Apocalypse Now

My power is *finally* back on. The insulin in my fridge survived, and therefore so will I. Despite this crazy storm (which I don't really consider a storm due to lack of thunder and lightning, very very frightening) my D is behaving very well. Sort of. As well as can be expected when you have been unable to do any exercise or cook any decent D-friendly meals due to power outages. 

Anyhow, so yesterday after our power went off Hugh and I realised we had no non-cookable food in the house, save 1/2 a box of cereal, some crackers and cheese and potato chips. Oh and a carrot or 2 as well. So we toddled off to IGA and went apocalpyse shopping, as you do when you need food that doesn't require electricity to make. We stocked up on water, muesli bars, cold meats that we expected to last a few days in the freezer (which was still quite cool), bread items and a few other things in the event of no power deciding to stay around for a few days. I'm pretty sure our whole suburb had migrated to IGA for their apocalypse shops (by apocalypse shop, I mean those scenes in movies where everyone is frantically running around the grocery store with trolley-loads of food and looks of madness in their eyes). It was sort of a weird thing actually, to go from 1 suburb in complete darkness void of any signs of life, and then you cross a road and there's lights and sirens and people, and did I mention light?

Somehow the subject came up as we were driving home as to what we would do if there was an apocalypse like scenario for realsies. More importantly, what would we do in regards to my D in said apocalypse like scenario. Oddly, both of us had thought about this before. The general agreement was that my D supplies would be first into the survival tool kit. I would need to change my glucometer back the standard Verio because the IQ is rechargeable. We would travel to my work, because I have the keys and therefore wouldn't need to get all bloody and tired out smashing windows. We'd take all the insulin from the fridge in there. I would gather all the spare meter cases and take the batteries from them, as well as taking about 5 spare meters, and anything else laying around that would be of use. I would then break into the pharmacy directly next door, because they are always super-stocked with strips (being right next door to an endo and all).  Take any more glugacon, insulin and needles I could find  and all their jellybeans. Good to go medic wise!

After this and the usual looting of other required necessities to live we would head out to the country and go all "Tomorrow When the War Began" style and set-up in the bush somewhere near a creek, so I could find a spot to immerse all the insulin in the water to keep it cool (in water-proof bags of course). We would collect animals for food, for by-products, and in case I ran out of insulin and needed to harvest any (not that I would have a clue how to do this, but its all trial and error, eventually we'd get it right). 

Then we'd pretty much sit tight until the world resolved itself, occasionally staving off zombie attacks (not that there should be too many out in the bush). Hopefully this would happen before my insulin expired or I ran out of test strips (which I would have to cut back use on majorly, and pretty much use only when I felt hypo or exceedingly high). 

End Zombie scenario. It's good to know you got these things covered.

An Appropriate End

I guess it seems appropriate that my honeymoon phase would seem to end as New Year approaches. Or if it's not ending, my diabetes has thrown one last 2012 curveball at me. Either way, the result is needing more insulin, and being completely stuck about it. Yes, it chose the holiday period, when my educator and endo are closed. I think it must be testing me 1 more time to see how I could handle it. So here's how I handled it as the days went by:

- 1st few days - Frowned slightly and thought BGL machine must be off. Blamed no exercise but not my eating because I'm actually alright with my diet and have been losing weight through diet alone.

- End of 1 st week - Head in sand. Blamed Christmas. Even though I ate heaps good during Christmas and was very active.

 - Week 2 - Do about 1/2 my normal BG checks. After all everyone knows that if you can't see a bad BG, it doesn't exist.

 - Mid Week 2 - Sick of constant headaches. Up my meal time insulin. No Change. Turn into sulky cow.n

 - Now - Have massive tantrum. Exercise like crazy with my pump on. BG goes super high after exercise, but not a hypo rebound. Throw another tantrum. Get on Facebook and see a post on Zayla's page. Realise I CAN still walk, I CAN still see, I DON'T have any complications yet (apart from High Blood Pressure but we'll get to that later) so I CAN do something about my diabetes misbehaving. 

 - Last 1/2 an hour - Restarted a BGL diary including all exercise, food consumed listed, blood pressure readings, anything that might have an impact on my D. Didn't change any insulin rates but we'll see what my diary shows up and work from there.

So I think I did alright, and it will get better. I think its ok to ignore it for a little while, that's all part of the process of accepting it and learning to do something about it. 

