I’m a Pod Person!
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Yesterday felt like the longest day ever while I was at work. I tired to get into the office super early so that I’d be able to leave early. Why? Because my new Omnipod would be waiting for me when I got home. But the bad drivers of Baltimore were conspiring against me. I ended up getting to work 30 minutes later than I’d intended.
Once I arrived, I spent far too many minutes checking and rechecking the FedEx tracking page. Finally, at 12:28, the package was delivered, and from that moment on, I was completely useless at work (not that I’d been all that productive anyway). I just wanted to go home to my new present.
Does it make me a complete geek to be that excited about an insulin pump? Do I care? Nope. Not even a little. I wear the geek title with pride. The other badge I wear, although not with any pride, is impatience. I’m a type A personality (as if you hadn’t already figured that out for yourself). I’m extremely high strung, and I want what I want when I want it.
Finally, at 3:30 pm, I hopped in my Tahoe and started home. First, I had to stop at the pharmacy to pick up my new Freestyle Test Strips to use with the Omnipod PDM. Since I’m well known at my local Walgreens, it was a quick in/out process. Once again, I was back in the Tahoe heading home.
As I pulled into our driveway, I saw it. Like a big, beautifully wrapped Christmas gift, there sat the plain brown cardboard box that held the next phase of my diabetes life. I hurried out of the Tahoe, grabbed my 30 lb (well, probably not 30, but it’s damned heavy) bag that I have to carry because I must cart tons of diabetes supplies around, and bent over to pick up the box.
It was a lot heavier than I expected. I remember all of my Minimed supply shipments being really light. For some reason, the extra weight of the box pleased me. Almost like the whole system had more . . . I don’t know? Substance?
Once upstairs, I ripped the box open, and the heavens sang. It was beautiful (I should have taken a photo, but I suck). My starter kit and five (5!) boxes of pods were carefully packed. Also in the box: a white silicone “skin” for the PDM, a Freestyle Flash meter (I guess to use as a backup), and a USB cable for uploading data to a PC (note my only disappointment – no Mac compatibility).
I immediately went to work setting up the PDM according to the instructions and the online tutorial I had watched earlier (while pretending to work). I entered all of the typical date/time/etc. stuff, basal rates (I have seven!), my I:C ratio, and my correction factor. After all the settings were done, the PDM asked it I wanted to activate a new Pod. Why, yes. I did!
I filled a new Pod with Novolog according to the instructions (the PDM walked me through each step of new Pod activation), removed the needle cap and adhesive backing, and stuck it on my arm. I pinched the skin, pressed the magic Start button on the PDM, and felt a tiny prick as the needle inserted the cannula.
That’s all it took. I looked through the little window on the pod, confirmed that the cannula was inserted properly and that there was no blood, and I was done.
I removed the Minimed infusion set, pulled the battery, and placed it in the small box that the Omnipod PDM came in. I felt a moment of sadness – this pump has been with me through most of the recent big events in my life. But, when I lost faith in Minimed, my pump had to go.
As I was completely wrapped up in my new device, cooking dinner was out of the question. We decided to order a pizza, which meant . . . The Pizza Bolus. It was the first test of my new Omnipod, and the extended bolus worked perfectly. I was in love.
I tested my BG before bed, calibrated Dex, and crashed. I slept great! I woke up once to use the bathroom, and for the first time in years, I didn’t have to search for my pump before sliding out of bed (I often dropped it during that process). I didn’t have to clip it to my pajama bottoms when I got up this morning, and I didn’t have to disconnect anything before taking my shower. And my loofah didn’t get stuck on anything! It was a beautiful moment, and I almost cried.
When I got to work this morning, I download the CoPilot and Extension software to my new Netbook (more on that later), connected my PDM, and uploaded my pump settings and data (so far). It was painless, and I’m impressed with the software (I just wish I could use it for my DexCom, too).
So, after 18 hours, I’m a very happy Pod person!
Themocracy