I thought I would let this really wonderful flashmob speak for me. I've been away far too long, for reasons that I'll explain momentarily. So a welcome back to hopefully far more normal and regular service here.
It's a little bit ironic that on this entry, I can announce that I was nominated for one of the 2010 DOC Awards! Category? Blogger that we wish would blog more. I'd like to say a huge thank you to whoever nominated me - I'm really touched. I'm also proving true to form, as voting has now closed!
So what's been keeping me away from here for the past month? Well, I'll be honest with you. I've been a)overly busy, b)stressed, and c)exhausted. I mentioned having to do some pretty intense testing immediately after my pump start, but that drained me more than I was willing to admit. I'd not been sleeping well before the pump start, so my energy tank was running on low from the get go. By mid December? I was so tired that I was worried that I was going to end up making some sort of REALLY stupid mistake that I would end up regretting. I tend to squirrel away my holiday days, rather like...well, a squirrel. With nuts. I don't like using them, in case of discovering I need them all of a sudden. But I ended up having to use several, simply in order to sleep. Not the most constructive use of the time, really.
And over Christmas? Thankfully work shuts for a week between Christmas and New Year, which makes sense, as we'd have no-one to do business with (straight out of A Christmas Carol there!). Several of my days off were occupied with travelling up and down the country to see the wonderful Rob 'Faceman' Gooch, of D-Team fame, get married to his lovely, now-wife, Anna. I managed to go home to see my family for a couple of days for the first time since May. I say May, but I think it may have been longer than that. I just read that sentence back to myself, and I promise you no pun was intended. Because if it was, that would be unforgivable, really.
I had a lovely Christmas at home, I really did. But between all the loveliness, work for my MA has been piling on, and although I've managed to get part of my work done to at least a first draft stage, I still have the evenings of the following week to get that piece up to scratch, and finish and then redraft my play. I'm swamped. And I'm back to work tomorrow.
And life with the pump? Her name is now Anneka, for reasons that will be better explained in a later post. I'm now over a month in to this pumping milarky. First two weeks? They were a lot of hard work, with all the testing, and getting used to the A,B,C's of the whole affair. Then I got into the swing of things, and my levels started falling into place. But over the past week or so? Well here are examples of a few tests, admittedly not in the right order, but still all genuine from over the past week.
Meter goes 'Dee-Deed!' (I never like the double beep - it means I'm either high or low)
11mmol/l (198) - Huh?
Dee-Deed!
15.3mmol/l (275) - WTH?
Dee-Deed!
13.8mmol/l (248) - OK, I'm starting to get narked off now...
Dee-Deed!
10.9mmol/l (196) - Better, but still no cigar.
Dee-Deed!
12.9mmol/l (232) - I'm losing my patience now...
Dee-Deed!
16.5mmol/l (297) - I could cry, I really could.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Getting below 10mmol/l (180)? Quite the accomplishment, at the moment. Admitedly, I did start out having problems getting the hang of changing cannulas, and I've had a few pretty purple and red ones, but the cannulas themselves? Aside from one extremely dodgy one, they've all been pretty good. So I'm thinking that my carb ratios or basals have to be off. At the moment, ratios are the number one suspect. And right now, I'm just grateful to have an appointment with the pump team on Thursday. Trying to get a handle on Masters' work whilst running high all the time? Not easy - I get extremely restless and agitated when high. And I can't concentrate. Not the best combination.
Ah well. Bring it on, I suppose...
Posts
6 months in and i'm still having problems like that. if you get there quickly and have an "easy ride" i will be mighty surprised. You WILL hit that wall where you hate pumping and suffer the huge burnout I have been.
I'm not sure I've commented before, but count me in the contingent of people who like your blog. I think I found you after your guest post on Six Until Me.
Anyway - good luck getting things sorted out. Even when you think you have all the basals and ratios nailed, they will change eventually anyway, but hopefully you will find something pretty stable soon.
I'm not sure what factors you are considering, but if you're not already thinking about hormones, you might include that factor in your efforts to figure this out, too. I know this is typical for a lot of diabetic women, but I didn't notice it myself until I went on the pump (I think my control was just not as consistent before that anyway). For the week before my period, my blood sugar goes up significantly, and correction boluses don't help as much as they should. However, if I am able to recognize what's going on, bumping my basal rates up almost totally solves the problem.
I have no idea if that is helpful information or something you already know - but just in case it's helpful.
Happy new year, and good luck!
Sarah