And I think 2013 will be a better year. After all, in 2012 I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. 2012 consisted of me learning how to stab  needles into my stomach several times a day, force  blood from my finger tips until they ached every 3 hours or so, learn to change and insert my own cannulae sets, get regular blood tests, go high, go low and everything in between. I was told I had my 1st complication  - high blood pressure. They started me on tablets. I refused to take them. Instead I changed my diet (not tremendously but enough) and exercised (more). Now I'm regularly sitting at 120 - 130/70 - 75 instead of 135 - 160/80 - 110.

I of course have made some D goals for 2013 - maintain good control and even though it seems my honeymoon is ending, try to minimise insulin usage by keeping my body as insulin sensitive as possible. I'm going to get CGM. Even though it means another device attached all the time and moolahs. 

But in 2013 I am also going to make it a goal to LIVE more. Diabetes swallowed 2012 whole for me and I didn't let myself have a break from being the best D I could. So I'm going to relax (hence the CGM - less worry! I can see what's happening). In 2013 I'm going to TAKE UP drinking. I know that everyone else says they will stop. But I never drink!! And I want to! I know I won't go crazy, so I will happily let myself venture out from my own self-made shell and EXPERIENCE life. See more, do more! Blow all my money (my parents will be so upset...I was always the 'smart and sensible' one) and buy expensive clothes that I'll only wear once.

BRING IT ON!!!!

Something about me, beaches and insulin pumps

I will never say I'm happy or glad to have diabetes. No-one in their right mind would. But there are some things about diabetes that I wouldn't feel or experiance without this disease. 

I feel the strongest sense of advocacy and passion when it comes to educating others about this disease. I have a strong direction in life, one that I wouldn't have had without diabetes.

I can appreciate my health and my access to medical care. Before diabetes I thought a cold or flu was the worst thing in the world. I never considered how another person might be living, and how they would survive. I have insulin, so I can live. In another country, I would die a slow and painful death becuase I would be unable to afford insulin. Forget clean and fresh needles everytime I want to inject. The insulin pump wouldn't be a possibility either. Yes, I might get complications from my diabetes. But here, I have the tools I need to hopefully avoid them.

Mostly, I'm discovering more and more how amazing diabetics are. How much they are willing to give and to support each other through this horrible disease. I love meeting other diabetics (and I'm super excited to be going to the Brisbane young adult T1D meet up for the 1st time this month) and hearing their stories. Knowing you're not alone and that other people understand helps so much. So far I've found that everyone is happy to offer advice and listen to your D problems.

Through my diabetes I can collect stories I would not have had without diabetes.

Today I woke up at 6.30am, and actually felt like getting up. Early waking turned into a spontaneous mini-road trip to Caloundra. It was the perfect day for it. I usually hate the water because I'm a major wuss when it comes to temperature. But it was just right. After a short dip, I reattached my pump and moved my towel to a beautifully sunny spot to sunbathe. Lewis clipped to my bikini top. As I lay there, slightly dozing, Lewis vibrated. Pulling Lewis off my bikini, I held him high to the sky and cleared the 'Check BG' message. A small voice behind me piped up: "Look! She's bolusing!". Next thing I knew, 3 small children had scurried in front of me. Silently, the eldest looking girl shyly unzipped a belt attached to her waist (the whole time I was thinking, lucky shes not an adult man or I would've run away screaming by now). She held out her own, bright blue insulin pump .  Her mum a safe distance away, we chatted for a little while about the big D. I was so amazed by her acceptance of her condition at such a young age and her want to reach out to others in the same situation. She made contact with me. She didn't care that she had had pancreatic failure far longer than I had, which weirdly, is something I always feel slightly odd about. I feel kind of bad for not having it earlier when so many kids have to go through it. Yes, I am a little crazy and my head doesn't think rationally most of the time. She was just happy to share her experiance and feel connected to another human being.

I love connections. She made my day.

Later my partner and I calculated the odds of sitting right next to someone else on that beach with an insulin pump. And who also came from the same hometown as us (Jervis Bay, NSW). But I can't remember the number he came up with now. Oh well.

And So it Continues

I'm hurtling towards the end of the 1st leg of my life with D. 8 months have come and gone. In that time I have completely faced and locked horns with my fear of needles, and I'm pretty sure I'm winning. I have seen numbers that give me nightmares. I have learnt the carb count of coco pops off by heart. I have hypoed; stuck in my car waiting for my numbers to climb more times than I care to count. I got my licence...with D (which actually, I think one of the major reasons I was passed was because of the way I handled D in the exam). I have eaten a sausage flavoured jellybean - consequently I will never keep 'Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans' as a hypo treatment anymore. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. I have seen my first World Diabetes Day come and go and spammed my Facebook with it. I have realised how little people know about T1 Diabetes. And that it just not possible for me to punch everyone who says something dumb about it to me in the face. 

