From a diabetes management point of view that means: no time for testing BG, likely to go low with such amounts of activity, likely to mis-bolus for food which could end up taking his BG either too high or too low and, worst of all, possibly not feeling the onset of a low during all the excitement.

                                          In one word - a challenge.    A scary challenge.

All I wanted for Christmas last year was a Cure for Diabetes.  Second on the list was “Think like a pancreas”, a book by Gary Scheiner.  I got my second choice.

While I am still reading Gary’s book (savoring shall I say – or rather reading carefully so I do not miss something important) I jumped at the opportunity to see him talk about “Use of advanced features of insulin pumps”, here in Brisbane.

Like in his book, his words during the presentation came out so easily and made complete sense. He spoke about “Almost 101 uses of Temporary Basal” and examples of the use of combo or dual wave boluses.

I had “discovered” temporary basal about a year into Mr T’s pumping and have been exploring the various uses of this feature ever since. I was glad to find out I was familiar with most possible uses, some of which I did not fully understand, how and why they worked as well as they did. That is where Gary came in.

Mr T received his new pump a few days ago. It is an Animas VIBE [for more info click HERE and for Australian readers please click HERE], the upgrade for his old(er) Animas 2020 model.

He knew it was coming since Animas gave us a call the day it was shipped. When he finally got to open the package, the following day, I could not believe the glow on his face, the size of his smile.

It is just a pump, an insulin pump, not much different from the old one – it is even the same colour. I did not get it, but he was like a child in a candy store – very, very excited!

I suppose they can happen, mishaps with cannulas, I mean.

Mr T uses these for the infusion of insulin delivered via his pump.  Considering he changes the cannula every three days, it must be a total of 500 cannulae used so far.

This is the first one that failed like this, therefore 1:500 chance.
Not too bad.

This is what happened.

As I suspected while writing the post "I am going back to carbs counting school"
(LINK here), over the years I have got bit relaxed with counting carbs, quicker at
guessing and generous in rounding off.

It was time I for a refresher course in carbs counting.

Time to calibrate my key tool – my EYE.

Last night I went to bed late, Mr T next to me (our set up for when he is sick or for when I have no clue as to which way his BG is going to go through the night), his BG was sitting at 21, a freshly changed cannulla, me waiting to check him again at the 3 hour mark since the last bolus….

One other thought was on my mind: I better get some decent sleep tonight, Nole is playing in the Australian Open tennis finals and if he were to pull another 5 hour, 5 set match it is my patriotic duty to be there for him, watch the entire match and support him. I am sure that MY support makes all the difference.

7.8 at 11:30, all is good and I fell a sleep.

Then I dreamed…

Touch wood, the end of another year is approaching, another year that we did not have to rush to the hospital for a drip. (I do hope that Mr Murphy and his law can not hear me).

It is summer here but the viruses and nasties are still in the air. The fact that quite a few children we know are currently fighting a tummy virus and vomiting, keeps me on my toes.

When you are a parent of a child with diabetes, you need to be well prepared for sick days. I decided to go over my sick day supplies and routines, just in case.

It is Christmas Eve here. 

Dinner eaten; first presents opened (just one per person); carrots for The Reindeers and chocolates and milk for Santa are out and ready.

We were just watching a bit of TV before Mr T's bed time when the insulin pump alarmed "Low Cartridge". 

Accidentally on purpose I was eavesdropping the other day as the kids from the neighborhood were getting ready for a swim at our community pool.


I just happened to be in the living room when Mr T took off his insulin pump, left it on the table and went to the toilet to change into his cozzie.  His new friend from the neighbourhood, a girl of the same age, was waiting for him to get ready so that I could take them both swimming.


She noticed the pump and naturally asked what it was.  As we have just met her a few days before, we had not gotten around to mentioning diabetes, so she did not know.   I was about to explain it to her when Mr T entered the room, so I thought this is a great opportunity for him to explain and for me to hear what his approach and thinking is. Sneaky, I know;).