Next Departure: Sensitivity

I think there's a lot to be said for proper training in the work place and certain jobs regarding people with Chronic Illnesses. If there's a possibility that you are going to have a conversation with someone about their chronic illness, then you should probably know how to actually have that conversation.

Whether it be that you work in chronic illness, work at a hospital, doctors surgery, medicare, pharmacy, manufacture goods relating to chronic illness, police officer, bus driver or security guard.

For some of these the training required might be less intensive. A bus driver just needs to know that he can bend the rules of the company if the need arises or how to accommodate someone with a chronic illness or disability. They do make allowances for the disabled on a daily basis, and I have smashed a popper down more times than I can count despite the blaringly obvious 'No food, no drink' rule. Thankfully, I have never had to explain why I've decided to chug one down mid-trip. I can only assume that the drivers have received proper training. Or that they've given up completely and are just driving in a mundane stupor waiting eagerly for the end of their trip.

For some, the training is obviously not intensive enough.

I travel quite a lot for work and family matters. My work sees me running patient education days in every state of Australia throughout the year, and my husbands family are settled at seemingly random areas of the country.

I catch a lot of planes. I've got diabetes down pat when I catch a plane. I've got my entire plane routine down pat, from the way I pack my bag to the clothes delegated as travel only comfy clothes.

My travel only comfy clothes, through no particular care or thought, cover my pump. It's not on display. Somehow last week my shirt had gotten all bundled up and tucked in to my pants and my pump was on display as I walked through airport security.

My bag full of syringes, needles, cannulas, insulin and other diabetes paraphanelia got through just fine. I don't think the guy staring at the screen even looked twice.

I did not get through just fine.

I've never been held up for diabetes before.

I walked through the metal detector. It of course, did not go off and I walked forward to collect my bag.

"Is that an insulin pump?" one of the many security guards inquired.

"Yes" I nodded, feeling relieved that he knew what it was, and thinking there wouldn't be questions about why I hadn't taken it off for screening.

"Right. In here." His manner had changed. I was pointed in the direction of a cordoned off area.

"Sorry, why?"

"Just stand in there." I had no idea why I was all of a sudden being asked to move to a different area, away from my husband and belongings.

"Ok. But can you explain what's going on?"

No answer, just a more pronounced motion for me to walk where he wanted me to walk.

I'm used to the 'random' drug swipes that I 'randomly' get selected for everytime (I think they do have a private signal to select you for this when they spot needles/syringes in your bag because it has happened for every one of the 20+ flights I have been on since being diagnosed). I wasn't being told to go to the random drug test guy. I was being told to go away from him.

So I stood in this little cordoned off area, with this security guy glaring at me. I felt like he was sizing me up. I didn't know why. All I knew was that there were no problems until he saw my insulin pump. Which I had a doctors note for. Sitting in my bag that I wasn't allowed to get.

"Ok. Go back through the metal scanner."

"I still don't understand what's going on"

"Just go back through the scanner."

I didn't want to miss my flight, so I didn't argue. So I walked back through the metal scanner. Again, nothing happened, Nothing ever happens.

The guard held up his hands for me to stop before I collected my bags again.

I could see random drug swab guy staring at me and ignoring everyone else who walked past him.

"Ok. Get your bags and walk forward."

I was immediately directed to random drug swab guy. No surprise there. It was obvious by this stage that I was being treated like a criminal because I have diabetes.

My pump was the only thing he swabbed. Nothing came up and I was reluctantly let go.

Without any explanation about why I was treated like I had done something wrong. Without the process of what they were doing ever being explained to me, despite repeatedly asking them. There were 5 security guards in the area. None of them had the bright idea to explain to someone why they were being singled out for having accidentally displayed their chronic illness.