I met Lewis. 

As we round closer to the Christmas end of my 1st year with D I wonder what to expect. Obviously, I'll eat whatever the hell I want. I'm T1. In saying that, I do try to keep a low GI diet. 

I don't want any presents. I usually know what I want, but this year, I haven't got a clue. I've been so pre-occupied with BGLs and set changes and all that other diabetes crap that I haven't had the time to even go to a shop and see whats new. I guess what I'd love most would be for Santa to swing his big old sack over and  come good on my lifetime warranty on my pancreas, agree to take mine back to the store for a new one. But I don't think that's happening any time soon. And it wouldn't be Santa dishing out those goods.

I have to face my family. My family is huge, loud and most of the time I'm with them, they are all yelling at each other about how much they all hate each other in the nicest way possible. I've seen all my dad's family since diagnosis, and actually they're pretty good. Besides one uncle who told me to lay off the sugar (and who could lay off the sweet stuff himself), they all seem to want to know more. My immediate family are a little less awesome. I have 3 siblings who, at the mention of my diabetes, manage to all develop spontaneous hearing impairment until the topic is changed. Or who, in the case of my little brother, will adamantly tell me I can't eat chocolate before developing this rare spontaneous hearing loss impairment when an explanation as to why I can is entered into. My dad is my dad. He has himself to look after. My mum tries very hard. But she thinks 10 is amazeballs and I'll die if I hit 4. She also thinks its helpful to tell me stories about 'this one old person she looked after' and how they're on dialysis and blind and missing 20 limbs because of their diabetes. Thankyou. I wasn't scared enough already.

So I will face my mums family. I see them once every 2 years. Usually at weddings. Or Christmas. They're probably all likely to think my glucometer is some sort of fancy blood alcohol measuring device and will probably all demand to use it to see if they can drive at the end of the day. Except for J. My cousin. Diagnosed with T1D years ago. And I'm actually really nervous about seeing him. I don't know why. He has D, I have D.

But I'm definitely avoiding this.

Fixation on the Number Game

I'm a bit of a perfectionist and an anal-fixated bitch monster when it comes to D, or so I'm told by my loving boyfriend. Now that the warmer weather seems to be finally here (Thankyou October! A bit late, but I guess late is better than never) my D has gone completely spastic and is playing by the rules. Anyone with D will know that when your D behaves itself, you need to sleep with one eye open because  its going to try to kill you. D doesn't behave and isn't nice. 

I downloaded my pump yesterday to discover I had done a whopping 125 readings in 2 weeks. Thats 125 holes in my fingers for you non-D there. And when you count the amount of finger-pricks that didn't bleed and had to be redone and the number of: 'Not enough Blood' error messages, we are probably looking at closer to 160.

According to my download, in the last 2 weeks I have managed to get my average reading to 5.3. (even with high morning BGs usually in the 7's. They were normally my highest BGs of the day) Gold! I wish I could get my HbA1c taken right now (Yeah who'd have thought, ME wishing to be able to do a blood test), but I'm not due for that for another month and havent been given a repeat pathology request. Not that it really matters because I can easily print one off myself at work. But I will hold out because that wouldnt be 3 months and so thats not fair. To whom I'm not sure, perhaps the magical HbA1c fairy, who I think likes to play lottery with all your readings over the past 3 months, and just selects the 1st ball to come out and pronounces that your number.

In any case, I looked at my near-perfect readings for the past 2 weeks and I still  wasn't happy enough. Anything over a 7 in the past weeks and I have been ready to cry. I am obsessed. I don't like seeing a 7, 8 or 9 and certainly anything over 10 means sudden death to me. A 6 I will begrudgingly accept. A 5 I love. 4 I am happy with (unless I want to drive) but I am very wary of those goblin numbers. 4's can lead to evil things, such as 3's, and 3's ruin your day.

I just don't think being a perfectionist and having diabetes is a good idea. I'm not even happy with my current 6.4 HbA1c. I won't be until its in the non-diabetic range, which basically pregnant women and some really rare type 2's have. And non-diabetics of course.

