Tuesday, September 26, 2006

A very long rant.

I had such a bad week last week. If something could go wrong diabetes wise, it did.
Last Friday, I had a bad site. I ended up skipping a class because I felt so horrible. My highs don't usually affect me as badly as they did that day. I couldn't eat most of the day because of horrible ketones, so it was almost 2pm before I ate anything. That started me down a vicious cycle. I couldn't eat because I didn't feel good, so I started getting starvation ketones, which made me feel worse, which makes me not want to eat...... I finally forced down some applesauce just to get some carbs and more insulin into my system.
I had the weekend to recover.
Monday morning. I wake up having to go to the bathroom SOO bad. While I'm in the bathroom, my pump starts to SIREN. I don't know if anyone has ever heard the Cozmo siren, but its loud. Sadly, my roommate wasn't up before then, but she certainly was after! The screen said that the battery was dead. There was no low battery alarm, and I had changed it last week. Of course, I was out of new batteries. I took the old battery out so the thing would SHUT UP, threw some clothes on, and went to the bookstore to get more batteries. After I put them into the pump, it seemed to work OK, but this was the second time this had happened to that pump. I was not letting it go. I called Deltec and got the nicest woman. She agreed I needed a whole new pump. When she asked what color I had, I told her gray but then asked if I could have another color. I had to quickly make up my mine. I said blue on an impulse. After checking to make sure they had new blue pumps (she didn't want me to have a refurbished one) she said I could have it!! That made me really happy!!! No more boring gray! After I got my old pump working, I checked myself. I'm high, of course. I debated whether to go on shots or not. I decided I didn't really need to. I gave the bolus. Halfway through I got my favorite (sarcasm) alarm. Blockage Detected!! Oh joy! On top of everything else, I got to do a site change too!
Tuesday: New pump arrives. Not a major deal, I just had to take the time to program it. But that too takes time, time that I did not really have.
Wednesday: While sleeping, I started having the strangest dream. In it, I was rushing trying to get ready, and my pump just wouldn't stop beeping or vibrating, no matter what I did! Finally, I woke up to another blockage. Grrr. Another site change! As if waking up over 300 or 400 twice in the past week wasn't enough!
Thursday night: I woke up feeling low. I was 40. I don't know if it was because I was so tired, or so low, but I couldn't stay awake. I kept falling asleep while I was eating. All of my food is right next to my bed, so I don't have to get out of bed when I'm low. I must have had 3 or 4 granola bars, a couple of packages of fruit snacks and a bottle of juice. When I woke up the next morning, I was only 294. With that many carbs, I should have been much, much higher. It was a scary experience, one I don't want to repeat.
Last night: Check at 11:30, 383. Crap. Bolus the correction. Check an hour later. 150. CRAP!!!! Now I want to come down fast as much as the next diabetic, but I had lots and lots of IOB. I did not know what to do. I finally decided to shut my basal off for 3 hours, and to set my alarm for an hour later. For once in my life, I made the right decision. I went up to 160, and never dropped below that.
So that is a synopsis of all the crap that has been going on lately. Surprisingly, I didn't want to get rid of my pump. I just didn't want to be diabetic anymore! I am so sick of all the crap!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Jen, I am really sorry for what you have gone through this last week. I completely understand your total anger, frustration and one desire - for this fu*!!ng disease to be cured. Not promises of cures - cured today, NOW! I have been there. I really do understand what you went through...... Oh those ketones after site problems! And the worst is, we explode and then what? We go on because what other alternative do we have

Anonymous said...

gotta love this condition huh?
makes me want to smash my fist into the wall. and most of the time i do!

Scott K. Johnson said...

Suckage!

Sorry to hear about all the trouble. I'm sure it felt at least a little bit nice to get it off your chest.

Let us know if there is anything we can do!

JamesC said...

My daughter has a Cozmo pump ... 2 and half years now.

I used to tell people that it was infallible, then a couple of months ago, an alarm went off ... or as you so brilliantly described it a SIREN went off ... called Cosmo people ... they said replacement needed .. could be expedited, provided we paid for the delivery ... $300 ... we paid, and 12 hours later a replacement pump arrived, flown in from Minneapolis (to NY). Awesome, but expensive.

That was a couple of months ago. And I'm sorry to say, the same thing has just happened again. That freakishly annoying SIREN went off ... argh. We have spoken to Cosmo again, and they are sending a replacement pump, again.

May be time to start looking at alternatives ... but then again, my research tonight seems to indicate that all the pump brands have problems like this.

God I miss the days when we believed the Cosmo was infallible.