My husband didn't understand why I was upset, because they were just doing their job. I'm fine with them doing their job, which is to stop drugs and weapons and stuff going through the airport. I wasn't fine with the way they acted when doing their job. Clearly, part of their job needs to include some sensitivity training. Airports make me nervous enough without being led away without explanation and asked to stand separately from everyone else. If they had bothered to explain, it would have been a completely different experience for me.

For someone with diabetes, these experiences can have follow on effects in terms of glycaemic control.

Lesson learnt. I will make sure to hide my pump every time I go through an airport now.



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Today's reason why I'm hypo:

3 days without incidence. Would it be obvious if I told you the last place I hypoed was at the aiport for my return journey? Because I had anxiety going through security given my previous interaction with them.

3282

Yesterday, I talked about the 'T1D Looks Like Me' campaign which you can access here if you would also like to smurfify yourself.

Today, I'd like to show you what a different aspect of T1D looks like.

A year ago, on WDD2014, I started a collection, of sorts. The 'D365' project. It's not quite complete, but I thought I would share a preliminary look with everyone now that the initial collection is finished.

This is what a year with Type 1 Diabetes looks like:

125 Set Changes. 

125 times I pushed a cannula into my leg, stomach or back. That's  1 cannula every 3 days.

Some of them hurt. Alot. Some hurt for the entire 3 days they were in. We don't have any way to x-ray ourselves & find the nerve clusters before we put each cannula in.

3282

3282 Testing Strips. That's how many times I poked a sharp needle into my finger, hard enough to make them bleed. 

3282, is an average of 252 tests per month, 62 tests per week and 9 tests a day. Even when my fingers ache.

208. The number of hypoglycaemic events experienced. The number of times that my blood sugar was not high enough to sustain life long term and required immediate attention. That's 1 low blood sugar every 1.75 days. Sometimes, you can have 4 in one day, and sometimes, none for a week.

There is no way to predict a hypo (or trust me, we wouldn't have them!).

But in Diabetes land, we have this amazing tool to help us manage our diabetes. It's called CGM.

CGM is expensive. But it can stop hypos. Want to know why I was hypo free for 5 days straight? CGM. 

Think 3282 is an awful lot of pricking & poking? CGM gives my fingers a much-needed break.

I'm not holding out for a cure. I don't believe in one and I don't particularly feel like I need one. I can and do live my life just fine with my T1D. What I do want are the tools to HELP ME live with this disease, day in, day out. Like CGM. And in future, the artificial pancreas, or closed loop system, or the smart insulin patches.


‪


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Reasons Why I'm Hypo:

The counter has been reset. I went Christmas shopping.

WDD15

Happy World Diabetes Day everyone!!

Since the start of November, my facebook has been awash with pictures of smiling, happy, blue people. For those who don't know it, November is Smurf Awareness Month. 

Juuuust kidding. There is a reason for the blue take-over.

November is Diabetes Awareness month (and lung health awareness month too....so look that up) and today is WORLD DIABETES DAY!

This year, we T1's have adopted JDRF's campaign: 'T1D looks like Me' - putting a face to what T1D looks like:

There are a great many things that T1D looks like: Test strips, jellybeans, blood and needles. But what I think we're highlighting most is that we are just normal people. Yes, we walk among you, and you don't even know it. Acting like normal people. We eat the same foods as you. Watch the same movies. Go to social events.

Like baby showers (For a diabuddy, but hey). Where you get to eat blue themed food, just to further the spirit of WDD. 

(Yes, that is blue zero-sugar lemonade))

(...and a blue strawberry)

I feel like I filled my quota of blue. What did everyone else do for WDD this year?

_________________________________________________________________________________

Reasons Why I'm Hypo: 

Last Hypo Incident:

5 days since last incident

The Best 10 2 Letter Words You will Ever Hear

'EXPOsing Diabetes', an annual event in Brisbane held by Diabetes Queensland, rolled around on Saturday. I love these events, and recently swapped over from attending them to volunteering at them.

I got the best of both worlds. I got to spend my entire day talking to other people with diabetes. As always, it's a place to feel normal. A place to relax and let my diabetes run free. Well, maybe not too free...

