It takes a little bit of getting used to, this pump business. On MDI (multiple daily injections) you can’t help but see how much insulin you have left in the vial because you are looking at it every time you inject.

However, on the pump you don’t look so much. The cartridge is round the side, at the back – you’re always looking at the screen as you navigate through all of the programming options. Which is not to say you don’t have full visibility at all times regarding how much there is left in the cartridge – there’s a display on the home screen indicating how many units you have left, and how much battery power you have remaining. For some reason though, I don’t notice this all that much.

So – I feel a little more exposed on running out of insulin nowadays. Previously, it wasn’t ideal if you forgot your short acting, but with the cover from your long acting insulin you could just make sure you didn’t eat any carbs until you were re-united with your insulin and it would be generally ok.

Of course on a pump, your short acting is also your long acting, so the longer you go without insulin in the tank, the more steadily your blood sugars will rise. So it’s super important you don’t run out ever.

For that reason I’ve finally gone to the effort of storing some insulin at work. My agency has about 80 people in it so I’ve been reluctant to put insulin in the fridge to date, just purely because the chances of it getting moved around or misplaced are higher. However it now sits proudly in the client kitchen fridge and hopefully it won’t get lost.

Have a lovely Friday and weekend people!