Here’s Your Pump, Now Bond With It…

February 12, 2014 ~ JodiLea ~ 3 Comments

Let me introduce you – to my little friend…

Yesterday Maureen, the OmniPod trainer and Certified Diabetic Educator (CDE), and I opened the box shipped to me by Insulet™, with my OmniPod “start-up kit.”

Maureen showed me all the components and “we” programmed it to my doctor’s specifications, edited settings, and then, attached my 1st Pod. For two hours, she patiently showed me features, explained why I would use them and gave me a lot of information. (We also chatted about non-pump related stuff and shared a laugh or two.)

I won’t go into all the technical & medical details but basically this is how my “pump” works. I know you have been chomping at the bit to find out 😉

The Pod (shown above) is the insulin delivery system. Once attached to my stomach and activated, it acts as an artificial pancreas and deliver an amount of insulin that a normal pancreas would do. Starting up a Pod is fairly simple – I will follow, step-by-step (lots of pictures) in the Quick Start Guide manual. There are a lot of steps and I do not want to miss any and ruin the Pod.

First I fill the Pod with insulin (a saline solution that we are pretending is insulin). Then I figure out where I want it to be on my body. I clean that place with alcohol pad, let it dry and then pull the paper off the adhesive tape (like you would a band-aid). The tape covers the bottom and sides of the Pod. It does not look like near enough tape to hold it on for 3-days, but it sticks well, so far.

Now, I can activate it. The PDM sends the information we programmed to the Pod. When that is accomplished the PDM tells me to hit “start” and the Pod will inject a needle with a cannula under my skin then pull the needle back, leaving the tube in. The injecting takes a few seconds to begin after pushing “start.”

This is the worse part. Waiting to be punctured. You know it’s going to happen, but since you are not doing it yourself, you don’t know exactly when it will go off. Even though you are expecting it to happen, when it does happen it surprises you.

Yesterday, I squealed and jumped – almost falling over. I got lucky and it didn’t hit a nerve, so the pain was nearly non-existent. I hope I get used to this step quickly! I will be changing the Pod on Friday by myself. In fact, Maureen told me to “play” with and get to know the PDM. It has several menus and functions. Some I will use a lot, and some infrequently.

She will be teaching an in-depth class for two mornings next week. It’s then that I will go “live” with real insulin. God help me. So the more I “play” the more confident I will be when this happens. At least that’s what Maureen told me. Why would she lie?

Yes, this whole thing makes me nervous.

The Personal Diabetes Manager (PDM) is the “brains” for the Pod. (Shown below) It does the dose calculations after I give it my blood glucose level, and the amount of carbs I plan to eat for my meal/snack. It shows me the values and asks me if I want that dose to be delivered. I tell it yes or no. I can edit the value the PDM suggests if I need to. I can’t enter special info to influence the calculation, such as, if I’m stressing out, and my blood glucose (BG) is going through the roof, no matter what I’m eating, I can increase the dose to cover it.

My PDM is displaying my current status when photo was taken. This means the time of the last BG test, meal insulin dose, and the insulin “on board.” It also keeps track of when I will need to change the Pod unit.

In 3-days I have to deactivate the one I’m wearing now, and activate a new one in a different site than the previous one. I will just dispose of the old one. That blows my mind. The Pods are tossed away! They expire (no longer work) after 72-hours. This seemed very wasteful to me until I learned that the insulin being body temperature will start to “go bad” and not be dependable anymore. Then there is the need to give the skin a break from the injection site and adhesive, but putting a new Pod in a different place. The PDM is really my pump. It controls the Pod via Bluetooth.

Basically, I have a remote-controlled pancreas now. How weird is that? I’m already writing a list of things that will make my life easier using my little friend. Hubby has “homework” also. He is checking to make sure that I remember to take my real insulin injections. Very important job!

TTFN, (Ta-Ta For Now)

Jodi

How Men Express Romantic Love

February 9, 2014 ~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

Men, as a general rule, are about as romantic as a rock. They HATE Valentines Day because it puts pressure on them to buy you something. They don’t have a clue what you would like because when you tell them things they aren’t really listening. Now they are on the spot.

Some guys will even break up with a girl before Valentines Day, the stress is too much for them. Other guys avoid the girl for a week or so and pretend they forgot. Then… the ones like my hubby, who claim they didn’t know what day Valentine’s Day fell on this year.

I used to get pissed off. The jerk hurt my feelings. He must not love me, or he would at least buy me a card. I would work myself up into a full-blown depression. Over freaking Valentine’s Day. Every year this would happen. Happy anticipation, then crash and burn. I HATED Valentine’s Day.

Then I wised up. Who better than moi to give me Valentine’s Day gifts? The first time I gave myself a Valentine, I admit it was out of spite. I was angry. I was sick of being ignored. It was a very expensive gift – part of me hoped that he would figure out he would save money if he gave me something the next year. I admit, that sometimes, I am ridiculously naïve.