From behind the information table, I briefly wondered, as I stood next to people with fully functioning pancreases, if they ever feel overwhelmed by us at these events. If they stand back a little and wonder how they're going to escape a crowd clamoring over them for information and for the free diabetes goodies on display. Do they feel different?  The odd ones out? Do they think about, and hope, that they'll always be on their side of the table? Do they hear patient stories and sigh in relief that it’s not them?

I don't know why I wondered this. I think because I was on a different side of the table to usual. I was separated from the patients. Usually, I'm swapping stories. But I just listened this time. To a story that was bigger than just my diabetes, one that belongs to many people. It’s the story of people with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, their families and friends.

We share a great story, simply by living our lives and not letting diabetes stop us. Thankfully, sharing information and enabling self-learning is a part of this story.

It was just before afternoon tea break that I found myself talking to Rob Palmer. A plunge in BGLs had seen me having just scoffed 3 mini muffins in quick succession. He asked how the muffins were and all I could offer up was that as I was cramming them in I had a vague sensation that there was food in my mouth, but I wasn’t aware of having chewed that food or how I managed to swallow it. I really didn’t know what they tasted like, because hypo doesn’t need you to taste things. He pointed at a demolished jellybean packet and said it was from his 2.something earlier.

Later that day I quietly slipped into the back of the Type 1 presentation room to hear Rob address the audience. His scattered story was enrapturing. He was someone whose story the audience ‘got’. He had all the hairy diabetes moments that are part of daily life for us, but he also had the great stories about spending a week on a boat surfing, long days at work and doing it all with a smile on his face.

He rounded it out by passing on the best 10 2 letter words strung together: “If it is to be, it is up to me”. It encapsulated the day perfectly. I love EXPO because it does aim to empower people with diabetes to live their lives to the fullest. Patient education gives us the tools to help us achieve the things we want in our lives.

I don’t have any dreams of being a TV star (I’ll leave that up to Rob, who has a much better personality for it), but I have some good reasons of my own to take control of my diabetes to make sure I can do what I want with life: travel, babies, getting my kellion, throwing old lady tantrums and being buried with all my limbs intact.

He Didn't Let the Quaffle In

I don't really pay much attention to my pump these days. Its just always there and I'm used to that. I usually feel really 'connected' to my pump, but I haven't felt that for a while. I finally figured it out. I haven't named my new pump yet, so I haven't been able to make it feel personal to me yet.

So I had to make it personal. Somewhere, packed away among many boxes in my garage, I have a baby name book. "Why Shouldn't I Call My Son Clint?" was picked up by my husband one day at the Eumundi markets, bought home and packed away for much later use.  I braved the cobwebs in my dark garage, and gingerly opened up boxes upon boxes of books. It took a while, because I spent so long making sure nothing hairy with 8 legs and 8 eyes would scuttle out and up onto my arm. It's a serious and well-formed phobia. The kind of phobia that gets cemented into your soul when you have to pull off a motorway because 8 legs and 8 eyes of the huntsman variety are right next to your face as your driving. After assuring myself that I was not going to get attacked and seriously maimed by anything lurking it was time to choose a name.

I worked my way through the names of the Weasley clan. I'm not sure why I decided that I would call it after the muggle-loving redheads. Maybe I've had too much butterbeer of late. Maybe it's rereading the books and watching the movies for trivia. Maybe it was the paint fumes from my self-made death-eater mask.

