Broken Record.

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Disclaimer: Before we really dive into things, you should know that this is a lengthy post, and it may not be all rainbows and sunshine.  Read at your own risk.  I personally hope that you are feeling a bit adventurous as a reader today, though. 🙂 

When my mother was in second grade, she was running through the auditorium and accidentally dropped her Bambi record on the ground.  It shattered into tiny pieces, and the janitor swept them up and gave them to her in a plastic bag.  She walked home sobbing and was heartbroken when gluing the pieces back together did not make the record work again.

If I told that story to a child today, she would laugh in my face and say that my Mom should have used an IPod instead.  Fair enough…

Well, I have become a broken record myself.  I know it and everyone else knows it.  I don’t even want the attention.  I just want the simple act of screaming my lungs out when I’m angry, and it usually comes disguised as some sort of social media rant about stupid drivers on the way to work or something else that is irrelevant.  I have lost friends over it, and I say this to my doctor all the time: Although diabetes is to blame for many bad moods, at the end of the day, I still have to answer to God and to the people in my life.  Diabetes isn’t a good excuse, then.  I can still be a respectful human being despite diabetes-induced mood swings and frustrations, and I need to work on this. I’m trying, which has to count for something.

But it is also very difficult to describe to people what stubbornly high blood sugars feel like and what a physical and emotional ass-kicking it is when nothing you do works to solve the problem. This is my reality on many days, and I imagine some of you reading this understand exactly what I mean. I hate to say that this type of suffering has changed me, but in some ways, it has. I am always on edge about how I will prevent and treat these highs, and I don’t remember the last time I just let my guard down and enjoyed the moment- probably because I was nursing a high blood sugar back to health in the background of that moment, with everyone around me remaining oblivious.

Many people have “yessed” me to death in regards to my insulin pump struggles, including family members. “Are you really just going to say ‘I know’?!” I scream on the phone with Mom. I get upset with this response, but I also understand it from a psychological perspective. There is really not much that others can do to help. They are not the ones up all night changing pump sites any more. They do not have to go to work exhausted and seeing spots because of high blood glucose. As much as they try to “get it,” they can’t completely comprehend what it feels like.

Some others have told me to toughen up or that it’s in my head, including fellow diabetics. I have a much more difficult time swallowing humble pie at that point. That advice adds nothing to the equation; it is the same as telling a depressed person to simply be happy. If life were this easy, there would be no depressed people, and there would be no sick diabetics. This is a “cop out” sort of commentary. It is much more beneficial to the friends, patients, coworkers- whoever is struggling- if we assure them that we believe them and that we are hopeful that they will find solutions. Dumbing down the problem by dismissing it as “it’s in your head” only angers that person. And guess what? It’s probably not in his or her head, especially if the person involved is a type 1 diabetic. We know our bodies better than most people do, and we know when something is awry. If you are a type 1 diabetic who has been lucky enough to avoid insulin pump problems, well, please cut us some slack that we have not been as fortunate.

Anyway, this is the blog post that I’ve owed you all.  I am BEYOND frustrated.  Forgive the length of this post, but I have to get all of the information out there. Bear with me while I go over the details, and then I really, truly need your expert advice, especially before I meet with a pump representative and my nurse for a troubleshooting appointment in two weeks.  I pinky promise that if I can ever help you in return, I will do whatever I can to pay it back, or to pay it forward. If you’re participating in the DOC, then I already know that you’re an expert, so please, please chime in here if you can help.

I am 26 now, and I went on a Medtronic MiniMed insulin pump about ten years ago while in high school.  It immediately changed my life for the better.  No more shooting up insulin doses in the bathroom stalls, no more limiting my food intake, and so much more freedom.  As my nurse would say, I had “virgin skin” that had never been pierced by insulin pump sites, and my absorption was great.  Once in a blue moon I would experience a technical issue, but this happened twice a year or so.  (I understand that an insulin pump is technology and it is not perfect.  Although if I could go back in time, I would erase the failed pump site on the one day of my life where I decided to try an iced mocha sugary drink thingy from Dunkin’ Donuts…).

Anyway, while in college, after my body experienced some wear and tear from the pump, I started to have site issues more frequently. On my twentieth birthday, I indulged in a pizza dinner with friends and had some ice cream for dessert, only to discover a bent cannula afterwards and a blood glucose reading of over 500 mg/dL. It’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to. I also experienced some severe lows in which the whole world felt like it was falling down around me.  I was spooked- by the highs and the lows.  I had to figure out a way to stay between the lines- not too high and not too low- easier said than done with type 1 diabetes, as we all know.

