I use an insulin pump to manage my diabetes. The pump I use is from Minimed. I have always felt like they have taken good care of me and speak very highly of them.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think they are a good company but I was a little annoyed by a couple of things that happened.

First, I am signed up for the automatic refill program. Every three months a new box of my pump supplies shows up at my door and usually a little earlier then I need to I feel safe and secure. For whatever reason, my quarterly shipment was not sent. (READ MORE)

It's 10 p.m.; three hours post a high-fat, high-carb meal. At three hours I'm 122. That's an almost perfect place to be at three hours post-meal and right before bed.

But the problem is that I'm headed to bed and I know I'll wake up wicked high. Why not use a square-wave bolus, you ask. I just may, but the real problem for me is that I'd like to be able to use a dual- or square-wave bolus up front so I can sort of fix and forget. But I can go almost low around two hours post a high-fat, high-carb meal. Even at three hours I'm in a decent place, but by four hours I've skipped right over the high 100s and am square in the upper 200s.

  (READ MORE)

Multifamily Utility

It took me nearly two months to finally get a solid range of good blood sugar numbers. Many checks would have me hovering in the 200's, only to be followed by a bottomed out low caused by a flagrant over-correction. The devil is in the details when it comes to pumping and I started out with the wrong details! (READ MORE)

godesia

Christmas means joy. Christmas means tales of sugar plums dancing in children's heads. Christmas means Christmas dresses.

This past holiday was my first pumping Christmas, which meant learning how to "graze" and square bolus at all the parties, how to watch for trends from "holiday stress" and how to buy a Christmas dress fit for a pump.

Typically, finding a dress is hard enough. I'll try on one hundred to find one. Some are too fancy, some are the wrong color, some are just ugh! But never has one been unfit for a pump. Until this Christmas.
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Tidbit number one: I almost deleted the message because it sounded like a salesman. We get those calls sometimes--you know, people who leave messages for products or services. I really wonder if they really think they'll get calls back. Anyway, so it actually was a salesman and I still almost deleted it, but then I heard the keywords: Dr. C asked me to give you a call. Then I realized he said he was from Medtronic. So the three "I really hope you're having a good day" comments were part of his sales pitch. Ugh. This is how it starts. I hate being sold to. I mean, if you mask it well, then I guess I'm OK with it, but if you're going to sell me something and you're going to kiss my ass the whole time then I, frankly, don't want to hear it. I'm seriously thinking about telling him upfront, "Dude, don't talk to me like a customer. Talk to me like you're trying to convince your brother to buy your brand of pump. (READ MORE)

"This," I said to my mom while pointing to the table full of mid-afternoon party food, "is exactly the kind of situation where I would really benefit from having a pump."

We were in my brother's dining room at his daughter's first-birthday party. The spread included crackers with an amazing cream cheese and pesto dip, mini chicken salad croissant sandwiches, fresh fruit, potato chips and dip and fresh veggies. To the untrained eye, there wasn't much that I should have stayed away from, but in reality there was just about nothing that didn't require insulin.

Mom looked a little confused. "But you'd still have to count carbs," she said.

"Well, yeah, of course," I said. "But that's not really the reason the pump would be so beneficial. I could eat and not have to excuse myself to take a shot."

She nodded in understanding. (READ MORE)