Yay for FedEx!
FedEx has arrived!!
For about fifteen minutes, I had two insulin pumps on my desk at work. I felt like I was on a diabetes version of MTV's Cribs, all pimped out with two pumps. (All pumped out?) Approximately $12,000 worth of medical equipment in my hands. Whoa.
I hadn't programmed a new pump in four years. After setting the time, date, programming in my sensitivity factors and insulin-to-carb ratios, I was ready to set the new one up with my basal rates and start the transition.
Only ... I couldn't press the 'down' button on Old Pump to access the basal review. And I had NO CLUE what my rates were. They were written down somewhere at home, but I was at work. Damn it!!
After talking to myself, to the Old Pump, and to God, the 'down' button finally gave in and allowed me to scroll through the basal review menu. (Coercing the button to work took almost fifteen minutes.) I quickly wrote my basal rates on a post-it note and entered them into the New Pump. Snagged the reservoir from the Old Pump, inserted it into the New Pump, primed it up and reconnected to my infusion set. Ahh, insulin bliss.
In accordance with the letter I received from Minimed, I bade Old Pump a fond farewell and tucked it into the return envelope.
New Pump is shiny and blemish-free, completely devoid of the dings from doorknobs and scuffed with paint from the doorjambs in every apartment I've lived in over the last four years. It was strange, placing my Old Pump into the envelope to mail back to Minimed. I've worn that pump for years. I've had it in bed with me. It's gone on planes. It was there the night I got engaged. It has almost fallen in the toilet and has been stashed in my bra and has ended up wrapped around my thigh while I sleep. Strange attachment to this inanimate object.
Holding New Pump and knowing full-well it had previously been a part of someone else's life was strange. But now it's part of mine. It may have missed the engagement, but it will be there at the wedding. (Unless I upgrade in January. Hmmm. Maybe I need to stop forming attachments to inanimate objects entirely, as their turnover is inevitable.)
So for now, I'm 179 mg/dl (too much pump excitement, I think). New Pump and I are bonding. He knows I like iced coffee and I don't like using the bolus wizard unless I'm over 240 mg/dl. I know he likes long boluses, being tucked into my pocket, and boop beep boop-ing.
I didn't tell him that Old Pump liked boop beep boop-ing, too. I want him to think he's the only one. ;-)
Comments
Great news! I've had good luck with minimed customer service too, in the past. Please tell your new pump hello for me ;)
Posted by: InSearchOfBalance | September 12, 2007 01:41 PM
Beep Beep Beep
Posted by: Your Pump | September 12, 2007 01:48 PM
Have you named your new pump yet?
Posted by: Laura | September 12, 2007 02:12 PM
No names yet. I'm totally open to suggestions, though. :)
Posted by: Kerri. | September 12, 2007 02:14 PM
It is strange how we grow attached to these little inanimate objects. I sometimes feel bad when my pump gets a new scratch, or when it crashes into things. Have fun getting to know your new pump!
Posted by: Elizabeth | September 12, 2007 02:56 PM
My new pump arrives next week! Maybe they were friends in the factory. Congrats and enjoy.
Posted by: Steph | September 12, 2007 03:07 PM
Aww I'm sure he'll always think that he's been the only pump in your life. Same color?
No bolus wizard until 240?! Why?
Posted by: jill. | September 12, 2007 03:25 PM
Jill - I can do the math on correcting down from 240 mg/dl. But anything over 240 and I'm lost, math-wise. For general food issues, I don't trust the IOB feature and I go more by my instinct (a byproduct of 17 years of shots).
Posted by: Kerri. | September 12, 2007 03:30 PM
Oh Jill -
You beat me to it! I had the same question. I always use the wizard - but usually change the estimate based on the IOB it refuses to consider.
Posted by: Sara | September 12, 2007 04:27 PM
I almost had a similar event this summer. Dropped my pump about six inches and she totally blacked out. Once I started frantically pushing buttons (probably not the smartest solution, I know), she woke up with a "battery alarm" which I know was not the real problem because the battery was fresh! But I gave her a new one anyway, and then she was fine ;)
By the way, lately I have been thinking about your Shoes post from a while back--I have something similar, only they are Feet (I'm thinking MiceFeet and hopefully not RatFeet), in the ceiling of my bathroom.
Posted by: Jana | September 12, 2007 05:45 PM
I had a similar experience recently with my pump when it died and was tremendously impressed with the response from Medtronic (better than my endo, but that's another story).
I've used "Grace" as the name for my pump because of what she brings to my life. Actually, she's most frequently referred to as "Gracie". So the second pump is also named Gracie. We'd be honored to share.
Posted by: Sarah Young | September 13, 2007 07:35 AM
The floor or the toilet neither of them good at all. Thankfully the tubing acted as a life line and saved it for me in both cases. Although it didn't feel that good when it pulled on the canula.
Posted by: Dave | September 13, 2007 08:40 AM
Kerri, this post made me have a pang of pre-separation anxiety from MY pump (Ye Olde Battleaxe, MM715). It's currently nestled in my bra, but I know that one day we shall have to part...and I will miss the huge scratch across its screen courtesy of my mother's tiled kitchen counters, and the big white paint smear from MY apartment wall, and the cracks around the reservoir hole that I made when I slammed my hip into the side of a heavy metal door going into my Psychology 101 class my freshman year of college...
Man, I am a nutcase!
Posted by: Kendra | September 13, 2007 09:18 AM
Whatever you do, don't mention your old pump to your new pump. They're sensitive that way. lol
Posted by: Michelle | September 14, 2007 09:55 AM