I think about my diabetes constantly. Probably the equivalent a guy thinks about putting his wang in things. 6 out of 8 websites I visit are diabetes related. I work for an endocrinologist. I want to be an educator when I finally feel ready to face study again. Diabetes is my life. And it frustrates me that people don't get that. I AM anal-fixated. Wouldn't you be if it was your eyesight, your legs, your sensations, your kidneys, your teeth, your ability to pro-create, your gastro-system and much more on the line? 

Except for the part where I get irritated if things are taking too long to smooth out (3 days) and change everything without asking, my endo and DE love me. Myself on the other hand, hates me. Anal-fixated Ashleigh is tired and cranky all the time from the stress of trying to keep it under control. She stops herself from eating even if she's hungry because her numbers are good and she doesn't want to risk 'ruining them'. She is a hard-assed hydra with eyes watching her every move, ready to criticise a mere 8.3, which, when she allows herself to step back and look at things in an objective (did I use the right one? objective, subjective... one of those) light, isn't that bad. 

I wish I could take a break and just forget about diabetes for a day. But the fact of the matter is, I can't. I just need to learn to take a breather every now and again and accept that sometimes, I can't control the numbers. I have to just roll with it and fix things as they happen. I need to learn that mistakes are only human, and I have the rest of my life to try to control the massive blunder that my immune system made, because D's not going anywhere, and I can't sustain this.

Packed Up & Ready to Go With D

As I write this I am halfway through a cannula set change that I am well overdue for. It has been 5 days since my last set change. 5 days of sun, sand and snorkelling, on the Great Barrier Reef. 

At 3am on Sunday morning, I was rifling madly through my daypack which I had stocked full of D-related items. Something I have never had to do before. My 1st holiday with D. So I quadruple checked that I had enough cannulas and reservoirs. That I took a back-up script in case all of my insulin mysteriously diseappaered or went off. Photocopied my Drs. note explaining why I was taking a million back-up needles and why my pump couldn't go through X-ray. A WHOLE BAG devoted to D.

At 6am on Sunday monring I was at Brisbane domestic airport, all prepared to have to explain why I was taking drug-related paraphenalia onboard with me. The securty station basically yawned at my explanation and waved me on. Relief. And oddly dissappointed, because I'd spent so long packing it all the right way and photocopying my million and one Drs certificates that I wanted someone to pay attention.

At 5pm on Sunday I had been in Cairns for several hours and was doing my 1st set change away from home. And thinking how bloody hot it was. In Brisbane I still have my doona on at night. In Cairns I slept naked with the aircon on and still felt heat-stroked. In cairns I also did my 1st set change ahead of schedule becasue I sweated so much in the first day all the sticky stuff came off and the cannula basically fell out. For the rest of our time in Cairns I double-taped my cannula down and left it that way. And promptly forgot to change it again for the rest of the trip.

On Monday I anxiously boarded the Quicksilver Wavepiercer for the trip out to Agincourt reef. Hoping against hope my BGLs would behave themselves and let me enjoy my day. And with a little persuasion from 5 bread rolls with no bolus, they did. D let me happily snorkel about in the reef for a good few hours of underwater beauty. The lifegaurd however didn't seem to have as much faith in the abilities of eating multitudes of carbs to keep my BGLs up and made me wear a specially marked snorkel piece that identified me as a 'risk swimmer'. Every so often I would pop my head out of the water to hear them asking each other "Where's Ashleigh?" whilst looking out for my specially marked snorkel. 

Amazingly my cannula site held up well in the salt water. I guess I did use half a roll of tape and borrowed a Lycra suit to keep it as dry as possible.

Later on when I knew I had been without insulin for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours I left snorkelling to go sight see from the top deck of the pontoon. An American couple stood next to Hugh and I. I was using my pump as a towel-holding clip (works really well). The American lady pointed excitedly at my pump, and with a big grin, twisted her side towards me, exclaiming: "I have one too!". Sure enough, there it was. It was so amazing to be able to talk openly with another D1. 

Tuesday was another test of my D, as we went to Kuranda by scenic rail (ok, that wasn't a test, but the journey was pretty) and then horse riding. I stayed disconnected from my pump for another 2 hours that day. My BGLs stayed at a happy 6 throughut the ride. Halfway through I took precautions and guzzled half a juice. Still ended up on a 6.something. :).

