CGM, or: I've never met an accronym I didn't love

Gadgets.  I'm full of them.  Literally.  My pump is attached and now so is my Continuous Glucose Monitor.  I almost feel a little bad...  I was diagnosed at the best time to have a disease like diabetes...  the pace of technology is so fast that whatever I am using right now will probably be upgradeable within the next two years.  Granted I am still not ecstatic about being tethered to gizmos.  BUT, the gizmos are at least cool.  AND they are small.  And I'm well known for my never ending stash of batteries. 

A tangled mess.

One thing I like about my pump: not having to grab my Pens before leaving the house and then having to have them with me.  Now I just LEAVE the house.  Pump on board.

Five things that I DON'T like about my pump:

#1   (And the most irritating) is people who do NOT have diabetes telling me HOW much I'm going TO  LOVE my pump.  I'm okay with medical people or people who KNOW someone with a pump.  But to everyone else sipping their  beer/wine/cooler/mocha/monster:   Really??  Cause why don't you try sticking this giant ass needle subcutaneously into YOUR stomach and get back to me or MAYBE you should:  just.  Shut.  The.  Fuck.  Up.

#2  Tangled Up Tubing Syndrome (TUTS)  I sleep with my pump next to me or under my pillow but wake up with it impossibly wrapped around my body.

#2  Snagged Tubing Syndrome (STS).  Twice I have snagged the tubing on a door handle and although it does not hurt to rip the catheter out, it is a weird sensation.  And then it is aggravating to have to go through a whole new set change and stick.

#3  Realizing that I am walking around with excess tubing visible.  It just looks weird. 

#4  Set changes.

#5  Beeps and alarms.  Essential and handy.  Possibly life-saving.  But that doesn't mean I have to like them.

#7  Inspired by LisaP.

Acting quickly in the face of potential emergency? (The non-chicken kind.) Our score? EPIC FAIL.

I have outlined the protocol for using the LIFE  SAVING  GLUCAGON three times now.  It's not complicated.  I started with Gene tonight and said : "So.  Gene.  You know the protocol for the glucagon, right?  To which Gene replied:  "Huh?  Oh.... you mean your shot thing?  Yeah."  Then to prove himself he turned around and opened the WRONG drawer and dug around before saying: "Uh... wasn't it in HERE?  (Giggle)".  Gene - FAIL.
Then I asked Gus.  He promptly opened the correct drawer and quickly located the bright red box containing the shot.  Then (just as I was feeling the love) he grumbled:  "Except I can't open it"  And I said: "It should just pop right out" (referring to the little syringe).  To which Gus answered: "No.  I mean I can't get this red box open".  Gus - FAIL.
Obviously Trent would not let me down so I sought comfort from my rock.  Trent nodded assuredly and said: "Well.  FIRST we call 911".  Me:  "FOR  FUCK  SAKE!!  DID you NOT read the paperwork I gave you?  It CLEARLY  states: DO  NOT  CALL  911  FIRST!!  FIRST  ADMINISTER  SHOT - THEN call 911.  (It's even in BOLD TYPE and CAPITALIZED.)  Trent - FAIL. 
Tomorrow I will check Neil, Bay and Mike.  Then I will try to insure that I never have another low blood sugar episode.  JEEEEZE.

Oh Shit. Oh Shit. Oh Shit. Oh Shit. Oh Shit.

What you say when you realize that you just administered 12 units of fast acting insulin subcutaneously as opposed to 12 units of long acting insulin subcutaneously.  Then you slow the panic.... do the math.  Make a note of you blood sugar, write a note explaining the dumbass thing you just did in case you need someone to figure OUT the dumbass thing you did after your dumbass hits the ground.  Then you start administering all the delicious sugar you usually are denied.  (But it's not like it's fun when you are doing it to combat sugar crash.)  But if you are smart (like me.... well.... like I usually am... not that I was displaying my smartness at the time of the insulin mix-up this morning) you avoid the crash.  You feel like an idiot.  But you avoid the crash.   So far this morning: Two loads of laundry - check.  Dishwasher emptied - check.  Avoidance of major medical emergency - check.  Not bad considering it's only 10a.m.

pee or get off

Very lame.  Very, very lame.  I need to either blog or NOT.  But this on-again-off-again means a few things...  One: that facebook has taken over a huge portion of what was once: reading/journaling/blogging time.  Two: that it still feels a little strange to journal in a public forum and Three: that life is as busy with all the boys in school as it was when I had two out of three of them home, it's just busy in different ways.

When I finally opened this blog up last night and looked at my last entry I realized that EVEN if only to note that I was RIGHT after all (neener neener) I must blog once more to add that  I AM diabetic (so THERE).  I would like to say this publicly so that I don't look like a self-absorbed hypochondriac.  (I am aware that while a hypochondriac?  I may not be; self-absorbed ? I probably AM.)  Most people would (and should) be more concerned with BEING diabetic.  Me?  I'm more worried about being RIGHT.  UTI  my arse.  I  am  SOOOOO diabetic. 

On the other hand, as blasè as I was, I was not terribly concerned with the mechanics of being diabetic and I have learned that it is NOT as simple as I thought it would be.  CF clinic advise eating my normal diet and just adding insulin before meals based on whatever my blood sugar is before the meal.  If I do this, I am still spiking some highs (not alarming highs, but highs none the less).  Having tried this method since the end of November, I'm not sure I like it very much.  I have been advised to ignore all typical diabetic rules and I'm not sure that I like THAT very much either.  CFRD (CF relate diabetes - come-on people....) is different to regular diabetes, but the overall risks and complications of regular diabetes still apply to me, hence my confusion...  It doesn't quite make sense to me to totally ignore my diet.

Now, having said that.  Crap!  It seriously takes some practice and some serious discipline (this from the girl who bought Pepsi on Friday for pizza night....)  and meals become a little more scientific and a lot more predictable and a lot less FUN.  Diabetics have to seriously plan their food and then STICK to the plan...  This didn't seem like a big deal at first, but I'm a month into it and I'm still finding myself doing stEW-pid things...

One of my first day taking insulin I was all on board with the idea of being ready to eat, testing the blood, taking the shot.  So, at lunch time Day Four, I did just that.  Then realized that I had NO idea WHAT I was going to eat and so I started my usual rummage.  THEN it dawned on me that I had already taken my insulin (FOOL) and so had to scurry and get something in me before the insulin hit.  (Dumbass).

The next day I was all ready to do things right.  MADE my favorite toasted tomato, cheese, Worcester Sauce sandwich.  Put it on the table ( or "plated it" as us obnoxious foodies like to say....).  Turned around and THEN did my test, did my shot, turned back.  Found Drake wolfing down one half of my lunch.  (His only complaint : less Worcester Sauce for him next time).

A few days later I got even further.  As I was about to eat, there was a knock at the door.  It was Gus's friend's mom, here to pick her son up.  I'm by nature chatty and by the time we chatted and she left I had played it CLOSE  (moron) and had to scramble to eat before my blood sugar (BS? oh hahaha) dropped.