The point I’m trying to make (and taking my sweet time to make it, sorry) is that your guy is probably about as romantic as any straight man. Which is, according to your (and most women’s) specifications, not very romantic at all. There is a reason for that and it’s called the “Y” chromosome. Men think completely different then we do, remember?

Men cannot be romantic “on demand”.

Most romantic expressions of love from a guy do not occur on your birthday, anniversary, Valentine’s Day, or Christmas. We are conditioned by advertisements and Hallmark to think those days are special. Men ignore decorations and advertisements, like they ignore how dirty the shower gets.

Get this – when men express romantic feelings, they actually do not realize they are doing it. It’s true! So, number one: we must NOT tell them this because that could ruin a good thing. And number two: We women must learn to recognize these expressions of love. We can’t keep feeling unloved and bitter just because we don’t understand them.

So, before V-Day comes along (next week!), I’ll pass along my many years of research, with how men express love. May this knowledge prevent you from getting angry or hating Valentine’s Day. And…for my male readers – This is not the post you are looking for.

Ways Men Express Romantic Love:

Enrolling you in a life-time membership to their group interest. Hubby handed me a Harley Owner’s Group (HOG) lifetime membership. It took me awhile to realize just how romantic this gesture was, and why he was so excited to give me this particular gift. We had not been married very long, and I had not taken many rides with him, let alone have my own bike. Buying this gift for me meant he wanted to make me “his chick on the back” for life.
Sneaking things to surprise you. I looked out at my rose garden one morning and a sweet little clay bunny looked back at me. One time, I was weeding and uncovered a raccoon. After 25-years of marriage, he has never admitted it, or been caught.
Watches romantic movies. And most of the time he will enjoy them. No matter how often he rolls his eyes and says “Oh Brother!”
Will go to Jo Ann’s Fabrics (or whatever store you love) with you. Even though he knows you’ll spend at least an hour looking, then you will need money. He likes watching you have fun.
Brings you a gadget he saw in the hardware store, that he thinks you will like. That he thought about you at all, while in his favorite “man” store, says volumes, ladies.
Despite your morning breath and bozo hair, he tells you “Good Morning, Sleeping Beauty.” Even after his successful eye surgery.
Your car gets to park inside the garage. His big truck is outside.
He builds you a cozy fire when it’s rainy or snowy before he goes out to work in his shop. He comes in every so often to check on it because you are busy writing or sewing and don’t like to mess with it. (This is his own idea, BTW)
He saves the middle piece of cornbread for you. You know, the primo piece without crust that your own daughter will steal from you.
Will eat left-overs all week because you are ‘on a roll’ with your novel.

Please, send me a comment or two about how your guy expresses romantic feelings (once you figure them out)! I will post them in my Valentine’s Day post.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

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Thank you for your response. ✨

Something You Don’t See Everyday

February 7, 2014 ~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

If only I had my camera!

But I did not. I never take a camera to a doctors appointment. A two-hour drive down the mountain to Modesto. Highway 4 to Farmington, left on Escalon Bellota Road. A lot of cattle, sheep and turkey farms on that part of Hwy 4. A revolting smelly stretch of highway, depending on wind direction. Otherwise rather boring.

Or so I thought…

Anyway, we saw it on our way home from Modesto. It had rained and snowed most of the day and we looked forward to a warm cozy fire, and sitting in our living room, watching weather from inside. On Highway 4, we drove through the (what I call the Mr. Toads Wild Ride section), and were making pretty good time, until traffic slowed down to a stop. Oh No! What was this?

A white truck with flashing yellow lights had pulled over to the edge of the highway and sat there. Up ahead, a police car crawled along the road so slowly that we couldn’t tell if it was moving or not. When we passed the white truck, it had ANIMAL CONTROL printed on the side.

That meant an animal was involved somehow. But, we couldn’t see any animals on the road. And why weren’t the animal people doing something? Why was a cop leading the way? When we inched up closer to the police car, we saw a young bull trotting along the road – between the cattle fence and the law.

He hadn’t a care in the world. Just out for a pleasant stroll in between rains. The flashing blue, red and yellow lights did not faze him. Obviously, he had no clue he was busted.

We watched this go on for awhile, then saw the young traveler take a sharp left turn and cross the street. The cop turned his car perpendicular to the road and bleated the siren for a second. The bull turned and ran the way it came from, along the opposite side of the road. Mr. Policeman once more began keeping pace with him.

“He’s trying to herd the bull with his car!” I squealed. This would go viral on YouTube, if I had a camera to record it. Dammit!

Now that the cop car was inching along the other side of the road, we were able to continue down the highway. We were still talking about the little bull when we noticed that a police car, then soon after, a sheriff’s car passed by, heading for the cow pastures behind us. Weird, we thought. Our county is large and there are many tiny towns in it. Rarely do you see two law enforcement vehicles in one day. So… when 2 more police cars, going the same direction, passed by, hubby and I found this very suspicious.

I have a feeling there is going to be a policeman’s BBQ this week-end. 😉