huge advantage of the pump! We have avoided taking my son to such things since diagnosis but now we could go and all nibble! I agree with you re the diabetic jam! All diabetic products should just be labelled low sugar. I am frequently asked how i cope with my son being limited in what he eats and also being told that a certain shop now stocks diabetic ice cream etc. Of course, people are only being kind and helpful but my son, like you, does not need to eat diabetic products and in fact we have been told by his dsn to avoid such products.

Look forward to your next update.

Love Mand xx

Was thinking of you and the others at 3am! 😱

 

[Patricia]

Hi Lou

Hilarious as usual. Sorry to hear the dawn phenomenon thing. WHAT a drag. And then you read over on Mand's thread how .05unit downward shift occasioned this big leap upwards...lordy.

Hope your basal's sorted soon -- but well done on the food cruise! Great stuff.

Meter wise, we use optium exceed, and have only occasionally been surprised and retested. And it was still in the ballpark. Oh well! Seems pretty accurate...

 

[Adrienne]

I had a good day bolusing. I went to a country show and as I went round sampling the whole of the food tent I kept hitting that bolus button! I told a woman who had clearly slaved the skin off her fingers making a "diabetic jam" just how philastine she was...."we" are moving away from labelling now, she would attract more punters to her "low sugar" jam instead, afterall, lots of people are interested in being healthy. She clearly thought I was mad, but I would just like to mention she was the one in some victorian fancy dress gettup, not me.... I didnt mean to get on my Diabetic Jam soap box but Diabetic Jam really gets on my nerves.

Ha ha ha I do that. Whenever I go in a chemist or supermarket and see diabetic jam or chocolate I tell them they should ban it and just use the low sugar jam (which is just fine) and that all people with diabetes should eat normal chocolate which is much yummier ! I am not popular as you can imagine. I just can't help myself. I carry my soap box around in my car and often I can be seen at these supermarket standing on it at customer services!!!!!

 

[Sugarbum]

I carry my soap box around in my car and often I can be seen at these supermarket standing on it at customer services!!!!!

Oh Adrienne you do make me howl!!! (I have to carry mine around with me as I dont have a car!).

Heaven to Betsy, I have had my pump one month tomorrow!

I was giving it some thought today at the gym. It feels like a long month and I have felt quite tired but I think that is due to the intensity of the thing. It was quite nice to reach my first milestone and have a little reflection.

Life without injections isnt a big one for me and I cant quite believe I think that. Perhaps I really eventually reached that place I was always striving for and accepted that the MDI was indeed 'normal' life for me. The pump has not removed diabetes from my meal time, there is just as much being new on pump to think about every time I eat that you could stick ten needles in me I perhaps wouldnt notice! In a pro-being off injections thing, eating out is fantastic, an easy bolus per course if thats what you want to do. For me the pump wasnt about getting away from MDI, it was better control and I think I am achieving it slowly.

I am slightly annoyed at several design faults....no "emergency pasta boost" button, where is the "auto-pilot" control- Id like to have a few ciders please? We haven't been parted over the last month and it never gets up to put the kettle on, leaves the toilet seat up.....I've taken its name (louisatronic) but I am obviously looking for more from my life partner. Oh well. I will put it all in my weekly email to Medtronic customer services to see what they can do (I have them on a "live feed" of all my deepest concerns!).

Eventually I made a return to the gym today following the complete waste of time that was the last session (burned 300 calories then went hypo and drank 300 calories). All went well. I did a temp basal of 0.050u/hr for 3 hours prior to planned exercise at 15.30. I bolused only 1.5u for 40gms of carb at lunch. Started my work out on 14.4mmols, exercised hard for 2 hours (yes really! I was in the ZONE) and was 8.8mmols after. I kept the temp basal at 0.050u/hr for 2 more hours and then back to my normal basal rate. WOOP! not perfect but no hypo. Also with Lantus I would have hypo'd a lot at night when it peaked at 3am, now I can control that basal tonight I am optomistic.

I decided to keep the pump on me today in the gym. It started off in my sports bra. Whilst running I gave this some thought, was this position the equivalent of a furnace in the eppicenter of an earth quake? Probably. So I moved it. I fed the pump up my top and clipped it on the outside of the shoulder strap of my vest top and bra together, nothing that pump clip cant handle! Who cares? Everyone has got some MP3/ heart monitor/ mobile attatched to them somewhere I couldnt give a fuss. If someone asked me, I would be happy to send them to Birkenhead, its not a problem. I relaxed once I could see it and exercise. The only time I took it off was for 3 mins on the powerplate. This is a machine that vibrates your blubber and tests how good your sports bra is. Its real use? I havent got a clue but it turns me into a child talking to my friend with vibrating voice! Its purpose is something highly physiological to your muscles Im sure, but I didnt want I wasnt taking the chance of a malfunction or erruption in the pump department 😱

This pump has also brought to the surface other irrational behaviours I didnt know I was capable of. Should I die young, please dont be sad because I will be working overtime haunting John Walsh, author of "Pumping Insulin" fourth edition. Yes, I am sure once it is translated from 'american english' into 'south london' I will enjoy it more than life itself. But you have to be kidding me? He considers himself a "highly trafficked source of diabetes information". Really? REALLY? I read one chapter and Im boxing above my weight! (and Ive sinned, Ive just recommended it to Patricia, what was I thinking?!). Oh god....

...and for the time I wrote to Patricia about "pimping" instead of "pumping", Im sorry too!

Can the waffle, the pump is great so far. A real "gift" as I think of it.

catch you soon.

Lou x

 

[Mand]

Hi Lou

CONGRATULATIONS, TO YOU AND YOUR PUMP, ON YOUR ONE MONTH ANNIVERSARY TOGETHER!

Without exaggeration, I literally have tears running down my face because i have laughed so much at your humorous post! Yet again, a good start to the day!

I can understand your reflections on mdi v pump. But it sounds as though you are happy enough on the pump and getting there, slowling but surely. I hope things get even better, given more time.

My son had developed a needle phobia so, as you can imagine, the pump wins hands down just for that, let alone all the other advantages. Certainly there is no right or wrong with mdi or pump. It's personal choice as there are plus and minuses for both but the biggest thing that i can see (apart from we def getting better levels) is the freedom to eat what you want, when you want and how easy it is to correct a bad blood level.

How is the job going? Are you enjoying it? Have you returned home from your mom's?

We have bought pumping insulin too. Have not read it cover to cover but have dipped in here and there and seems ok but I need to look at it more really to be able to give my opinion on it. Will let you know. Anything else you would recommend?

Anyway, have enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for updating us. I always find it very informative reading, as i do the other pump threads.

Take care. I will update my thread soon.

Lots of love, Mand x