Hello, PHARMAC. So long, Southern Cross.

28 February 2009
14 Comments

So…. it’s taken me a while to get going on this (probably something to do with the crazy workload I had for the entire second half (and most of the first half) of last year. Never mind, I’m moving ahead with it now.

A number of you regular readers of this blog have commented on the less-than-ideal situation that is us type 1s who want to use insulin pump therapy being hit in the pocket for it. I totally agree: $7000+ up front for the insulin pump, then $200 a month to pay for all the consumables (not to mention the extra dollars we spend on things like glucose tablets, hand sanitiser, sterile wipes, batteries etc etc) is TOTALLY UNCOOL.…

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By Nic on 28 February 2009 at 1.36 pm
Posted in Funding, Insulin Pumps
This post has 14 comments so far. Add yours here.

Guest Blog: Notice of impending doom!

27 February 2009
5 Comments

Forget the recession, forget global warming, forget interest rates and terrorism because I just ate Fish’n’Chips for lunch, had to guess the carb content and it was fatty as all hell. And I only have one test strip left.

Stay tuned for an update later today on how it goes!

- Aaron

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By Aaron on 27 February 2009 at 12.13 pm
Posted in Food
This post has 5 comments so far. Add yours here.

5 reasons why I shouldn’t have got out of bed this morning.

25 February 2009
13 Comments

6:00am: alarm went off to exercise. Tested. 3.0. Ate glucose and aborted exercise.
11:00am: That cafe incident.
2:40pm: Cannula failure. BG spikes to 15.6, then 17.6 half an hour later by which time I take two large correction boluses and resign myself to having to change sites.
4:45pm: realise whatever the problem was, it’s somehow been fixed and I’ve now completely overdosed on insulin – am at a 4.4 and dropping rapidly. Have to (you guessed it) stuff my face with more glucose to save from impending hypo. No wonder people think I have ‘fat diabetes’.
6:30pm: come home to a rejection letter from Southern Cross health insurance. I wrote a letter to them about two

…

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By Nic on 25 February 2009 at 8.17 pm
Posted in Exercise, Funding, Hypos & Hypers, Insulin Pumps, Slice of Life
This post has 13 comments so far. Add yours here.

From colostomy bags to amputations.

25 February 2009
7 Comments

I just had to write this post in my lunch break because it’s been distracting me from my work all morning. This comment actually outdoes the colostomy bag comment of 2008 I’m pleased to say (because that comment was made by a very dear friend of mine who was just being dopey and she was as upset about it as I was at the time).

I just met up with a rep from Animas because I’d enquired about looking at some alternative options for infusion sets. We went to a café down the road from my work (which will remain un-named). We were sitting there with our coffees plus a pile of different…

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By Nic on 25 February 2009 at 11.45 am
Posted in Complications, Slice of Life
Tagged as
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Logic? Where we’re going we don’t need logic.

24 February 2009
3 Comments

It’s coming up to that tricky time of month for me: the time when I almost need to double my basals overnight, and when my insulin resistance is at an all-time high. So – when I woke up yesterday at a 13.8 I realised it was probably about time I changed to my 24 hour basal pattern which has higher doses especially for this one to two week phase.

I was off to the gym this morning for a 6am class so wanted to make extra sure I wasn’t waking up high and having to miss the class. Set my alarm for 2am and things were tracking nicely. 5.2. I went back to sleep just hoping I wouldn’t drop any…

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By Nic on 24 February 2009 at 6.57 am
Posted in Exercise, Hypos & Hypers
This post has 3 comments so far. Add yours here.