According to my doctor, I literally experienced trauma from the “extremes,” the severe highs and the severe lows. This mental trauma has changed my reactions to things, has made me live a hypervigilant life in order to survive.  My brain was in fight or flight mode when these adverse situations happened in college.  I flew away from carbs.  If I ever have a kinked cannula again, at least I won’t make the mistake of eating pizza on top of it (as if anyone knows when they have a kinked cannula). If I eat salad and protein instead, maybe my sugar will be 300 instead of 500 if that happens.  And so I lived, for many years.  Until my body started to scream that it needed fuel, and it burned fat in place of carbs, and I saw ketones quite often.

I still struggle with working an adequate amount of carbs into my daily diet and with taking a more liberal amount of insulin, but I am trying. I have a phenomenal doctor who doesn’t make me feel stupid about my fears.  In fact, she makes me feel brave for showing up at her office to fight those fears.  There are some days where we are literally high-fiving and prancing around the room because I ate a half of a sandwich when my sugar was already 250 and I took quadruple the amount of insulin that I would normally take, which is usually still not enough.  But it is one giant leap for Ally of Very Light, No Sugar, so we celebrate those moments heartily.

What is making this process even more complicated is the fact that the majority of the time, I experience some sort of problem with my insulin pump and we cannot trust in the delivery mechanism for insulin. So, not only am I petrified of highs and lows, but I am constantly questioning whether the pump works or not.

I want to go on the record and say that I really like Medtronic MiniMed as a company. In my ten years of experience with them, the customer service has been top-notch.  If I need a supply, it is at my door within a day or less of placing a phone call.  Their phone representatives yield calls at all crazy hours of the night.  Their PR team does a great job of answering questions.  Angie, in management, has spent hours on the phone helping me investigate my pump issues.  I will not forget how she moved me to tears with a simple question a few weeks ago: “If you’re putting the pump site in your back, and you’re already on the thin side… well, doesn’t that hurt you…?”  Um, yes.  That part of it gets lost in the shuffle when you just want to absorb the medicine going into you, but the human connection was there.  She was clearly upset that I was in pain.  As was the Medtronic representative at my diabetes clinic who helped me with various sites last year and was a wealth of knowledge regarding all aspects of insulin pumping.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Medtronic doesn’t like bad pump days just like I don’t like them.  We are all in this for the greater good of living well with diabetes.  Alas, we have to fix these issues, for the sake of my health and for the sake of current and future insulin pumpers who may experience similar issues.

Anyway, I started off with the Quick Set infusion sets years ago, but had to switch off of them due to kinking cannulas. The Silhouettes, which have a larger cannula, worked slightly better, but my sites were so irritated that a nurse, upon seeing a picture of one site in my phone, in no uncertain terms told me that I was never to use them again.  I was allergic to some of the material, making absorption of insulin questionable due to the agitated areas.

The Sure T site, which uses a stainless steel needle that inserts into the skin and looks like a thumb tack, has been useful in that it has cut out the kinked cannula problem. Because the needle stays under your skin and you need to be able to disconnect the pump for various activities like showering, there are two attachments to the Sure T.  See photo above; disregard “love handles,” please.  One long tube connects to the reservoir in the pump.  There is a small needle at the end of this tube.  This small needle clips into a connector site, which is attached to a smaller tube running down to the needle under the skin.  To remove the pump, you detach at the main connector site.  I have had a few bizarre occurrences where the sites were snapped together but insulin was pooling at the connection instead of going through the smaller tube and into my body through the needle, causing me to spike high ketones.  Medtronic promptly replaced all of those lot numbers for me and is investigating the issue.

I am also relatively thin, so it is hard to find areas with enough fat for the sites. I never used to experience much pain with site changes, but now I feel significant shooting pains, sometimes lasting for days and making me nauseous.  My health care team has retired my stomach for sites to give it time to heal.  I sometimes use my sides and have experimented with the lower back but have not had great results so far.  Upper butt works okay but tends to be quite painful.

I feel like I have seen the whole spectrum: from pain-free, easy site changes years ago to painful, troublesome sites in recent times. I know that I am not crazy, that I am experiencing problems that are really disrupting my quality of life.  With each bad site change, I am often on the couch chasing ketones away all day and taking manual injections on top of changing out problematic pump sites.  It is no way to spend one’s mid-twenties on a weekly basis, and I want this to change so desperately that I am willing to try pretty much anything.