Ron -  an obvious choice, but a rather mundane and samey-samey option. My handy name book describes a boring and placid life. Diabetes is anything but boring and placid, so I need a pump name that can keep up with it.
Arthur - "...A funny bastard who has lost his keys. He knew he put them down somewhere but for the life of him he can't remember where." Yeah, this kind of sounds like Arthur Weasley. My pump isn't something I want to chance misplacing.
Percy - Described as a tall fellow, who has risque conversations with women. ...Nope. Just nope. Apparently I need to introduce the author to Harry Potter. One cannot simply use a Harry Potter name with a description that does not fit the character.
Bill - "Sometimes a handshake is all you need to tell you that you like a person.". Agreed. Bill is just flat out likeable. Bill was a strong contender for the name of my pump.
Charlie - Educated. Charlie took too many risks. Diabetes and risks are not good companions.
Fred & George  - I looked up the names, but with no real heart. My diabestie had previously had pumps named Fred & George, and I just thought it would get too confusing.

Nothing really clicked. I chalked it up to being in burnout and feeling too disconnected to aptly name my pump. Then I wondered if I was in burnout because I hadn't named my pump...was the lack of personality that I usually associate with my pump hurting my diabetes management?

I didn't name my pump that day.

I named it 3 days later. When I got a fun, purple package in the mail.

Yep. Someone was listening. Now I need a new life goal because that purple Lenny the Lion case is all mine.

It was the motivation I needed. Funny how something seemingly small can make such difference. I mean, it's just a case. But it was fun, and new, and bubbly and made me feel happy. It gave my pump a face. And a name.

World, meet King.

Weasley is our King.

See him, not letting the hypos in with his smart guard. It fits. It's perfect.






_________________________________________________________________________________
Today's reason why I'm Hypo: I was anxious. For no reason.

どうもありがとう, Mr. Roboto

robot

ˈrəʊbɒt/

noun

1. 1.

   a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer.

   "half of all American robots are making cars or trucks"

   synonyms:

   automaton, android, machine, golem;
2. 2.

   another term for crawler (in the computing sense)

640G - Part Two - It Thinks


"It Thinks" is the slogan that came out with the 640G. I would believe it of my little Mr. Roboto (Note: not my 640g's name...its actually still unnamed as of yet. I just can't think of anything good enough for it).

When you've had a little while to play around with the pump, its obvious the design was made with the user in mind.


Normal, every day functions are laid out on the opening screen, in easy to see positioning. It means that if you need to quickly bolus or change your basal rate, you never have to navigate away from the home screen. With my previous MiniMed, I accessed the menu fairly frequently, but now I access it only to change my set, or if I have an endo/educator appointment coming up and need to start logging my activities before a pump download.




Bolus take you to a bolus menu, where you can input your BG (if you havent used the meter that sends through your BGs automatically). If you select basal you can set up a temp basal or select from a pre-saved temp basal that you have already created. I set up some temp basals of a pre-determined strength  & time length when I first set up the pump that I could quickly swap to if needed, based on activity that I would do throughout the day. It might be easier for kids because they could be taught to swap to a pre-determined basal rate at sleepovers, etc. without actually having to set it up themselves. You could also set these up as weekday or weekend, etc. and quickly swap between them if needed.



Bolusing remains much the same, but you can now choose what types of bolus you want active. I have never actually used a square wave bolus, and haven't the foggiest what it does, so I only have dual and normal bolus types active.

Suspend delivery is now the very first item in your pump menu. Whats even more exciting is that now, when I bolus, 'stop bolus' is displayed prominently on the screen as the insulin ticks in, and is already selected. So if I need to stop my bolus (which oddly, I do often) mid-delivery, all I have to do is click the middle button and it stops. Easy peasy.

I can also bolus off the meter that goes with my pump. It does not have the wizard built into it, but my current rate is 1 unit to 10gm of carb, so I actually use it to bolus quite a lot so I don't have to grope myself in public at food time. Its much more discreet.

I am actually using the new bayer meter, because I feel like its calibrated better than the previous contour meter. It feels more accurate. It sends to your pump straight away, unless of course yu don't want it to, in which case you can hit the cancel button. Your Diabetes health team will never be any the wiser to the horrible number you just stopped from sending.

