Pumping Like A....Novice.

It's Day Two, and I'm all hooked up!  I'm a cyborg now.

I went in and spent 2 and half hours with the CDE/T slim rep who when she heard I was coming, thought I was a different Heidi who was already on a pump, so instead of just training for a "pump upgrade" like she thought, she got to explain the finer points of pumping along with the finer points of the T:slim.

HAHA.  Sucks to be her.  She's super nice, though.

First of all, this is a crapload of tubing.  SO MUCH TUBING.  When the (other) Tandem rep called and asked what kind of infusion set I wanted and how much tubing, I was pretty much clueless, and I said I wanted the shorter length.

"Oh, are you kind of a short person?"

"No.  Five seven."

And she convinced me that I wanted the longer tubing and if there was extra, I could just tape it to my stomach. So I listened, because surely she knows more than a novice like me, and she was wrong, and now I have massive amounts of tubing getting in the way of everything.  The reorder will be shorter for sure.  The CDE was mildly annoyed about this - "Does SHE want things taped to her stomach?"

(This is my body now.  Super, super sexy.)

Second of all, at dinner, I bolused for the meal and then I ate some Froot Loops and then I didn't have to find another needle, and that was cool.  Also, I mostly ate the Froot Loops because of this.  One of the the reasons I wanted the pump was so I could eat more if I decided I wanted more than the initial guess finely tuned calculation of how many carbs I would eat. Breakfast cereal and I don't really get along, and I don't really remember the last time I ate some, apart from granola in Greek yogurt.

 (Hello, my little bowl of carcinogenic death circles.   I love you.)

Third of all, it is bizarre not to reach for that bottle of Levemir at night.  It's become kind of a bedtime ritual, and I can't go to sleep until I've checked my sugar and dosed the basal.  Last night, I didn't do it. This morning, I reached for the bottle first thing, only to remember that could potentially be very bad.  The tubing reminded me of this.

(It reminded me of when I got Lasik surgery.  The very last thing I did every night was take out my contact lenses, and everything being blurry became a sleep trigger for me.  Falling asleep with good vision took some getting used to - I did not realize how much I depended on this, and insomnia followed for a week or so while I adjusted.)

Fourth of all, I still went high at midnight.  Grrr.

Fifth of all, apparently my wardrobe is completely wrong for hiding this thing.  I guess everybody will just think I have a pager. I should probably buy some belts for clipping.  Also, running shorts were recommended?  To stick it in?  But doesn't that mean I will be go digging around in my pants/skirt in order to reach that bizarre bulge?  That doesn't seem creepy at all.

Sixth (and lastly), what with this and the Dexcom site, and all the rotations, I am going to seriously run out of real estate.  The gal said she had some clients who put the infusion sets on their boobs because of the side effect of fat buildup where the insulin was, but she wasn't recommending anything.  Now there's a benefit I never considered.....

So far, so good.  I think this is a good thing, even if it will take some experimenting, some adjusting, and some swearing along the way.