Working Girl!

I have been ridiculously busy recently from applying to colleges through UCAS (more on that in later posts!) to knitting christmas projects (I know its early but its a cheap way to make presents this year so I can save money! - I also know that knitting makes me sound like and old lady!) to starting work, which leads me onto this post.

I haven't really had a 'proper' job before, and by that I mean I had a small amount casual work at my parents business which I don't count as a proper job as I didn't have to do a lot of work to get it and I also didn't have any regular hours as such. So now I have a job in the Christmas department of a garden centre which is lets not lie pretty boring but also raises a few questions in terms of working and diabetes.

The first question I have come across is when, how and who do I tell about my diabetes? 
I think this is probably up to the individual and what sort of work place it is, I told the person senior to me who I am going to be around most of the time, after the interview and when I had got the job, this was because I'm worried about the interviewers seeing the long term disease and thinking 'It's not worth the risk, what if she's always off ill and isn't at all reliable?' I don't know how much of an issue this actually is but it does niggle in my mind a fair amount.
I explained about having type 1 in a casual manner i.e. 'Something you should know is I have Type 1 diabetes. It shouldn't affect my work but may mean that I need to do a blood sugar test at some points during the day.' If I'm honest she didn't really know what to do with that information and just sort of said 'oh ok then.'

A second issue when it comes to working is all the stuff you have to lug around with you everywhere you go when you have diabetes.

I have 3 vital things to carry

1. My pump: Carried in a handy leather case which it came with from Animas. This looks a lot smarter than being simply clipped to my trousers or tucked into my pocket.
2. A BG tester: Which I put in a SpiBelt around my waist under my T-Shirt with the tester at the small of my back. It can't be seen but isn't awfully comfortable.
3. A treatment for hypoglycaemia: I carry GlucoTabs with me at all times in a tube as they are easy to eat, at work I put the tube in another SpiBelt around my waist the same as my tester.

I'm have just ordered a SpiBelt with two pouches in so I only have to carry one belt which could be a bit more comfortable than carrying two.

How to handle lows? How do I test?
These are questions that can be different every time, obviously I can't really test right in front of customers on the shop floor so when it is busy testing becomes a slight issue, I try and find a quiet area to do a quick test discretely but that isn't always easy and can be made harder if I'm low and trying to get my tester out to actually do a test! There is a small desk I can 'hide' my tester behind to do a test but I still feel really conscious of doing where other people are, I'm not normally conscious but whilst working I just want to be a normal person! To prevent lows I have been using a lot of temporary basal rates generally of -50% and if I am low I just have a GlucoTab and continue at a slower pace! Being low is never the best time to explain to someone what being low is actually like!

So theres some of the things I'm finding difficult at work. It would be nice to hear some of your issues and tips for working in this environment! 

Germany

I recently went to Munich in Germany... ON MY OWN!

A small sample of diabetes
paraphernalia I took with me. 

Well technically not on my own but it was a pretty big step as I flew without my parents.

I left the UK through Heathrow's new terminal 5 with a friend who has recently moved to Munich and had come back for a visit.

It was the first part of my trip that worried me the most, going through security at the airport. Even though I had done my research online to find out other peoples experiences of travelling with a pump, I was nervous! This may have been due to reading some experiences of those from the USA and their extremely strict controls on anything and everything even if its clearly medical stuff. However despite my worries everything was fine, on the way out I took the clip off my pump and no questions were asked of it. I did the same on the way home when with another friend and the woman just asked me to take my phone out of my pocket, I told her it was an insulin pump, she was fine about it and just notified the people the other side of the metal detector gate!
So the part I was most worried about went absolutely fine and I can tell anyone who hasn't yet flown with a pump and is due to go to the EU soon that it would be fine, there is no need to worry about flying and security!

This shows where I
clipped my pump.