Later on that night we went for a walk after dinner down the Esplanade Boardwalk. Thinking it was a casual stroll, I only took minimal D supplies. At this stage I was sick of carting all my D equipment around. On the walk we found a massive children's playground. It was so fun! Right up until my 1st holiday hypo anyway. Then I realised I had no hypo treatment on me, and we weren't anywhere near any sort of sugar. At this point, our casual stroll became a panicked run back as fast as we could to the nearest shop (a bottle-o) where the guy was closing his tills. After explaining that it was super important he let us buy something sugary I left with a litre bottle of OJ. I drank half :S Lesson learnt.

Yesterday we went out to Green Island. In the instructional welcome video it was advised that if the boat were to sink we should: "Pull down firmly on the neck of the lifejacket as you jumpinto the water. After doing so, swim GRACEFULY away from the boat." Yep, they instructed us to swim gracefully. I'm sorry, but if  the boat was sinking, swimming gacefully would notbe high on my list of priorities. I would be thrashing about like a fish in a Pelican's beak.

My BGLs behaved much the same as at the outer barrier reef, but on much less food because whatever it was that I bought on Green Island (a hot dog suppossedly) turned out t be not all that edible. Green Island was a bit of a let-down really, as I was panicking about D most of the time because all the nice reef is very far out from the island, and quite a swim. I knew I wouldn't manage such a long swim back to shore if I had a hypo. The risks we with D take just to do simple things like swim. 

Today we returned. I had my 2nd hypo after attempting the boardwalk again. We did get further this time. I have also discovered that if you mix both a hypo and heat-stroke, you go into some sort of mega-badly-feeling hypo that incapacitated me for quite some time. Fun stuff. Great way to end the holiday. And start my birthday. Which finished slightly better, as after the plane arrived we went to see 'The Watch', where I made the discoevery that I had run out of insulin in my reservoir whilst hoeing into a family sized bag of M & Ms. Hence the canula set change now, as it had been again a good few hours between insulin. I did have my back-up needles and insulin on me at at the cinema. I chose not to use them. Hello high BGLs! Welcome back to Brisbane.

9.7%

A week after I was first diagnosed I did my 'baseline' HbA1c test, organised by my endo. Basically the HbA1c that you 'start' diabetes with. Designed for you to compare yourself to and then try to beat it and get better control. My endo let me know my result the day after. It was 9.7%.

2 days after I did this blood test, I get 3 missed calls from my GP surgery. They left a voice mail message, asking me to make an urgent appointment. Having just been diagnosed with T1 a little over a week ago, I was freaking out, thinking "What have they discovered this time?". So I rang back and made an appointment for the next day. All they would tell me over the phone was "The Dr. has flagged your blood results as requiring attention". Thanks guys, way to ease my worried heart.

So the next day I go into my GPs office, having a mini-heart attack over the possibilities of what could be wrong now. I vaguely remember some blood tests being done for other autoimmune disorders such as MS at the same time as they took my baseline HbA1C. So its safe to assume I was sufficiently freaked out.

I made myself comfortable (or as close to comfortable as I can get; in a seated position that would still allow me to spring up from seat at any moment should something truly horrible be said and I had urges to run away). Hands shaking. My Dr. had a serious face. He never has a serious face, I am more than convinced that he uses some sort of illegal prescription for happy-giving effects. Even when he told me I had diabetes he was walking joyfully around the room, and at one point stopped to weigh himself (he made a comment about how pleased with his own weight he was). Anyway, at this point he looks at my blood results, sighs, turns to face me and says: "These blood results are very concerning. You have very terribly controlled diabetes, your HbA1c is 9.7%!".

And that was all he had to say. I kind of gave him this 'Are you kidding me' look and replied "You diagnosed me last week. That was my baseline HbA1c."

He looked confused and opened up his previous consult notes to check on this. I walked out laughing and more than incredibly relieved.

Bizarrely, he now knows who I am and my medical history off by heart. Everytime he sees the Dr. I work for at GP talks that she gives he asks how I am. He was super excited when I went in last week to have a check up and he realised I had Lewis (my insulin pump). He was extremely fascinated and wouldn't give Lewis back for a full 10 minutes, until I reminded him I needed Lewis to live.

He also hasn't asked me what my newest HbA1c is.

Now That You're Here

Dear Scarlett,

I know we are not destined to be together for a long time. I must apologise for this, and for using you shamelessly whilst I wait for someone better than you. In the short time that I have known you, you have given me so much more hope and joy than you can possibly imagine. You save my life on a daily basis and words cannot express the gratitude I feel for you for taking on such a burden. 

