This post could also be called "Turning me into the Bionic Woman" because sometimes lately that is what I feel like!
It's been a busy weekend around here at the Akes' household... well kind of. I have been working most of the weekend which means I sleep all day and am gone all night, but that feels busy to me. The exciting part though is that I had a doctors appointment last Thursday and found out that my insurance approved me for a new pump and continuous glucose monitor!!! This is a big deal!
The first time I talked to the MiniMed rep about getting a new pump he told me that in all his years doing this he has never seen my insurance company approve a new pump when the old one was still in warranty. But, thanks to a well written letter from my diabetes educator and my high risk OB explaining my severe lows resulting in multiple 911 calls they approved me for both (probably because in the end it's going to be cheaper for them than continuing to have to pay ambulance bills). After a long day stuck at home on Friday waiting all of the new supplies got delivered to our apartment.
Multiple boxes, books, computer updates and supplies... a little overwhelming!
It took me about 2 hours to set up my new pump. After reading the updates and checking out the new changes I got started on changing all the 8 million settings to be the same as my old pump. I was really surprised at how long it took me because I know how to use the pump and I've been doing this forever, so you can imagine how long it took me to go through all the sensor information!!
My new pump, much darker than my old one.
Charlie likes it though because I didn't pick the pink, purple or neon blue option!
I started reading through the instructional booklets on Friday (240 pages long, I skipped a few sections), then on Saturday I found the Sensor Startup Folder and the two page long to-do list which included an online training class (to be completed prior to attending the training with my diabetes educator). So I spent the next two days reading through that class online and taking the tests. My initial plan was just to read the instructions and put the new sensor in, but after reading huge warning signs on every other page saying:
Do not attempt to enter your insulin pump or glucose sensor settings without the direction of your health care provider.
Warning: DO NOT start using the system until medical personnel trained on the system teach you how to use it. Your health care provider will provide you with settings to program into the system.
Over and Over and Over again it warned you not to put the sensor in without your provider present! So... much to my dismay I decided to wait until my appointment on Friday to start using the sensor.
Well, that was the original plan. Then I went to work last night and it was kind of overwhelming, I had so many patients and so much to do, I was running around like crazy! I had checked my blood sugar and it was okay but by 9:30 at night things started to get even more overwhelming for me. I kept dropping things when I was in a patients room so I knew I needed to leave, I went out to the nurses station and I don't remember much of what happened after that. One of the midwives I don't know well came up to me, as I sat staring blankly at the clock on the wall, and apparently started talking to me but I was unresponsive so she got one of the other nurses. Within minutes half the nurses on the floor were surrounding me trying to get me to eat or drink something, test my blood, and wipe the sweat out of my eyes. This, while you think would be helpful just overwhelmed me more and I shut down (not like I was really with it in the first place). But they got me to eat and drink finally and one of the nurses had called Charlie to come get me.
By the time I had gotten myself together and changed out of my wet clothes a few doctors had showed up each with their own opinion about what I should be doing (most of which was ignored... sorry). But the general consensus between all the nurses (And the midwife, And the doctor) was that I needed to have my sensor in place before I came back to work. So... that is what I have spent most of today doing!
For those of you who don't know what the Sensor is (also called a Continuous Glucose Monitor) it is another small device with a sensor that I inject underneath my skin and wear on me at all times. It communicates wirelessly with my insulin pump and checks my blood sugar level every 5 minutes. I can set parameters for it on my pump and it will alarm if my blood sugar goes above or below a certain level. In addition to that, it also has more emergent alarms that sound if my blood sugar is dropping too quickly (even if I am still within the 'good' range) notifying me in advance of possible severe lows. The idea is that this will give my doctors a much better idea of what is going on inside my body before and after meals, severe lows, highs, and while I'm sleeping. This will also give me the ability to know when I am going low and to be able to do something about it before I get to the point where I am so disoriented I am unable to take care of myself.
So... here it is:
The sensor injected under my skin, and the transmitter (white part) attached to it.
It takes two hours to get set up initially before it will have any readings to display on my pump, so I am still waiting to calibrate it for the first time (hopefully in about 15 minutes) then it will start working. I will get a continuous reading and graphs on my new insulin pump (this is why I needed the new pump) showing what my blood sugar is and what direction it is trending in! It's exciting and will hopefully be very helpful for me and it will allow Charlie to breathe a huge sigh of relief while I am home sleeping and he is at work all day!
We'll see how it goes and I hope to have an update later in the week to show some new graphs and charts and such (the really exciting part for me!)
-Cait
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