Non-D Jealousy

I know this sounds silly, but I have a feeling some other diabetics will agree. When you have type 1 diabetes, in a way it becomes your world. So much that we sometimes forget what the rest of the world goes through being a non-diabetic. I am obviously well aware that my friends and family do not have to worry about their blood sugar going high or low, they don't have to pack a briefcase of diabetes supplies everywhere they go, and they do eat whenever they want with out having to bolus. But I don't think it really sinks in until you let somebody (who does not have diabetes) test their glucose on your own meter. When you see that number, that perfect 86 or whatever it is, and the way they don't care, don't appreciate that number, to them it's just a number, it does something to you, it really hits you. At least that was my experience.

Everyone needs an Assistant Diabetic

I am very excited to announce that Colin (the wonderful, awesome, helpful, handsome, live-in boyfriend) put his first needle in me last week, all by himself. It was a sensor too, those needles are wicked huge!

I usually put my sensors in my love handle area but I know that I should be venturing out to new areas in order to prevent scar tissue. I know that don't want to go toward the front of my abdomen because I reserve that for infusion sets, so I decided to head backwards. Obviously I can't quite reach behind me so I asked Colin to do it. To my surprise (although maybe not yours) I was about 10 times more nervous about the idea than he was. Now, if it were an infusion set I wouldn't have minded at all, but those sensor needles still scare me! It was hard to not be in control of the insertion.

Regardless of my fear he did a great job! It was quick, painless, and even better than I could do on my own! I think I have found an assistant diabetic! Hooray!

What is with these reservoirs!?

I posted last month about bubbles getting in to faulty reservoirs, and now this!?! I couldn't believe it! I pulled my pump out to bolus and noticed that my tubing was coming out of my pump at a strange angle, a 90 degree angle in fact. I pulled out the reservoir to take a closer look and found that it had broken.

The tubing (I learned from this incident) has two parts, an inner soft thin tube, and an outer hard (relatively hard) shell. What happened was that the outer harder shell snapped but the inner tubing looked like it was in tact (although I find it hard to believe because of those bubbles you can see going down the tubing).

I was of course at work when this happened, so I had to keep the girls occupied with the TV so I could sneak off to the bathroom for a few minutes and redo my set.

Well, as you all know, life goes on. Another day, another reservoir, hat's just the rhythm of diabetes....it just keeps on going.

Anyway, that Is my rant for the day. Also I just updated the last week worth of my Diabetes 365 photos on flickr. I plan to start updating these directly from my phone on a daily basis so there shouldn't be anymore 7-day-at-a-time uploads.

*clicks refresh button on diabetes*

Sometimes I feel like a ticking time bomb, the pressure of diabetes just grows and grows, until I give up and have to restart emotionally. Here's a little story of how it happened recently. Saturday morning I woke up at 6am to constant "bad sensor" errors....over, and over, and over and over. Eventually I got out of bed to find a solution that didn't involve putting my pump down a garbage disposal. Well, seeing as how my Minimed sensor had been in for about a week a gave it a break, didn't destroy my pump, and figured I was due for a sensor change anyway so I yanked it out. Now here's where the trouble began...

I took a long bath to relax (and also because I love bathing when i have no gadgets stuck in or on me). After that my skin was perfectly clean and I was ready for my new sensor. As usual I inserted the sensor just fine but when I tried to pull out the introductory needle the entire sensor came with it (so much for 'clean' skin). I was extremely frustrated because these things are painful, they are nothing like your typical disposable syringe. I couldn't let myself get too upset because i was thankful that it came out in once piece (sensor and needle) which means I could give that $35 sensor another go before tossing it, and hope for the best. Anyway, on my second attempt I did get the needle out, but shortly after the adhesive peeled up and the sensor slipped out. Okay now I was angry, there went $35 out of my pocket. So then came round three, this time it went beautifully! I even got my adhesive over the transmitter to be nice and smooth, perfectly even, all OCD friendly :) .....but it gave me constant "bad sensor" errors for the next two hours until I gave up, yanked it out and (aggressively) threw it 'at' the trash (missing of course). Now I had wasted $70, in one day, on NOTHING. Needless to say I gave up for the weekend, I didn't so much as want to see those things for a while. I should also mention that I just found out this week that I am denied coverage for my sensors, that explains why I got so incredibly frustrated with this.

Well, after I recovered, I put another sensor in this morning and everything is going well. I'll get another 7-10 days out of this puppy. hooray