MDI day two—with Guardian to Guide me
You often don’t realize how good, or bad, you have it until your situation changes.
I never realized what a fricken hassle the pump was until now. I had just adjusted to it. Last night a 4 a.m. leg cramp woke me from a deep sleep. My mind still 50% in REM, I was able to rip the covers off and spring out of bed to get some weight on the leg as my calf turned to granite.
I did this without yanking out an infusion set.
This morning I was able to get up and shave without something dangling from me. And in the shower I now had only one place to be careful not to scrub too hard, rather than two. I’m liking this un-tethered life.
Also, the new Guardian transmitter has better range, plus a memory that stores your SG data for a half hour or so if you do lose telemetry. Bottom line: you’re not married to it the way you are to a pump.
Second night of Levemir report: hit the sack at 158. Woke up at 87. Little scary, but if the ice is thick it’ll be fine. I cleared a NovoLog pen needle with one unit. Such a small little droplet one unit of insulin is. My breakfast is only 10 carbs. Will this little drop really do the job? Will it let me down and send me high? Will it crack the ice under the Levemir and send me low?
We play with one-tenth units on pumps with nary a thought, but to actually look at a unit of insulin…. Such power in such a small space.
So long as I can get good control, I think I’m going to like this new and simpler life. With Guardian to Guide me, I’m optimistic.
I never realized what a fricken hassle the pump was until now. I had just adjusted to it. Last night a 4 a.m. leg cramp woke me from a deep sleep. My mind still 50% in REM, I was able to rip the covers off and spring out of bed to get some weight on the leg as my calf turned to granite.
I did this without yanking out an infusion set.
This morning I was able to get up and shave without something dangling from me. And in the shower I now had only one place to be careful not to scrub too hard, rather than two. I’m liking this un-tethered life.
Also, the new Guardian transmitter has better range, plus a memory that stores your SG data for a half hour or so if you do lose telemetry. Bottom line: you’re not married to it the way you are to a pump.
Second night of Levemir report: hit the sack at 158. Woke up at 87. Little scary, but if the ice is thick it’ll be fine. I cleared a NovoLog pen needle with one unit. Such a small little droplet one unit of insulin is. My breakfast is only 10 carbs. Will this little drop really do the job? Will it let me down and send me high? Will it crack the ice under the Levemir and send me low?
We play with one-tenth units on pumps with nary a thought, but to actually look at a unit of insulin…. Such power in such a small space.
So long as I can get good control, I think I’m going to like this new and simpler life. With Guardian to Guide me, I’m optimistic.
posted by Wil | 3:29 PM
1 Comments:
As a former pump-wearer myself, everyone told me I was crazy for returning to MDI, but the reality was that my basal rates varied little during the course of a day, so the biggest adjustment was learning to live with 1/2 unit dosages. But having done both, I can honestly say that my pump didn't provide all that much that I cannot obtain from MDI, and my A1C's have shown no deterioration some 3 years after returning to MDI.
Unfortunately, I do think that some pump evangelists promise the world with their chosen therapy, and those views are often skewed and not applicable to everyone. The learning experience from pumping could not be obtained anywhere else, but as far as control is concerned, I do not plan to return to a pump anytime in the foreseeable future.
The big caveat, however, is that basal insulin formulations are not meant for everyone. Not everyone needs 18-24 hours of consistent coverage, and while NPH remains on the market for the time being, I cannot help but wonder when the last 12-hour insulin formulation will be taken off the market in favor of patent-protected 24-hour analogs?
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