I would like to continue pumping because of the fine-tuning that the pump allows. I can take my mini-bolus at the beginning of dinner and bolus more ten minutes later if I go back for seconds.  I can tweak my overnight basal rates, etc.  While I do not remember seeing ketones often with multiple daily injections (MDIs), I do not like the thought that once that insulin is in you, it’s there for the day.  And if you need to bolus, it is a bigger deal to get the dose right on the first try so that you do not have to take more shots later on.  Socially, it is simpler for me to press a few buttons on a pump while in grad class late at night than it is to go to the bathroom to take a shot.

My final issue is not with the pump itself, but with the insulin. I have used a pump for years; there are usually a few pesky bubbles which can be flicked away and forgotten about.  But lately, it’s like the insulin is feisty before it even gets inside the reservoir.  See photo above.  Millions of tiny bubbles shoot around my Humalog bottle.  I have tried new orders of Humalog, attempted using different bottles, etc.  Nothing changes the presence of these bubbles.  When I fill the reservoir, I flick out the big bubbles, but usually a few tiny culprits hang out by the top of the reservoir and refuse to move.  Over time, they expand, blocking proper insulin delivery or causing some air, instead of insulin, to be delivered.  My sugars will run high for hours until I figure out the issue.  I recently gave Novolog a try, but the first two attempts yielded big bubbles as well and my sugars were high for days.  It is as if the bubbles compromise the efficacy of the insulin, and it is so not cool.

As noted earlier, I am meeting with my nurse and a Medtronic representative in a few weeks to go over all of this and to walk through the process with them to see if we can identify the issues. In the meantime, I ask for your prayers and your advice.  Some of you have reached out to me about the bubbles and you have made me feel so much better in knowing that I am not a lunatic, although I truly wish that none of us had to suffer through these circumstances.  A lot of times people are quick to blame the user.  Maybe there is user error?  If so, I’m willing to admit it and move on.  I just want to feel healthy again and to regain the quality of life that the pump originally afforded to me.

I apologize for the broken record-ness, but I am fighting for my health here.  It is disheartening when you are making big strides in your diabetes management to tackle your fears, yet something as simple as a few air bubbles is wreaking havoc on your control.  I am incredibly concerned about the toll that this is taking on me physically and mentally, and about the burden it is placing on my family and friends who want to help but don’t know how.  Perhaps you hold the answer, DOC.  In fact, I’m sure you do.  What works for you?

26 thoughts on “Broken Record.

  1. I don’t know how much help I can be, but I send lots of hugs your way.

    Like you I have never found a 90-degree set that I don’t have pain or failure issues with. Fortunately I don’t have problems with Silhouettes (now Comfort Shorts since I’m on the Ping). With the Ping there are also Inset 30’s which are another option for angled sets, but as far as I know, the Sils are the only angled set option for Medtronic.

    The only thing I can suggest is to consider using the untethered regimen which entails using injected Lantus/Levemir for about 75-80% of your basal. You can then use the pump for boluses and the rest of your basal. I use this approach on beach vacations so that I can go for hours at a time without wearing my pump. There are some athletes that use this approach all of the time. Although it wouldn’t solve your pump issues, it would give you a lot more blood sugar cushion when you do have pump issues. I wrote a blogpost about it a while back. http://testguessandgo.com/2013/07/01/untethered-at-the-beach/. Besides telling of my experiences with the regimen, it also gives a link to the “definite” discussion of the untethered regimen by Steve Edelman: http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/clinic/untethered.htm

    I do have a Minnesota friend who is doing well with pens after years of too much scar tissue and pump problems. But I would hate to give up pumping and certainly understand that you don’t want to abandon it either.

    Good luck, Ally, and hopefully your medical team and Medtronic will figure something out:-)

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    1. Thanks so much, Laddie. I just read your post as well as Dr. Edelman’s. Good stuff! The untethered approach is looking more appealing; I may discuss with my doctor soon. I never even considered doing that for the beach, but I think it will greatly improve my summer weekend getaways to Cape Cod! Thanks again! You’re awesome! 🙂

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    2. Hello! Laddie is my friend and gave me a shout out about your issue. I am so sorry and can totally relate. I pumped for 17 years, the last few of which became more and more miserable. Finally I was just wearing the pump for basal and taking all of my meal and correction insulin by shot. And then eventually to just shots. I did not have bent cannulas much, just tiny blood vessels that caused continuous high blood sugars. I have also been fairly happy on MDI. It was a tougher transition, but it is doable! I would also recommend taking a pump break for you based on the distress you are under being on the pump. It’s not as bad on this side of the world as Caroline was sharing. Good luck!

