March 21, 2009
Karen R.

This isn't quite the blog I had planned to write this month, but because March has been throwing me some punches, I thought I'd take an opportunity to write about what to do when the unexpected happens, such as your pump failing early on a Saturday morning.

For the second time in a year I've received the A33 alarm on a Medtronic pump (different pumps), and if you don't know what that is, it is an indicator that something is wrong with the pump motor. It happens during priming and signifies that the pump is failing to recognize or feel the reservoir.

The most important lesson learned the first time was to make sure your pump settings are stored somewhere, be it on Carelink or written down. As I found out the first time, if you are not able to clear the error message, you cannot, now matter how hard you try, get your settings off the pump. This time I was able to clear the error and download my settings again, but as instructed by Minimed there is a problem with the motor and Minimed does not recommended continuing to use the pump.

Almost right on par with the first lesson is to make sure you have a "plan B" in place. The first time I didn't and like this time, the error happened on the weekend. The weekend matters, because normally you would receive a pump the next day, but now the next day is Monday. My improvised "plan B" for the first occurrence turned out to be using my previous 508 pump. It was temporary and worked ok, but I found out that once you use the bolus wizard feature, you hate to lose it.

So leaving the security of a pump behind, and because I now have a scrip for a long-acting insulin, my "plan B" this time is going to be Lantus. I have never used Lantus or Levemir, so this weekend will be a learning session. Not planning on doing any exercising until I can get my blood sugars down, but should be okay to start again tomorrow. Right now I'm appreciating the information from camp and that we had the medical call we did last Sunday. After that call, I thought I would at some point probably try a long acting insulin, just wasn't expecting to do it this weekend. If everything goes as it should, I'll be swimming with a long acting insulin on board Monday and get to see what, if any, difference it makes. I love being my own lab rat!!! Oh, and as positive as I may sound about this, I'm really not. I had horrible results with exercise and Lente and to think about going back to an injected long acting insulin feels as though I'm taking a step back, even though I know the insulins are different.

As I'm still using the Dexcom, I haven't lost the ability to continuously monitor glucose levels, and it's obvious I need to get my replacement basal on board. This probably won't sound odd to many of us, but right now I'm enjoying the freedom of being without the pump, although I know I'm going to be checking my waistband the next few days, trying to remember what I did with it!

So what had my topic been for the month? Not exactly sure, but something along the line of March being my anniversary month of diagnosis and as I enter my 25th year with this disease, I've learned, if nothing else, acceptance, responsibility, and that diabetes is a disease not an excuse. Over the last 24 years, I know I let having diabetes stop me from doing a lot of things (partly for the safety of others) but always wondered where did that adventurous woman who once (literally) skydived (even though it wasn't recommended) go?? The past two years have brought some amazing changes in my life and each day, life gets better and better. So thank you Mari, thank you team, thank you coaches, and thank you Matt and Marcey, because without all of you, I wouldn't be planning to do the 70.3 triathlon or be pushing myself and the limits as I am right now.