Random Thoughts.
Jeff
10 Comments
In nearly twenty-six years of wearing a medical ID bracelet, it has generated but a single inquiry -- from a drunk -- who asked, “Are you gonna shoot up or something?” I’m still wearing it, and have no plans to stop.
Sometimes I feel like a computer with an important program running perpetually in background memory just to think about what my blood sugar is doing.
Whenever a new system for filling reservoirs was introduced, the new product was less desirable than before. I preferred the way things were before they were complicated by those cumbersome blue alignment sleeves.
If I relied only on the various quips and comments of misinformation about diabetes that I’ve heard over the years, I would think that diabetics who take pills have a “touch” of diabetes. People who inject insulin have it “bad.” People who inject insulin four or five times a day have it “really bad.” Anyone using an insulin pump has it really bad and “must not be doing very well.” And people who use a pump and also have a CGMS, well, “there’s really not much more the doctors can do for them.”
If we pump users can bolus on the go to correct a high, there ought to be a way to supply ourselves with glucagon or a form of sugar through the same device when we’re low. It’s not a simple as it sounds, but neither are a lot of worthwhile things.
When I walk through my pharmacy and see the glucose meters and their respective price tags, I wonder why anyone who has access to a telephone would actually pay money for one of them.
I’d like to lose that high pitched “boop beep boop” low reservoir warning of my Minimed 522 and replace it with a more ominous “Yoh Dee Oh” that the Wicked Witch of the West’s castle guards sang on the march.
Before I discard any tubing, I cut off the quick connect from one end and slice off the cap that attaches to the reservoir at the other in order to render it less useful for purposes of an illicit nature. For the same reason, I remove the rubber o-rings from the plunger.
Here’s a place where you can buy bottles of 50 test strips for $11.80. Unfortunately, they’re for testing the coolant in your car’s engine. When my car was in for service recently, I asked my mechanic if he thought my coolant might need to be replaced. He pulled one of the reagent strips from a bottle and said “Let’s go do a test.” Now there’s a guy who speaks my language!!
Reader Comments (10)
Interesting picture. That is part of a fountain in an estate in Sarasota, isn't it?
You stated "(i)f I relied only on the various quips and comments of misinformation about diabetes that I’ve heard over the years....," You could subsitute just about any term in place of diabetes and come up with similar amounts of misinformation. Misinformation permeates the "information age" and the results have been less than optimal. Only deep research from accurate sources can overcome the problems caused by misinformation. When trying to explain something to a misinformed person it then becomes extremely frustrating for one with accurate, well researched knowledge to be given a response of "maybe you're right but I don't think so". I'm sure you've heard that when explaining a diabetes issue to one of the misinformed. Eventually there comes a time when you just don't bother trying to explain anything to those who are misinformed and never in doubt but frequently wrong.
Diabetes is a hardware based disease.and we diabetics as consumers can't wait for the latest and greatest, pumps, bumps, insulin, etc to arrive on the market so we can reap the benefits that said new product promises. And we have to fight for coverage for everything that helps keep us up and running!! Oh, if only I was a Honda Accord, than my test strips would be sooooooo much cheaper!
k2
Excellent post, Jeff! I bet you speak for an awful lot of frustrated Diabetics. Godspeed.
Hi Kelly. You've got THAT right!
Hi Jj, and welcome! It seems to be common thinking among many D-bloggers that a lot of reporting on diabetes issues fails to differentiate between the various types of the disease. With so many of us posting firsthand experiences about managing our condition on a daily basis, it's mystifying to me why some reporters propagate the errors when accurate information is so easily and readily available.
Thanks for stopping by!
While I'm currently comparing pumps (and I admittedly, do get giddy at the idea of a new gadget), I've sometimes wondered if it has made diabetes harder on a mental level. I mean it's wonderful to have all those options and features, but do we inadvertently overcomplicate it and cause that background mental tape we play in our head to become even louder. On a pump with 2 high readings, you have to "troubleshoot" or diagnose the problem, with even more variables about what could be contributing to the problem, instead of maybe just taking a correction bolus and waiting it out. I keep hearing "more freedom" and I see how they mean it, BUT it also means more money, more experimenting that comes with more options, and more thought dedicated to diabetes as a whole (even the constant reminder of feeling the pump and insertion site). In a very stupid sort of way, I wonder if it will make me feel less human, and more mechanical.
Sorry, my random thoughts are now also rambling.
Mandy -- Yes, pumps do force the diabetic to a new level of thinking, there's no doubt. In order to flatten out those highs and lows, our condition demands that we be on top of our sugars and aware of everything that the pump is doing right now, and what that means to our glucose levels over a window of several hours to come.
Like everything else in life, it turns into a matter of choices. Someone who is doing fine with MDI may decide that an alternative such as pumping simply isn't worth the extra effort for the potential gain. Many of us, however, want as tight a grip as possible on the big picture, and jump at the chance for more control even if it means added expense, effort, and the feeling of being "tethered" to a foreign device.
For what it's worth, I had many of the same concerns at first, but after the first few months of pumping, decided that, for me, the effort was worth it. The tethered feeling lasted about a week, and was gone forever, and the infusion sets are quite comfortable to me. I would encourage you to give it a try, then decide for yourself whether or not to stick with it.
Oh yeah, one last thing. You are hereby granted a license to ramble anytime you like here at GDAT!!. ;^)
You should ask Minimed if they could change that alert to that Yoh Dee Oh chant from the Wizard of Oz. I think that would be great! Now every time I hear my boring alarm, I'm going to think of that sound & it will make me laugh. Great idea!
Right, Donna. It's the same three notes (more or less,) and dropping the tone down a few octaves would do the trick. After all, when you've got a LOW BATT or a low reservoir, a chirpy little bird-like whistle is not what you want. You want something that portends danger! Those castle guards would do the job rather nicely, don't you think?
Well hey, is there anything more a doctor can do beyond pump and cgms?
Seriously, the ignoramouses out there either A) have never heard of a CGMS or B) think it's closed loop cure or C)think that there's a conspiracy that prevents it from being available outside Germany.
At least, that's what they tell me.