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      1. Hi Cynthia,

        Thanks for your advice. I have thrown around the idea of taking my boluses through injections rather than the pump while keeping the basal going through the pump, especially for big meals. If I had to guess, that will be the pathway back to transitioning to MDI for me if I go that route. I am not a big fan of change, admittedly, and I don’t really remember life without the pump. Although I do remember that ketones rarely appeared, and in my current state of affairs they seem to have moved into the neighborhood. 😉 I plan on discussing the options with my doctors over the next few weeks and will be sure to blog about it. I hate to see that others went through this, too, but I am relieved to know that I am not alone here. Thanks again!

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  2. in the grand scheme of time, I have been type one for almost 40 years. I have only been pumping for almost 4. I use the animas ping and I do truly love the freedom of pumping. I am not a thin person by any stretch but I too had problems with certain infusion sets. I like steel cannulas because I thought I was allergic to the Teflon. I have tried many different types because I was having problems with the adhesive. big blistering messes. bad absorption,terrible highs. I recently switched out to using the Cleo infusion sets. they have a Teflon cannula. I have had no kinks and no rashes. however, at the same time I moved my sights to my arms. never having done this I was a little leary. let me tell you it has been awesome! the Cleo’s are a one-handed insertion. easy peasy and no allergic reactions or rashes! my numbers are great! absorption is spot on and I am very pleased. you didn’t mention if you’d tried your arm. if not, I recommend it! hope this helps! best of luck to you from someone who gets it!

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    1. Thank you, Kim. I will look into the Cleo; sounds like you have found a good solution. I have not tried the arm yet, but I am willing to give anything a shot (pun intended). A site like the arm makes more sense to me than the lower back which doesn’t have much fat. I have not tried the thigh either but may try it once to see how it goes. I will admit I am a bit hesitant to experiment, as I do not normally like change. But if it improves quality of life, so be it! Do you find that the site feels like it’s “getting in the way” on the arm, or do you forget it’s there? I see a lot of people in the Dexcom Facebook group that I’m in really like the arm for the CGM sites. Thanks for the advice, and good luck to you. T1D for 40 years? That’s pretty badass in my book.

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  3. ditto, ditto to all that you stated, that is exactly how I feel. One thing that I am working on is to change my site more often , but I truly have all the feelings and experiences that you have talked about in this post. I am fearful as well, too many variables to obtain a good outcome even though you are following all the rules. I look forward to what the nurse and Medtronic has to say. I think there might be a limit to pump usage.

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    1. Thanks, Karen. It is nice to know that I’m not alone, although I hope our pump problems resolve somehow and this will one day be a distant memory! I will definitely continue to blog as I troubleshoot at my diabetes clinic over the next few weeks.

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  4. Hi Ally,

    I believe you. And I am so sorry that you have been going through all this crap lately. I found your blog when other DOC people shared it on FB, and I wanted to say that I have been there. Years of pumping just fine when, BAM, all of a sudden your technology starts falling to bits and you are trying everything and your life starts bending around dealing with these unexpected BGs. It sucks.

    For me, the solution was to quit pumping altogether and go back to shots. I was very responsible while pumping– rotating sites, changing every 3 days, using different infusion set types when others stopped working– and starting at year 5 until year 7.5 (when I stopped) I had issues with scar tissue, tunneling, bent cannulas, and other such absorption problems. I have now been back on MDI for over 3 years and I am very happy with my decision and D-life. It is just so much simpler in a lot of respects. Reading your reasons to stay on the pump, I want to ask– right now, is it harder to take an extra shot if you don’t get the bolus right, or to bolus with the pump and deal with soaring BGs for hours after because the cannula is bent?

    Because to me, it sounds like you are so angry and frustrated and anxious with your pump right now. And it might be worth making a few sacrifices to achieve peace of mind and solid blood sugars. While there are still a few things I miss about the pump, the benefits of MDI are greater. Rotation is so easy when I have a TON more real estate available. I can do shots in areas not viable for pump sites (and I am also kinda skinny/muscular, so that is huge). If I change out the pen needle tips frequently, I minimize the pain. There’s almost zero worry about an injection taking/insulin absorbing, nevermind the anxiety about rogue doorknobs, vigorous showering, and anything else that rips a pump site off. And people very rarely stare or comment when I whip out my pens. Plus, I have much more room in my suitcase when I travel without backup pump supplies, haha!