It has a strip port light at night time. It works, but not as well as my previous IQ. The light that comes out is very faint and orange, so its not the best for trying to see if you've squeezed enough blood out. Probably the only let-down of the new meter. I think they were going for a soft glow that won't wake anyone else up, but screw everyone else if I've got a reason to check my BGs in the middle of the night.

It does allow you to double-dip, which is great because I often underestimate how much blood has actually come out of my finger, and need to add more, which I can now do and not have to waste a strip in the process.

It also works as the download USB for carelink. Cheering, because I have lost all my carelink USBs now.

My 640G tells me now when I have run out of insulin. I used to always go for about 2 hours or so without insulin on my MiniMed because I would see, and promptly clear, the low reservoir warning, and then it would run out and not tell me. Now it tells me when I have zero units left so I can add more insulin straight away. Alternatively, you can set a 'set change' reminder under the reminders section of the menu so it will remind you.

The 640G was designed (in my opinion) to be more functional for its intended and actual use. It is now waterproof. Whilst I still don't intend to take it swimming, it is better in Brisbane heat. Sweat from Brisbane humidity killed my MiniMed over Christmas last year. I also think it will serve me better when I go on my honeymoon in Europe next year, because I won't have to worry so much if I land in the drink in Venice (which in all likely hood will happen) or get caught in London rain.

The clip now functions as the battery opener. The clip also slides off and on by pressing a small 'button' instead of having to lock it in place with a coin or similar.

I'm pretty excited to take my little Roboto travelling with me. There's not much more I can think of to make it the perfect companion. I've signed up to one of the cheap CGM yearly deals so I will have that helping me as well.

Now just to name it.

________________________________________________________________________
Reasons Why I'm Hypo: I had breakfast half an hour later than normal.

MedicALERT

For the first few months of my diabetic career I didn't have a medic alert ID. I was too embarrassed and too busy trying to work out which sharp pointy object did what to my fingers and stomach. I managed to pick up one for free about 3 months into my diagnosis from my diabetic educator. One of those rubbery band things that they usually give out with charity details on it. It was bright pink, way too large on my wrist, and simply read 'Diabetes'.

After I got my insulin pump I decided to go for an 'upgrade' and bought a whole bunch of colourful bands in bulk from an American website that had them for cheap. My intention was that I could colour co-ordinate them to what I was wearing. It worked for about a week before I just stuck the plain black band on and left it. It's been wrapped around my wrist ever since, the only exception being that I wore a translated medi-alert band in Japan, and on my wedding day.

I know why I wear one. The thought that one day, I might fall unconscious from a hypo, and need someone to know why I was unresponsive. Thankfully, that scenario has not yet eventuated, and hopefully will never eventuate.

That's not to say it sits idly by on my wrist. On Friday I found myself the unexpected and unwilling victim of a seemingly random allergic reaction. I can't eat watermelon, mango or raw tomato, but I've never had a reaction to touching them before and cook regularly with tomato (I can eat it cooked). I had just finished chopping some tomato when I felt a sting and my lips started tingling, like they do when I have accidentally eaten something I shouldn't have. A quick check in the mirror showed that my lips had definitely swollen. I didn't think much of it, because that happens every time, and after about 4 hours the swelling normally subsides.

Not this time. Less than 10 seconds after leaving the bathroom I felt incredibly weak. I had weak legs and pins and needles. I grabbed my kit wondering if I was having an unexpected low (unlikely as I had been sitting on a BGL of 12 less than an hour earlier). I never got to do the BG check. My vision blurred, I felt dizzy, sweaty, shaking, and I couldn't breathe. I managed to grab my phone and punch in for 000 (as I was home alone) but I didn't have enough breathe to tell them anything, and I knew I was seconds away from unconsciousness. Somehow I managed to get down the stairs to the apartment below me, banged on the door, and handed my neighbor the phone.

