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July 6th, 2008
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This morning I woke up to my pump alarm yelling at me. I turned over and looked at the clock. Having over an hour before I needed to wake up I grabbed my pump and pressed the ESC and ACT buttons to kill the alarm and fell quickly back to sleep. I knew this morning was going to be an infusion set change day so I was not surprised, just annoyed.


No sooner did I go back to sleep that I heard the alarm again. Not normally when you clear the low reservoir alarm you have another 10 units of insulin worth before the alarm goes off again. I reached under the blankets and cleared the alarm again. I don't think I even achieved REM state before my alarm went off and I was up for good. Bummer.


I looked down at my pump to check out how much time I had left before I was dry and I realized what the problem was, my battery was low too. A double whammy on Humpday is not the way you want to wake up people. I saw that I had about 5 hours left of insulin in my pump as long as I didn't eat of course so I just went through my typical morning and headed off to work which is where I usually change my sets.

When I get to the office I realized that my supply of AAA batteries that I keep in my bag is depleted. Darn. I ask around to a few employees who look at me funny when I say, "Do you have any batteries on ya?" Is that really such a weird question? Anyhow, I took off to the local gas station to buy some overpriced Duracells. When I asked the gentleman behind the counter for the triple A's he said, "Oh I can't sell those to you because they are the wrong ones." He pulls out a package and says, "You see the Asian writing? This was not supposed to come here so we cannot sell them."

Although I could tell it was a Duracell package, all of the writing was definately not english. Whammy number three!


I asked him to check and see if he has any others back behind the counter and in fact he did. I paid for them and took off to work since now I was late.


When I got back to work I dumped all my supplies on my desk and filled my reservoir with insulin. I grabbed my infusion set and I.V. Prep pad ready to head to the little diabetic boys room when I realized that did not grab my infusion set insertion device. What began as a simple search through my bag became a frantic, "Tell me I did not forget it" moment. Whammy number 4.


There is no way that I can push that infusion set into my leg so I decided to just keep the same site until I get home and I just changed my reservoir. I am sure that is not the best way to handle it but I figure 8 more hours should not be a big deal.

Let's hope tomorrow is whammy free.



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Duracell? What are you doing using those? We are only supposed to use Energizers in our MiniMeds. Seriously, manufacturer's recommendation and they last WAY longer.

P.S. I thought three whammies ended the game. :D


The Gas Station only had Duracell's. I believe in the Bunny too!


At least when you wake up in the middle of the night you fall back to sleep. I'll call you at 3:00 AM every morning and see how you are doing!


George

Why change at work? I always do it at home - though I keep a spare set of supplies at work just in case.

Anyway, I'm glad you made it through.


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George Simmons
George Simmons is a father and husband living with type 1 diabetes. A self proclaimed "born again diabetic," George began blogging as a way to meet other people living with diabetes and learn more about managing his disease. (Read More)

Latest Posts: Struggle for the System | Paranoid? | Suspended

Michelle Kowalski
Michelle Kowalski, a writer, editor and photography hobbiest in Missouri, has had type 2 diabetes since February 2005. In January 2008, as part of her quest to start on an insulin pump, Michelle learned that she actually has type 1 diabetes.(Read More)

Latest Posts: Can I Say 'No'? | My Bad | Three Airports, Two Searches

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