    If you want to know more about my feelings when I was in your shoes, here is a blog post I wrote at the time– http://www.act1diabetes.org/2011/05/26/site-change-sea-change/
    And the follow-up– http://www.act1diabetes.org/2011/06/03/life-newly-untethered/

    Good luck, whatever you decide to do from here. Let us know and I will be saying a prayer that it works out!
    Caroline

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    1. Thank you for your kind words, Caroline. I read your blogs and was near tears (in a good way). It is astounding to me to see that others went through such similar experiences. What really struck me is how desperate and frustrated you sound in the first pump post (same boat here right now), and how evident the sense of relief is with your MDI post. I am mostly nervous about the transition to MDI. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it seems overwhelming to me to go back to shots just like that. I think my health care team, family, boss, etc. all wish that I could take a month off from the real world and get accustomed to shots again, but the reality is that that probably won’t happen. I may wait until December when I have a month off from grad school to give it a go. The pump has exacerbated a lot of my diabetes-related anxieties. I’m afraid of anything but the status quo- the lows, the highs, the carbs, etc., which are all inherent to this disease, as we know. Some of those anxieties will probably be eased by shots, but some are so deeply ingrained at this point that I fear that I will freak out about not being able to do my “baby” doses that I pile up on the pump. 0.5 here, 0.5 there, etc. In the long run, it would probably be a good thing. To be determined, I suppose. Thank you again for sharing your experience. I look forward to reading your blog.

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      1. You know, it’s something nobody talks about because most endos don’t see it…..or not many people have been pumping for a loooong time……but the more I talk to people, the more I am convinced that declining pump utility is an actual issue. Like, some people, for whatever reason, are physiologically suited to pump for a million years, and some aren’t. The boat you are in remains to be seen, but it’s encouraging to see some proactive discussion in this thread (and lots of others in the same boat…wow this post brought us out of the woodwork!)

        I think it’s a great idea to wait until classes are on break and you have a bit of a breather. IIRC I kept a lot of things the same in that first week or two back on shots, just to remove any variables or stress during the transition. What I do remember is the strong feeling that the worst part was the lead-up, and deciding whether or not I should switch. Once I did it it was like, ‘Wow, this is so much smoother than I expected.’ Like, it felt like routine within just a few days, and the highs and lows really straightened out within a week or two. I don’t know how it would be for you, since as you said you have some anxieties are deeply ingrained, but for me it was definitely easier than I expected once I just….up and did it!

        You may also want to ask your endo if any pens are available with half units, that could help in the baby bolus dept. Or you could test out a vial and syringe for a bit– that allows flexibility in drawing up petite amounts of insulin. Doesn’t solve the needle issue, but it’s something!

        And I read some of your archives and saw that you work in the medical field/are studying healthcare– me too! Well, not in grad school now but that is the goal someday!!

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  5. Caroline made so many good points; I agree completely. Now I know I’m not the only one who had to stop using the pump after 16 years, mostly trouble free. I think those of us who are thin can be prone to develop these site problems over time; I also had those terrible shooting pains that you describe, with the nausea, too. Even now I gripe about not having more fat to shoot insulin into! Perhaps you may want to try Laddie’s suggestion first. If that doesn’t work out, then you could try a pump vacation, getting the feel for MDI again. I’m so sorry that you’re having so much trouble and hope this resolves for you soon. Hugs!

    PS – What love handles, I don’t see any! 🙂

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    1. Thanks, Jere. Caroline’s comment reminded me of you when I read it! I drafted this post earlier in the week during a sick day/bad pump day, and sat on it for awhile. I thought it was too lengthy to post, but I am glad that I finally just posted it and hoped for the best. The support today has been so overwhelming and has re-energized me to solve this problem some way, some how, even if that means taking a pump vacation. Overall, this was one of the better weekends that I’ve had diabetes-wise in a long time. The Novolog worked last night and today, so I have to be hopeful that maybe that will help in the long run. I really do think that Humalog had a big part to play in all of my troubles, but we shall see… Hope you had a good weekend and that things smoothed out for you diabetes-wise as well. How are you feeling? Thanks again, Jere! You’re the best!

