feeling disconnected

in

I should have worn a dress today if I was going to be without my insulin pump. My Minimed 515 has been acting up for the last couple of weeks every time I try to prime it. Meanwhile, this morning I was supposed to take Rich to his doctor's appt and wait on him since we're using one car at the moment (another entire story and his to tell since it's his truck). I wanted to take five minutes to change my tubing before we left. 20 minutes later, we were running late for his appointment and I still didn't have a working pump.

According to the Minimed help desk, the sensor that tells the pump that it's done priming and ready to be used is damaged so it will never kick into the "ready to use" mode. I wasted a lot of insulin this morning trying to get it to work and came close to wasting a lot of tears about the whole thing.

I wrote just the other day that going without my insulin pump would be like suddenly cutting off your hair after spending years growing it out. But trying to get my pump to work again, I felt more short of breath than short of hair. I have come to rely on having that pump with me and working 24 hours a day and when it fails me I get a little panicky.

Thankfully, Rich's doctor appointment was in the same complex as my endocrinologist. After dropping him off, I was on their proverbial doorstep with a ziploc bag of medical supplies and a pitiful face. Dr. Saadeh came in the office about 5 minutes after I got there and told me how much Lantus insulin to take to last me until my replacement pump gets here tomorrow. I've been kicking it old school with syringes all day today and it's getting old. I've already had 2 cans of Coke today to "fix" my blood sugar because I can't dose for meals as accurately with the syringes. I'm grateful, though, for the free bottle of 24-hour insulin I hope to never need again before it expires and the helpful folks at my doctor's office who had me back in business by 8:15am.

But I may throw my arms around the UPS delivery guy when he shows up with my overnight package tomorrow.