Whilst I was in Germany we did quite a few things including bus tours around the city and swimming in lakes, a water park and a normal pool (We like swimming ALOT!). With all this swimming I had to figure out what to do with this brand new insulin pump. Well when I went to the lakes and the swimming pool, as my animas pump is waterproof I kept my it on and just reduced my basal by around 30% - 40% for a while. However, going to the water park was a different story, I didn't want to break it by forcing the water around it on the rough slides, I also didn't want it to get in the way, so I took it off whilst I was there. This mean't every hour I had to get out, do a test and bolus a little using the ezBG bolus feature on the pump. This worked fairly well with just one low as I was doing exercise and being the first time I had done this it was a bit of an experiment and I thought it went well and I can learn from the bits that didn't go so well!

Lederhosen and Dirndl

So generally Germany was AWSOME and was also well handled diabetes wise. Went spent a whole day at the BEST zoo I have ever been to! (Don't judge you are NEVER to old for going to the zoo!) We also saw some typical German things, such as actual people wearing lederhosen and dirndls which I am kicking myself for not getting a photo of but I can compensate with this one I found on the internet.

I am now planning to go back in February to go skiing which will be only the second time I go and obviously the first time with my pump so we will see how that goes!

Fantastic Mr. Pump!

So I am now on my pump... and it is AMAZING! Seriously, it is the best change I have made in a long time!

Cartridges which are now filling
my diabetes draw!

My blood sugars are sooo much better, I'm now seeing numbers around 6.0 mmol/l and 7.0 mmol/l instead of the 13.0, 15.0, and often even 18.0 mmol/l I was used to seeing before when I was on MDI's. Its so much easier to control and correct those unwanted highs, before when it would be say 11.0 mmol/l and climbing there would be no way that I could correct that because the more I injected the worse my sites got. I had (still have I guess) lipos on the tops of my thighs and my stomach, my endo thought this may be due to me reacting to zinc in the types of insulin I was using (humalog and lantus) so I have now changed to Apidra which also seems better as it works faster lasting just 3 hours as opposed tot he 5 hours that humalog lasts! It is also way easier to prevent lows when doing activities by using temporary basals, this also means I can eat when I want to rather than having to before activity!

Inset II which also litter my
diabetes draw except in blue!

There are loads of feature on the pump which are all pretty useful! The features that I find most useful and use most of all are:

• The ability to reduce and change basal easily for a limited amount of time such as a hour.
• The working out of bolus amounts - meaning less maths! (this is very useful when I'm half awake in the morning!)
• The reminders you can set for after you bolus to check your BG - this is useful to see how I:C ratios are working!

So the pump (which I have named Dory life the forgetful fish in 'Finding Nemo') is Brilliant and if you are unsure of what it can do and have the ability to give it a go do so, even if it is for a few months at least, I understand that usually it takes longer for the settings to be right for most people and I am doing very well in comparison but I would still say give it a go take the leap, if you don't like it then you can always give it back!

Insulin Pump

So, one of the main reasons for setting up this blog was because I had the possibility of getting an insulin pump in a month or so due to HORRIBLY out of control sugar levels that need to be reined in. This is becoming difficult on MDI even with changing almost everything possible so pump it is! :)

I know that getting a pump is not a final solution and a lot of work is needed but hopefully with all my efforts it will offer more control and flexibility for my lifestyle.
I now have a date for training and getting up and running on the pump next Wednesday! I'm excited now!

So what is an insulin pump?

The animas 2020 in blue!

I decided on an Animas pump mostly for the fact that its waterproof but also the way it works and all sorts of reason which appealed to me. So I'm getting a blue Animas 2020 insulin pump next Wednesday and hope it all goes well :) 

An insulin pump is an electronic device about the size of mobile (bit bigger?) that continually delivers insulin through a tube into the body with background rates that can be changed in accordance with activity or time of day. To give insulin for food the user programs in the insulin needed (in different ways on different pumps) to cover the meal. The user can administer corrections if the sugar level is high.

There are different companies which manufacture different pumps with different ways to set them and different ways of working so its up to the person on what they want to get from the pump as to which one they go for.