The end result being that 15 minutes later I had a paramedic kneeling in front of me and telling me I was going to hospital. I remember she looked and sounded a lot like my diabestie. I thought that was a good sign. Before they popped me into the ambulance, the second paramedic did a BGL check. I wondered how she knew, but was thankful because a BG check was far from my mind. Apparently someone had read my Medic Alert ID bracelet. My BG was 3.1, which I am 99% sure was caused by what had just happened.

It was at that point my husband arrived home, and went in search of glucose whilst they bundled me into the ambulance. I found it weird that they checked my BGL, found it low, but didn't offer any glucose and left that up to someone else to organise.

I haven't been hospitalized since my diagnosis, so this was the first time I had to deal with my diabetes in hospital. I felt like I was the only one in the room who actually understood what diabetes was and how to use the equipment involved with it. I had a paramedic BG test me, who threw away a perfectly good, unused test strip because her meter was out of battery when she put the strip in. It amazed me that she didn't have the common sense to stick the same strip into the next meter she pulled out. I can only assume she didn't know how expensive strips are.

When they requested a fourth blood sugar reading within my first hour in emergency, I insisted they let me do it myself and use my own meter & lancing device. I don't know if they were particularly happy with this, but I wasn't quite sure about the improvised torture devices that they were passing off as lancets. So I got my way and did my own Blood sugar levels.

After being ramped in emergency, I got admitted to fast track, which I quickly figured out was a holding area for people who wouldn't be admitted overnight. I was feeling a bit better by this stage, with only chills, muscle cramps & one helluva headache left. A nurse quickly filled in the area's medical staff on why I was there and my diabetic status, explaining that my allergic reaction had triggered a hypoglycaemic event and that I had had fast acting carbs but no long acting carbs and could she please get me some(it was dinnertime, after all). She was met with an incredulous look and reply of: "But that's not why she's here." To which, I'm glad, the nurse basically stamped her feet and laid it out for her plain as can be, that I needed some more carb (by now my BG was creeping back down again and had dropped 4 points in 15 or so minutes).

Everything went somewhat smoothly from there, with the exception of an intern fighting with a registrar about the cause of my allergic reaction symptoms. After reading my patient notes and seeing I had had been brought in with a low BG, the intern decided all my symptoms were caused by my low BG (nope) and wanted to send me home. My husband overheard and went to sort it out, to explain that a BG of 3.1 definitely does not cause those kind of symptoms, and that instead the allergic reaction caused my low BG. The registrar agreed with my husband and I was given some sort of medication, kept in observation for a while longer, and then cleared to go home nearing midnight.

I sank thankfully into bed that night, and slept for a solid 11 hours, waking up only once to take as much Nurofen as I could to try and get rid of the killer headache I still had. I'm not keen on that happening again anytime soon so the plan is now that my husband will chop all the tomatoes, and I will continue to wear my Medi Alert ID.

Hey, Good Lookin'

This post is very overdue. I have felt disconnected to my diabetes as of the past month or so, and have been one slack lady in updating. I have, however, suddenly felt the mood to write, and set up a bunch of automatic post updates over the next few weeks :)

I give to you, my very overdue thoughts on the new 640G:

640G - Part One - It's all about the Looks

On first glance, I was still not sold on the new design. But I'm being superficial here, and I was used to my pretty MiniMed. Then my Educator pulled a pink silicone case from her bag of diabetes tricks, so now it looks 'happier' at the same time as giving more protection against the drops and whacks my pump is subjected to. I'm hoping that they will soon release customised skins like with the MiniMeds, but I'm not sure if the design lends itself towards that. In the meantime I have busied myself with obsessively searching for one of those 'Lenny the Lion' silicone cases, which you can get at the UK Medtronic shop.

ITS A LION. ON YOUR PUMP. As a mature, responsible adult who has a mature, responsible adult job and does mature, responsible adult things with my life; finding and wearing one of these is now my biggest goal. Just incidentally, they have these amazing exercise t-shirts on the UK website that have 4 different pockets for your pump, and I don't know why we don't have these here.

