Instructions Not Included

A couple of months a go, I had a bit of fun with trying to get my new sites to stick. Admittedly, that was mostly due to my own stupidity with some self tanning body lotion. What I've found with a few of my recent sites though, is that they're starting to unpeel at the edges somewhat by the third day of use. With that in mind, travel back a week or so with me...

Lately at work, I've been having a huge blitz on my (very large) pile of (extremely overdue) filing. I don't have any shelves near my desk, but I do have a rather extensive number of files that I'm responsible for. So that means lugging them to and fro from the main office to my desk.

One afternoon in this administrative marathon, I keep looking for something like a staple that might have got caught in my top, because SOMETHING is poking me in the side periodically, and I cannot work out what it is. But nothing is to be seen, so I carry on regardless, as you do.

Along rolls the time for me to switch files. So, resting two on my hip whilst I juggle with the code locked interior door, I realise what's been poking me.

Yes, that would be my cannula, which must have been dislodged whilst I was carrying files. Proving that either a) I have a slightly dodgy box of insets, or b) filing is hazardous to my health, and I should stop immediately. Personally, I'm voting for option B. One of two completely unplanned site changes at work that have happened recently, anyone? I'm going to have to start keeping a sharps box here, I swear.

I don't like February. I really don't. It seems somewhat odd to have negative feelings towards a month, but I do. It's not because I'm some screaming anti-Valentine's Day sort. I generally couldn't give a toss about Valentine's Day, but that's mostly because I find the idea that we shouldn't show our love to others on the remaining 364 days of the year slightly abhorrent. No, that's not my problem. So what is it? What could I possibly have against February?

It's beige. It really is. It's such a blah month, which I generally find nothing happens in. Nothing good, at any rate. When I say beige, I mean beige in the paint term, when you paint a room beige (or magnolia, to shake things up) to keep it plain and inoffensive. But I tell you for nothing, it's dull. 

I can get on board with January. It's the first month of the year, and all that jazz, and I can usually find cheap presents in the sale at Boots (yes, I am that person). I also like March - it has my birthday, and usually the first signs of spring making an appearance. But I find the shortest month of the year generally has very little going for it. 

I tell a lie to some extent - I did compete in my first ballroom competition this month, i went down to London to see a friend I've not seen in a couple of years, and I had a very nice night out having dinner with friends this weekend. But all the same, I will be very happy when this month is over and done with.

Anneka and I have been having something of a tumultuous relationship over the past couple of weeks. I've changed my insulin:carb ratios, and that seems to have made something of a difference, but I'm still running far too high for my liking for most of the time. Changed my site out this morning, and found I had a kink in my cannula as well. Fun times. I'm not complaining, mind you - I still love my girl, and I've had some interesting times figuring out where to hide her as of late, but it's not all peaches and cream. As with everything D related, I'm certain it never will be. As always, it's all a learning curve.

In other, non-beige related news, I was thrilled to receive my copy of my lovely friend Ginger's new book - Your Diabetes Science Experiment. I'm in the midst of reading it at the moment, and I'm planning to have a review of it up for you all soon. So far, I highly suggest getting your hands on a copy if you haven't already!

So a few posts back, I told you that I had named my pump Anneka. I also said that I would explain why. So here goes.

I don't know if you guys in the US had anything like this, but back in the late 80's to mid 90's, we had a TV show called 'Challenge Anneka'. Wikipedia seems to think you had something called Challenge America, but dammit, we had it first! 

The premise of the show, if you're not familiar with it, is that the charming all-action heroine, Anneka Rice, would fix some terrible crisis, whilst wearing a blue jumpsuit. She also had a mobile phone, which was a really big deal in those days. The best part of the whole show though, when you were young, was the little animated hedgehogs in the opening credits. Seriously, I always thought they were adorable!

It always seemed that Anneka Rice could handle anything. So that was part of my reasoning behind calling my lovely Animas pump that. But after a number of Borg and robot related jokes, it's also a partial nod to the human name of Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager, which was Annika Hansen. Yes, I loved Star Trek as a teenager. No, I'm not really ashamed! But she was always calm, collected, and fiercely intelligent.

So my hope rather was that whichever Anneka/Annika she was taking after would be a good omen. At least they both had jumpsuits in common. Shame that so far, it's been a bit more of a challenge than anything Anneka Rice ever took on. 

I always remembered her building orphanages, and youth centres and the like. Seems that though she did this, she also did some far more bizarre things - 

and of course, my personal favourite:

As for me, I'm hoping not to have to challenge my Anneka to do any of these things. However, I have been dealing with an absolutely rotten cold for the past week, which has been making things much more of a challenge. I did mention that I'd been struggling with high scores. After seeing my team on the 6th, we'd made alterations to my basals in an attempt to try and sort things out. Of course the next day, this absolute beast of a cold makes an appearance. 

This is the first time I've been properly ill since my DX, so I wasn't sure what to really expect, bg wise. They've carried on being high despite corrections, putting on temp basals, and such. Thankfully no ketones have appeared. But the problem of course is that I don't want to make any huge changes, because when this cold has gone, it'd be hard to tell whether I'd made too many. So I think I'm just going to have to hang on in there, until it clears up, and make my changes then. 

But in the meantime, I suppose we could terrorise children with monkeys?