Sensor

Great news, I actually started the sensor!

Now, it's important to understand that this thing is a pain in the ass. Or, in my case, a pain in the arm. I will take a picture to show you what I'm working with, but for now, I will explain.

I've been wearing the infusion set for the pump around my middle, in the love handle area. Attempts to wear it at the front did not work at all, probably because of 15 years of scar tissue. My new diabetic friend told me it's possible to break that up, or break up whatever it is other than scar tissue, so that is something to explore, but unhelpful at the moment. Officially, you can wear the sensor around your middle, but if the front's out and the back is occupied, I could do thighs or arms. Now I want you to imagine sticking a clamshell on your leg, maybe towards your hip, and reprogram your decades of life experience and suddenly not drag your underwear or pants anywhere near that part of your leg. And oh- you'll have to move the sites, so it's not gonna be in same place all the time.

I feel like the arm is a little better option, because at least there you have a chance in hell of seeing it. There's also more room in my shirts than in my pants, and I feel less likely to smack into it there. Right now, I'm wearing it towards the back of my arm, about halfway down to my elbow. The trouble with wearing this thing on my arm is that it is NOT FRIGGING POSSIBLE to put it on by myself. I went to my friend's house last night to get her help, and I may need to do that weekly.

Other things that are a giant pain in the ass include calibration, alarms, the complete conspicuousness of wearing the sensor and adhesive overtop to keep clothes and things from catching its edge and ripping it out, and the fact that the sensor and pump can still talk from 6 feet away, but not through body parts. I'm having to run the tubing along my back to wear it on the same side as the sensor. Jesus.

So why am I doing this?

Tennis. I got so frustrated last week when I was low, then really low, then really low again, then STILL low, and I had to eat and drink every bit of sugar I had on me and sit out the lesson for probably half an hour until my sugar was up enough to play. I was so damn mad and tired of trying so hard to anticipate and prop my sugar up before class just to fail so much. I have to eat carbs and sugar just to stay up and that isn't helping me lose weight.

So let me show you what that pain in the ass sensor does.

Here's my pump. At the top, we've got how much insulin is left in the pump and how much battery power is left. The circle means I have less than 25 units left, so I will be changing my infusion set soon. The little antenna is showing me whether or not the sensor is linked.

The graph can be set to show the last 3, 6, 12, or 24 hours. I just had to connect the two again this morning, so there wasn't much data yet. My level was terrible, but that was due to remnants from trouble yesterday, and it calmed back down soon after. This is not telling me blood sugar- this is reading interstitial fluid, which has a delay, so the way they explained this was like cars on a roller coaster. The front car is going to go uphill before the next car. Whatever is happening to your blood sugar now will affect the interstitial fluid in approximately 15 minutes. You have to account for the lag, and you still have to test.

Another neat thing- one of my favorite things I forgot about and was reminded of today- is that arrows will show up next to the number if you're heading up or down. Two arrows will show if you are heading that way quickly.

So all day, I was able to keep an eye on my blood sugar by checking out the levels of my interstitial fluid. When I went to tennis tonight, I was able to pull out the pump between shots and see what my blood sugar was doing without having to leave the court to test.

Before you start pointing out that I could have been doing this all along, I'd like to relay some advice that my friend's husband (who is on the pump) said to me yesterday. He really felt- as did the pump trainer- that it was much better to get used to the pump first- get really comfortable with how it works and doing the infusion set changes and all of that before adding in the sensor. And it is a pain in the ass. I am going to be unenthused to wear this thing all the time, but when it works and you don't bleed all over the place and the sensor remains linked to the pump and the receiver isn't getting ripped out, it's amazingly helpful.