After pulling my silicone case on, I immediately began the size comparisons. The 640G has only been released in 300ml reservoirs here in Aus, and I was used to the smaller 180ml MiniMed. The silicone case also seemed to add some bulk when I put it on. I have seen photos of another 640G user comparing it to his 300ml MiniMed and it is the same size. Obviously, bigger reservoir = bigger pump.

The fact that it only comes in 300ml is a bit of an issue I have with the new pump. I was a big fan of
sticking my pump into the groove at my hip/thigh area under my underwear band when I wore tighter dresses, but the 640G creates just a little bit too much of a bulge to do this anymore without things looking a little suss. So I've had to adjust a little and I just put up with the pump obviously stuck to my chest now. I've only had one query about why my boobs looked so boxy from a lady at a coffee stall. Unfortunately I was in a bad mood, so I just grumbled 'Insulin pump' and walked away. Hopefully she googled it.

Layout of the pump is different. I don't think it makes much difference either way. The 640G is faced upright instead of sideways like the MiniMed. I can understand the need for the upright position on the 640G because of its lovely new screen, but this does create a functional issue (read: issue for lazy people) in that I can't just twist the pump to the side to bolus.

I love the 640G screen. Its bright and colourful and auto-adjusts to light. Read: never squinting in the sun or in the middle of night again.

Everything is also right there on the screen for you to see, including your CGM graph. It is also coloured for a quick-glance check. Green means full or close to full for battery, insulin and CGM time indicators, yellow means about mid and red means its running out of whichever one is in red. The screen is also set up so you can access whatever you need quickly.


One of the weird pluses to the new design is that I no longer get any 'pager' comments, which is good, because I seriously wouldn't be this poor if I was a doctor. I'd be living in rich people town with all the rich people and their many, many tables, and their really weird fashion choices, and not next to a block of housing commission. Not a pager guys, sorry. Instead I now get the "That's a really old MP3 player" statements. Which yeah, it does. It reminds me a lot of my Creative Zen that I had when I was 15.

So mostly pros, some cons with the new design - biggest being that as a previous 180ml reservoir user, I'm just not used to the size. All-in-all, looks don't really make a difference to what the pump does and does not do. I am really loving the screen though.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Reason why I'm Hypo: I was on 21 (shhhh) and gave myself a 2 unit correction.

Happy Gratitude Day!

Today, Facebook tells me, is world gratitude day. Today I feel gratitude for many things in my life.

I am grateful for my husband, my soulmate. The man who makes me smile and loves me unconditionally. The man who puts my needs before his. My husband, who seems to have a weird sixth sense about my diabetes at night, and can tell from the way I'm sleeping if I'm low or high and if I need to be woken up to deal with my BGLs.

I am thankful for my family and friends, who complete my life and who slap on a happy face when they're putting up with me. Especially thankful they accept all of me, weird moods, fussy taste, diabetes and all.

I am super thankful for the food in my pantry, roof over my head, poppers in my handbag, test strips scattered across my carpet and insulin in my fridge. Happy to have the things I need to keep me alive.

I feel so much gratitude to those who work tirelessly to give me access to great diabetes products, like my insulin pump, glucometer and more, that make living with diabetes so much easier. I am thankful for my CGM, that helps to keep me safe.

I am so glad to have my diabestie in my life. Without diabetes, I would not have met so many inspirational and beautiful people.

I am grateful for my health. I know more about my body than most other people my age, and what is good for, and not good for me. I am grateful to be able to see the world around me and watch my favourite TV addictions, and grateful to be able to stretch my legs and walk home at the end of a long work day.

I am thankful for my job. I get to earn a living whilst doing a job that I love, and a job that further inspires gratitude for my life. I am happy I get to help others living with a chronic illness at my work. I do a job that inspires me.

I am most grateful that I am alive. Happy that the disease I have, does not limit what I can do with my life, or stop me expressing who I am.

I am grateful for my diabetes. Just not the high and low blood sugars. I'd appreciate if diabetes kept those particular gifts to itself.

