One year already

Huh, would you look at that- according to my blog post history, turns out that today, one year ago, i started using an insulin pump...
i *knew* there was legitimate reason for me to be craving a cupcake this afternoon! Darn, should've gone with my gut (pun?).
Instead, sans cupcake, this anniversary (pumpaversary?) was marked by me making a rookie-mistake: i inserted a new infusion set without pulling those little tabs off the sticky part. Doh. Trying to pull those guys off while trying to keep the needle stable and stuck in your skin is no small challenge!

Ok, some quick thoughts on a year of pumping...
-I love love love my insulin pump.
-Seeing how much i can fine tune my doses- basal and bolus- makes me realise probably just how bad my control must have been on MDI. And has me thinking, seriously, how does anyone manage to manage diabetes properly on MDI? Unless you just stick to a robot- type of routine??
-Not that everything is perfect with a pump all of a sardine. It's still diabetes. It still throws curve balls. For the most part, i still feel like a rookie at the whole thing. There's still a lot to work out, and rework out. And adjust. Again and again. The cool part? It's so much easier to do that with a pump..
-I have yet to do a round of proper basal testing. It's kinda a factor of time. And kinda a factor that, every few weeks/ months, my routine, (the season), and with it stress levels and food habits, seem to change. And with it, my insulin needs change. So i don't really see the point in the whole fasting schlep for now. I just adjust as i go along until i find a pattern that works.. Until i need to adjust again. (did i mention how easy pumping makes it to adjust dosing and stuff?)
-I'm still working out what to do with the pump during excercise. Like running, and dance class. (and sand boarding, and kayaking- stories yet to be told). It does sometimes make me wish for a waterproof pump to be available here...
-I'm till trying to work out what to do with the pump when i wear a skirt or dress.
i'm still working out good spots for infusion sets and cgm sensors. I'm kinda small , so real estate is a litlle limited. Plus, to be honest, the needles do still make me kinda nervous. So it takes me a while to psych myself up to trying a new spot. I'm working on it..
-On the topic of sensors: as much as i love my pump, one thing that i thing has made the hugest (is that a word?) difference to how i try manage my diabetes has to be the cgm (i've got the medtronic veo with integrated cgm, so this still counts as being about pumping). Holy cupcakes, batman! i love having the real-time in context information. No it's not perfect. But it helps. I have yet to go anywhere near any sort of software that will help me analyse trends or anything, but in the day-to-day, meal-to-meal, moment-to-moment-ness of this disease, the cgm is awesome. Seriously.
-On the topic of batman... I seriuously can't wait to see the dark knight rises! *excite*
-ok, so that had nothing to do with pumping
-I'm sad i didn't get a cupcake... (still not really about pumping?)
-After a year of pumping (ok, only 9 months with the veo pump, but still) i have yet to name it. My cgm transmitter has a name (joe, if you're wondering). But i have yet to think of something suitable for the pump. Any suggestions?



My sleek and sexy (in a bulky, pump-y kinda way), black, yet to be named, Veo. Always by my side/in my pocket/tucked into some random item of clothing...

An update: Decision made, and the Perfect gift for a Geek

It's about time I updated my blog.
I've been trying for a while now, but I never seem to be able to sit down and bash out a whole post the way I want, and to be able to share everything I want that's on my mind. That pesky thing called time, crazy schedules, and that thing about falling asleep at my desk when i finally squeeze in a moment to try write, after I've gotten through all the other stuff I need to do that day, have made blogging a bit tricky for me lately..
So here's me trying out a new strategy to see if it works: shorter posts, probably less depth and detail (aargh. But I like details :/)ok, fewer details, and I'm gonna try bash them out in brief moments that I have in the middle of everything else. Like this post, written while sitting in the tissue culture lab, waiting for the centrifuge to finish spinning so I can carry on with the next step of washing my supervisor's blood, and then waiting for reagents to thaw  ( enough detail? Maybe just enough to be cryptic ;P ) it helps that I get to do this on my brand spanking new and oh so pretty and shiny iPad :)

So, some brief things ( a list!...type thing.. Does two points count as a list?)

1) I'm a  huge huge geek. I'm a lab geek, an art/ photography/ anything visual geek, a book geek, and a science and techno geek. So it shouldn't be too hard to picture the huge geeky smile I had one my face the whole of Friday evening (and the whole weekend, and whenever I think about it, like now) when I was given a beautifully sleek and sexy black iPad2, preloaded with a bunch of useful and awesome science apps, journal readers and lab -assistant apps, photography and photojournalism apps, reading apps, and some health and diabetes apps. And some web comic apps, because what's a geek without xkcd? This is such such such an awesome gift, I'm instantly attached to it and working out how to integrate it into my daily workings, to feed my productivity, and my geeky brain. I love it. And the amazingly thoughtful, supportive and *ahem* spontaneous geek who gave it to me :)

2) Decision made: I've chosen my pump. Actually I chose it three weeks ago, but y'know (see above comment on lack of time to keep thins blog updated). So, after trying out the accucheck spirit pump, and the glucometer/remote/bolus calculator for the combo pump for a few weeks (the big "NOT FOR HUMAN USE" on the combo pump they lent me was a bit of a deterrent for actually using the whole combo pump system), I was able to test drive the medtronic veo pump (only the pump, not the sensors, so no cgms or lgs for me to try) for about a month. I do still want to post a detailed comparison between the two systems, mostly because my admittedly not-so- in-depth googling sessions weren't able to turn anything recent or with the information I wanted. In the meantime I'll just say that as pretty as the remote for the combo pump is, the fact that the veo offers the cgms integrated with it kinda made this one a no- brainer for me. Add in the fact that i also get the security of low glucose suspend, and that I actually just like the menus and set up for the medtronic pump, and, well, I'm going with the veo. Woop! I'm excited :)
2.2?) My medical aid continues to amaze me. The only paperwork I've had to deal with has been one form for medtronic, with my medical aid details, my a dress and what colour our pump I want, and a form to the postal pharmacy with my details. No letters,  no justifications or motivations, no requests for payment, nothing. And they're covering everything! Ok, well, not everything- i have a copayment of 4% for the pump and transmitter *gasp*, and they're covering the infusion sets and sensors each month. Compared to the paper trail I had to run through just to get my old medical aid to cover half my insulin?  This is awesome.

I've got an appointment for this Friday morning to get my pump and the cgm sensors and transmitter set up. We get the elite sensors here, much to my relief. I curious/ nervous/ excited to see how cgm goes.