Diabetes Bites, but Fun is on the Way

Text Size:

It has not been a good diabetes week. I do not like having diabetes this week. My insulin infusion sites are not lasting and my continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is being obstinate.

It’s recommended that pumpers change insulin infusion sites at least every three days. Mine aren’t even lasting that long these days. About day two, I get a lump and a bit of red where the catheter enters my skin. I suppose, after about 13 years of using an insulin pump and putting the infusion sets into my abdomen, it’s time to give my tummy a rest for a few months.

Which begs the question: Where do I go? I’ve never liked using my leg — not even for injections — and anywhere else is difficult to access. Well, except for the breast. One person I know uses her breast. All I can say about that is “Ewwwww!” My sweet baboo may have to help me out here with hip and arm sites.

(As an aside, do those of you who do insulin injections or use an insulin pump train your partner or somebody else to check your glucose, give you injections, do insulin pump set changes, or operate your pump? I’ve always taught my husband to do those things, which was handy a couple of times recently when I was in the hospital and unable to do so myself.)

I’m just plain frustrated with the CGM. It just isn’t cooperating this week. It will tell me I’m at 109 mg/dl and my meter will say 42. Or the CGM will say 264 and my meter will say 172. When I enter the meter’s number into the CGM, it says “you’ve gotta be kidding!” I’m hoping it’s a bad sensor or bad site. We’ll see with the next sensor. It’s my new CGM and I’m only on the third sensor: The matches were pretty good with the first two. And, again, it may be a placement problem: Sensors go on the abdomen, too.

At any rate, I got tired of contemplating these things yesterday and decided to play trips instead. I think I like planning traveling as much as I like to travel.

Coming up? An overnight to Chicago in November to see “Ann,” a show about the late Ann Richards, who was governor of Texas from 1990–1994. I heard her speak once and she was a riot. Hotel reservations were made about a month ago and I finally got around to booking tickets yesterday.

Maybe we will go to South Carolina in December. I still haven’t seen Dad. If we do, it probably will be a family trip. You know — load up the van and drive. For two days. Yuck! At least both children drive now and can take their turns. But I dislike sitting for that long.

In January, my granddaughter and I are taking a long weekend in New York City. January is a strange time to go to NYC, but the hotels are more affordable then. (I said “more” affordable! We may be able to also eat.)

She’d mentioned a couple of times she’d like to go to New York, then she said she’d like to see Avenue Q. She’s 18, so I figure she’s old enough to see it now. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, it’s a musical with naughty language and puppet sex.)

Last weekend, I asked her what she wanted to do besides see Avenue Q. “I don’t know,” she said. “What’s there? Do they have bagels?”

She was joking about the bagels. I think. Sometimes I worry about that child going out on her own.

April is the month I’m really looking forward to. My traveling bud, Sandy, and I are flying to Florida where we’ll meet up with a mutual friend for a couple of days, then set sail for a 16-night trip through the Panama Canal, ending up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. From there, we’ll take a train to Seattle for a couple of nights before flying back home.

We’ve already made hotel and plane reservations for that trip, figuring that April in Florida may not be the best time to wait until the last minute. For that matter, I’m finding that I can no longer wait until the last minute since I now need special accommodations. Hotels don’t seem to have a lot of accessible rooms and airplanes seem to fill up from front to back.

Despite now having a prosthetic leg that’s comfortable, I still can’t walk far. It’s not the leg: It’s the arthritis in the knees. I couldn’t walk far before the amputation and, since I still have my lousy knees, that hasn’t changed.

Things sure have changed since the days when I’d put a baby on my hip, sling a weekend bag over my shoulder and take off. With diabetes and a mobility problem, it sometimes seems as if I need a moving van to get from one place to another.

But I don’t plan on letting any of that slow me down.

Save Your Favorites

Save This Article