Fallen Off Insulin Pump

I woke up early this morning and kind of felt like crap. I went to grab my insulin pump, and realized it was no longer attached to me. Sometime during the night it fell off, most probably after getting wrapped up in blankets.

I got the pump reattached and then did glucose. Sure enough, I was super high. I didn't have to be up for another couple of hours, but it's a good thing I caught it when I did; at the rate my glucose was rising, I probably would've been about 30 mmol/L if I waited to get up.

With my glucose being so high, I decided to do an injection. I've long thought that injections work better when I am super high; my rationale is that the pump takes quite awhile in real time to get that insulin into you whereas the injection is immediate. I would use the bolus wizard of my pump to figure out how much insulin needs to be done and then just cancel the bolus in order to do the injection.

My nurse and I have gotten into a few debates about this. She doesn't want me doing injections because then the pump has no record of the insulin going into your system (although she also doesn't buy that an injection brings my glucose level down faster than the pump does). But we came up with a great method so everyone is happy: do the injection, but also have the pump do the required amount of insulin into a sink. That way the pump has a record of it (and can also stop you from doubling up on insulin during the next few hours), and it also gives you the exact amount of insulin you need to do in an injection.

I don't know if my method actually works better or not, but at least in this way I have the peace of mind that an injection gives me when my glucose is high, while at the same time having everything recorded in the pump.

Tubing: 23" or 43"?

Ever since I started insulin pumping, I've been using Paradigm Silhouette Infusion Sets. I originally used the 23" tubing, but that a friend of mine recommended the 43" tubing. I've been using the 43" tubing ever since then.

Now that I have funding through the ADP program, I have to change everything out every three days. Previously, I wouldn't change the tubing; being the longer tubing, it always seemed like a waste of insulin to be changing it every time you change the site (or reservoir or whatever). In an effort to reduce this seeming waste of insulin, I decided to give the 23" tubing another shot. So the last time that I bought supplies (ie last week), I bought one box of 23" and another of 43".

Yesterday was the first day I tried a 23" tube. It was really weird priming the thing - the 43" tubing can take anywhere from about 8 units to around 15 (I haven't figured out why that is); the 23" took under 4!

So after a day, I have to say I'm really not liking the shorter tubing. On the one hand, the tubing doesn't get caught on anything, which is nice. But it's just too short to do anything with! When I get dressed in the morning, with the 43" tubing I can put the pump down on my bed or on a nearby table/dresser. With the 23" tubing you can't put it down anywhere! I tried putting it on my bed to get dressed and even when I was standing right next to the bed the pump was still hanging from my site! (As a side note, I am about 5'10", so maybe part of my problem is the site's placement on my torso vs the height of the bed?)

Usually I keep my pump in the right back pocket of my jeans. This isn't a problem with the 23" tubing, but grabbing the pump out of this pocket to give myself insulin feels really restricting. Right now, I can't hold my arm out in front of me with my pump in my hand, while with the 43" tubing I can. This is probably something I could get used to, but it's just really odd.

Luckily I bought the box of 43" tubing, so I'm going to alternate between the two until the 23" tubing is gone. After this, I think I'll be sticking to my 43" tubing!

But what does everyone else think? I was talking to my nurse today and she told me that most people prefer the 23" tubing. If you're on a pump, what do you use and why do you like it?

Update for the Last Month (Including the Conclusion to the Month of Sensors)

I've been extremely busy lately and keep forgetting to update this blog. Besides school, my brother got married in September, so everything's been really crazy!

First: the Month of Sensors. I ended up running 6 of the 8 sensors (I ran out of time and didn't want one running during my brother's wedding). Four of the sensors ran great, giving me a lot of good information. The other two failed, giving me nothing and then a few hours respectively. I've since discussed things with my nurse, so we were able to make a few changes based off of this information.

Other than that, like I said I've been rather busy. School's been stressing me out a bit lately. But another stressor has been my health. I haven't been able to be very active. While part of the problem has been my busy life, the other problem has been my going low whenever I exercise. Today for example, I went for a short walk with my mom. I did glucose when we stopped and decided to eat a few Skittles and sit for a few minutes before continuing. I did glucose again when we were ready to continue and I had gone lower! She ended up having to walk home alone to get the car because we didn't trust my glucose level to get me safely home walking.

This type of thing has been happening more and more frequently. And I don't know what to do, which is making it more and more frustrating!