Trouble in paradise?

So me and my pump are not currently on speaking terms. I'm 'in a mood', and giving it the silent treatment, despite it being our ‘one week anniversary’. It has given me so much grief and stress this weekend I think my hair is going grey.

I'll take you back to Friday when it all went horribly wrong. My blood sugars had been great all day, and I was getting ready for my 2nd night out since the pump with some friends (I must have been feeling particularly sociable this week).

I tested my blood sugar just before I was about to leave to find that it was 19. This is very, very bad. I gave myself a correction and helplessly waited at home, testing every 10 minutes to see if it was going down.

This high blood sugar was annoying for several reasons.

I was all dressed up in my glad rags and moments away from possibly having the best night in my life (doubtful, but who knows)

They had been fine all day, why had it decided to spike now?

Was my pump working? Had I eaten something and forgotten to adjust my insulin?

So I sat and waited... and waited.... and finally it started coming down. It should normally take between 15 and 30 minutes for quick acting insulin to take effect. Which just proves that my pump was in fact working, and I know that I added my food up correctly the last time I ate.

Despite all this I left the house and went out with my friends. But at the back of my mind I was constantly thinking about my blood sugars, and sneaked off to the toilets every so often to test them.

The next day I got up at 7am to catch an early train to London, I'm moving there in 3 weeks and was planning to stay with my cousin Saturday night and explore the area a bit more.

My blood sugar was 15 when I got up, again annoying, but I was due for a site change and decided to disconnect, have a shower and then put in a new cannula/cartridge.

When I got out the shower I was experiencing classic hyper symptoms. I was thirsty, had a dry mouth and my vision was going a bit blurry. I tested (by this point my fingers were ready to drop off) and it was 25!

I went into panic mode. I did my infusion sight quickly and gave myself a correction. Thinking it would sort itself out in half an hour, or at least drop, I carried on getting ready so I could make my train.

But oh no, my blood sugar was rising, so obviously there was some sort of problem with my pump.

I went through all the possible reasons why the pump might not be working, and noticed that the tubing was all scratched and kinked. It was clearly faulty.

By this point I was in tears, I had missed my train. I felt so alone and scared, all I wanted was to take the stupid thing off and crawl back to bed as if none of it had happened.

But I couldn’t. I changed the tubing and sure enough, my blood sugars started to come back down. My worried parents offered to pay for a new train ticket so I could still go down to London as planned. Within an hour my blood sugar had come down considerably, I dried my eyes and made my way to the station.

I could try and pretend that this has been a one off weekend where things have gone wrong, but I don’t think that is realistic. I think I’m probably going to encounter a few more ‘teething’ problems in the next few months before I’m settled. I just hope that each time I get stronger and can cope with it better.

I’m putting a lot of faith into this little machine and feel a bit betrayed by it right now. Hopefully this will just be ‘a lover’s tiff’ and we will kiss and make up by next weekend