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  6. I’ve been on a MDT pump for 19 years. I use Novolog. And Silhouettes. I often have blistering sites if I leave the sets in more than 24 hours. I often bolus with a syringe – to make sure I get insulin in a timely manner. I can bolus smaller amounts (3 units or less) but wait (and test) to see that my bg is dropping before I eat. The insulin is so SLOW. The basal (small increments of insulin .2-.3u/hr.) covers me but I still watch it constantly. For me, there is no easy answer. I had issues with sites starting 10 years ago. Wish more endos knew about this. I was the first for mine. Thank you for sharing your story : )

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    1. Thanks for sharing, Carol. 19 years on a pump- wow! I found that I was somewhat allergic to the Silhouette material for some reason, although if I remember correctly it wasn’t all that different from the Quick Set material and Quick Set was fine for me in terms of skin irritation. Some people in the Dexcom Facebook group that I’m in swear by spraying Flonase on the sites prior to insertion to prevent rashes. My endo hadn’t really dealt with all of the issues I’m having, either, although she did assure me she believed me after I sent an email saying I felt like no one did! Lol! Good luck to you in your journey and thank you for your advice!

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  7. @Caroline- For some reason it won’t let me directly reply to your last comment- hoping you see this reply. Thanks for your thoughts. I have snooped around and I love your blog, by the way! I agree that there may be some sort of a burn out state- mentally and physically- with the pump. Knock on wood, my past two site changes with Novolog have gone well; I really just needed some sort of immediate relief this week. It is amazing how much better one feels when insulin is being absorbed and administered as it should be! 

    The feedback I received on that post was certainly encouraging, and to think that I almost didn’t post it because it seemed far too long for anyone to want to read… I had started to carry some level of shame that the pump was not working out for me, irrational as I knew it was to solely blame myself; you are right that it is not talked about enough. It is nice to know that we are not alone, not crazy, and not going to be overcome by these problems. I feel re-energized to try this one last ditch attempt at salvaging my pump experience with the pump rep and a nurse next week, but also re-energized knowing that if that attempt does not work out, there are other options such as MDI and I will be alright. Others, like yourself, have paved the way and made the transition work, and that means that I can do it, too, and I will be okay. I can’t thank you all enough for your messages; they mean a lot during a rather difficult time in my diabetic journey. I will definitely look into the insulin pen idea with my doctor, too.

    What do you do for work in the healthcare field? Judging from your help with my issues here, I think you would be great in a healthcare program at the graduate level. It was an idea I bounced around in my head for a long time, and I finally decided to go back to school at night for my master’s last year. It is a lot of effort with work fulltime on top of school, but being in the classroom with those who are passionate about healthcare is one of the best things I could have done for myself. If time/life/finances permit, go for it if you can! Thanks again, Caroline!

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  8. Looks like you’ve tried just about everything, and I can only hope you find something that works. I’ve been pumping for about 8 1/2 years; started with the Silhouettes (I gave up on QuickSets during initial training), they worked but they use lots of area and therefore leave lots of scarring. Then onto the Sure-T, which works great in my back but not in parts of the body that tend to bend and stretch, and now I’m mostly using Mios, still with a few Sils or Sure-Ts thrown in to mix things up a little.

    My problem is when I find a good new site, I use it over and over until I wear it out. It’s a vicious cycle, and the CGM makes it even harder.

    I hope you come away from your meeting with some new ideas that work for you.

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  9. Thanks for your input, Scott. I agree- it’s easy to get comfortable in one spot after awhile, and the CGM definitely takes up “real estate” space. I am experimenting with Novolog in place of Humalog in the pump, and I have to say that this week it has been a really big relief. My numbers are better, and I trust that the insulin will work more. Perhaps my body is rebelling against Humalog for some odd reason, perhaps it is the bubbles, perhaps it is the scar tissue- I suspect a mix of everything. But even if Novolog is only a placebo effect, it has been helpful this week. I am praying that it continues to work better, and I will of course keep you all posted here following my appointment next week. Hoping to try a back site with the nurse and pump rep when we meet. The first attempt didn’t go over so well, but I think if I can get it to work with them that it will be a good spot to use. Glad to hear it works well for you! Thanks again for your comments! Enjoy your weekend! 🙂

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    1. Thank you very much! Things are, thankfully, going a bit smoother since I switched to Novolog recently. When the pump works as intended, life is so much better! 🙂 Will update in a future blog post soon. Thanks for your support!

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