You have gone above and beyond in making my life so much more bearable. I would be lost without you. I know I couldn't go back to life before I met you. You are there for me through all my hypos, calmly reminding me that I am not allowed to bolus until my BGL in is a better range. Reminding me to test after eating. Doing all the hard maths calculations that you know make my brain hurt. Letting me live just that little bit more freely.

You take away my pain. Promise me just 1 quick injection every few days instead of 5 or more per day. You get it over with as quick as possible, because you know I can't stand to hold a needle in myself for the full time it takes for an injection. And you do it without letting me know. I take a breath in, breathe out and it's over. I'm so surprised it has happened I don't have time to feel any pain.

I want to thank you Scarlett, for being there for me when I needed you most. I have not cried since I met you. I have been happy. Really, truly happy. I feel you have afforded me life again. You allow me to be spontaneous. I was so ecstatic when you let me go to Zumba the other day, without having to think about it first. You just me let me go! 

Scarlett, you will always be the first. I will never forget you, and I know we have many more happy days together before I have to let you go, and take another.

Always,

-Ash

'Twas the Night Before Pump Start

"Twas the night before Pump Start, when all through the house
Ashleigh was stirring, excited and rouse.
The cannulas were boxed by the front door with care,
In hopes that an insulin pump soon would be there."

Excited and rouse doesn't even begin to cover how overtly stoked I am. I have spent the better part of the week taking out my box of  pump start equipment, excitedly looking it over, handling cannulae sets, and redoing the Medtronic pump school lessons over and over again. When I tire of that I run around the house singing random songs and rhymes, but changing the lyrics so that every word in the song is now 'pump'. 

Every so often I remind myself to stop, take a breath and remember that it can't perform miracles. Although I am hoping for one in the afternoon hypo department. I have found that my car just isn't that entertaining to sit inside for (on average) 1 1/2 hours every few days whilst I wait for my blood sugar to start being driver-friendly. Consequently you will now find that a gameboy advance permanently resides in my glove box. There are also (on last count) 27 assorted flavoured juice poppas.

So tomorrow I guess I will see just how it fares in the 'miracle' department. Short of curing diabetes, anything that makes my life just that little bit easier in the D department is a slyly disguised miracle. Even if I do still have to test (and more regularly on a pump apparently) several times a day, I am so happy to get rid of MDI's (multiple daily injections) and all the pain, pin holes and bruises they accrue. I'm also happy that I don't have to rely on my memory so much. I have lost track of the amount of times I have forgotten my daytime Levemir. Makes for some bad BGLs.

This time tomorrow, I will be blogging with Scarlett by my side. The only challenge now is to attempt to sleep tonight. 

The Final Countdown

7 Days to go and I will be holding Scarlett in my hot little hands (or stomach). I am so excited! So much has happened to me between making my pump date and now that I haven't really had time to contemplate how this might change my life. Well not that much, but a fair bit.

I got my licence. Go me! This was the 1st thing I have really had to conquer with D. And it was confusing. Especially when I had to explain to my driver instructor why it can be potentially dangerous to let someone with D drive. He didn't understand at all why I needed to show him my medical certificate or why I had to check my BGLs before driving. Which was frustrating, but was a good practice run because my testing officer didn't understand either. So I'm pretty sure I was marked up a few points for BGL testing without being told and being 'safe'.  Now I'm attempting the challenge of wiping out my usual afternoon hypo (which occurs every 2nd, if not every day at approximately 3 to 4pm) so that I can drive home safely every day after work. Which didn't happen for me at all on Wednesday. I ended up having to leave my car at work and call my partner for a lift becasue an hour after initial hypo onset I was still hypoing....so 1 1/2 hours later I was still sitting in the parking lot at work. Reason 1 why I am so damn excited for the pump. Hopefully I can reduce my insulin at this time so it won't happen very often.

Got a cold (not the flu, I got my free jab for that at the start of winter...The only thing D gets you for free). Successfully kept my BGLS between 6 - 10 with minimal extra insulin. Consequently I only felt like crap because of cold symptoms. Supposedly the pump will also help with illness.

Finished compiling my box of 'pump equipment'. Which I open at least once a day and stare longingly at. My partner thinks I am obsessed. I think he is correct. This is also something that the pump should help me with. After a week or so when the excitement has worn off and I am no longer pining after the illusion of the pump.

7 DAYS TO GO!