Forays into SmartGuard

The 640G: I finally managed to upgrade my pump and lay my grubby prick-marked fingers on one.

I fully intend to talk ramble about it. And all it's new features. Some people get excited about iphones. I get excited about mechanical pancreases.

But I'm saving that particular blog for later. Right now I'm a little sidetracked by the impressive Hylian Shield function (I'm talking about SmartGuard,for anyone who sadly grew up outside of the Zelda generation).

I didn't really think I'd get too much out of SmartGuard. I was pretty positive that I was just going to turn that function off, along with every other CGM alarm and notification setting. CGM has a unique way of driving me nuts so I usually just switch off any 'help' capabilities and use it as a trends-only tool.

For the sake of testing out a new product I enabled the 'Hey! Listen!' features of the 640G when I connected it up to CGM a few days ago. Smartguard, low & high limits were all set and ready to go.

Essentially, SmartGuard 'thinks' about your BGL trajectory, and if it calculates that you're going to hit hypo, it will suspend insulin delivery before you can hit a low level, and try to head off the hypo before it even happens.

It works. 

The 640G is whisper quiet on vibrate mode, so I didn't even know it had activated the first until I took out my pump to bolus for lunch to discover the exciting 'Suspended before Low' announcement. I was still quite skeptical, so I did a finger-prick to check the accuracy. It was spot-on.

I recently started a new job, and two weeks in, found out that one of the perks of working there was that there was another resident T1D. 

So when I got my exciting little 'Suspend Before Low' message I made a beeline to tell the only other person who could possibly appreciate what the heck I was raving about.

I didn't hypo. My BGL dipped to about 4.3 before leveling off and slowly climbing again. Once I had hit 5 and my BGL was holding steady, the pump made a decision of its own accord to restart my basal insulin flow.

Since then I have given my pump full reign to let the CGM run and do what it was made to do. The effect on my BGL has been amazing. It almost feels like a holiday. I have only had to treat 2 hypos since putting on my CGM last week, both of which were exercise-related, when I had my pump disconnected already meaning Smart Guard was not really able to be activated.

The new transmitter for the 640G seems to have more power, and I think that it somehow helps to calibrate better. Around 95% of the time my BGLs match the CGM to within a difference of 0.5mmol. The accuracy means I am able to give my fingers a well deserved rest. I have been testing only to calibrate or confirm unusual readings.

Not only is the Smart Guard preventing lows, but I haven't had a BGL over 12 since activating the CGM. One of the biggest reasons I would see BGL spikes is because I would be sick of hypos, and running a little higher seemed preferable to running low. Because I trust my Smart Guard to 'catch' me, I find that I'm dosing correctly for food - instead of under counting like normal to avoid lows. Dosing for all my carbs is helping to improve my post-postprandial glucose control. The result is a much straighter graph, with more time in the non-diabetic range.

(For anyone wondering, the orange sections are when SmartGuard activated)

I have also had 4 uninterrupted nights of sleep. In a row. For the past 2 days I have had enough energy to stay up until 11.30pm at night. Prior to this past week, I was so exhausted by hypos, nypos and self-management that I was falling asleep between 8.30 - 9.30pm at night. After scrolling back through my nights readings, I can usually see a drop at around 3am, which the SmartGuard is catching. It kicks in, I never become hypo, and I get to wake up fresh-faced and chipper in the morning. So the message I'm getting is that I need to fix my night-time basals, but in the meantime while I play around and adjust those, I can rest (and actually rest!) knowing that my pump is taking care of me. Extra bonus points for the fact that it doesnt make loud alarm sounds and just does what it needs to quietly.

Verdict? Shut up and take my rupees.

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Disclaimer: Still not being paid by Medtronic or asked by Medtronic to write anything for them. Just a super excited T1D who likes playing with new technology and who cannot process her thoughts without writing them down and sharing them with the interwebs.