Blog

Insulin - Insulin needs to be kept cool for the most part. From what I had been told part of the reason for needing to change the site every three days is because the insulin in the pump can become bad since it's not being refrigerated. Freezing insulin will also ruin it. So in my case I was closely monitoring it and changing it because I was fearful that the Virginia heat was causing it to loose it's effectiveness. Also, there are times where you can ge a bad bottle of insulin. In either case, without insurance, and insulin costing $90 per 1000 units (10 mL) which typically last me about a week and a half I try and use every last drop. Upon writing this article I looked this up and it seems that I've been taking better care of my insulin that I may need to. More...

Infusion Site - This was my problem in the past.  They recommend you changing your site every three days.  I usually waited until I was out of insulin, or (after I figured out how to refill w/o changing the site) waiting until the site darn near fell off.  Even with the countless doctors that I had been working on, no one really thought this could make such a difference.  Well, when Melissa and I got our Gold's membership I tried doing everything by the book and was shocked by the results.  Here again cost come into play.  The sites come in boxes of ten and sell for $116.00.  So basically that's $116.00 per month, not including the reservoir.

The Pump - The pump is a wonderful advancement in diabetes management.  It allows a person to eat what they want, when they want, including this typically regarded as no-nos.  I've been using a MiniMed 508 pump since December of 1999.  While being wonderful the pump can also lead to headaches.  First of all, in the instructional video it tells you that if you suspect anything is fuzzy, to go back to needles and then worry about the pump.  I assume majority of this is due to legal reason.  Nonetheless I wasn't impressed since the little pager-sizes machine cost about $6000.00.
Things that can happen:

1. Pumps batteries (3 watch style that cost nearly $3.00 each) run out and the pump will beep like mad, but not give you any insulin.
2. The pump says "No Delivery" 'cause something is blocking the flow, this can be a reservoir or site issue.
3. The pump complains if you give to much insulin. (I like to eat)
4. The cord attaching said pump to self gets caught on a door knob when you're half asleep and you walking looks more like a fighter jet landing on an aircraft carrier.

So with everything in the above list checked I was left scratching my head wondering why my blood sugars where NOT cooperating.  Due to the highs that I was having in the morning I was thinking about modifying my basal rate during the course of the night, but without the ability to truly view the LCD where the time is displayed I decided to put it off.

The basal rate to me is the amount of insulin needed during a given period of time.  Searching basal rate describes basal metabolic rate or BMR and refers to the amount of energy liberated per unit of time.  Either way you look at it, it is affected by recent food ingestion, muscle exertion, environmental temperature, height, weight, body surface area, age, sex, emotional state, body temperature, pregnancy, menstruation, level of thyroid hormones, and "stress" hormones.  This makes determining what it should be an almost impossible task.

Anyway, this past weekend when I was changing my site and insulin I though I saw the basal screen display 0.0 units per hour.  I quickly double checked and sure enough.  I set the rate that I was last using 1.3 units/hour and what do you know.  I haven't had better blood sugars in the longest time.  I don't think I've been over 150 and I've even had a 50.