The weeee hours of the morning I heard a fly buzz by my ear.....I grabbed the sheet, and threw it over my head. AH HA fly, I will outsmart you.

It is summer in Nova Scotia, and it is toasty warm. It took only a few minutes and I began to cook under the sheet. I needed fresh air, so off went the sheet, and in came the fly.

Dang you fly, why are you bothering me while I try to sleep?

I rolled over, and grabbed my tester. I had turned my sensor off last night before going to bed. The sensor was on day 6 and I knew in the middle of the night it would end and wake me. If I started a "new sensor" it would wake me as well for a calibration. Rather then fooling around with double calibrations before going to bed, I just turned the sensor off for the night.

Soooo, here I am early in the morning with a fly buzzing around my head, starting up my sensor. I tested, and was alarmed at the higher then normal BGL in the morning. Hmmmm, maybe that is why the fly was buzzing me, for my sweet blood.

I searched through the sheets to find my pump. I could not find it. This is not abnormal, it tends to travel while I am dreaming. I usually start at my pump site and follow the tubing ..... this morning, I could not find either. HUH? I stood up, and found my pump in the sheets, disconnected. During the night, my pump pulled right out of my stomach. I have never had this happen!

I remember the day before saying "During these hot days I have to change my pump site more often, I should do that tonight"

I should have listened to myself! Isn't that always the way!!

Halifax's Bluenose Marathon

May 17th is one of my favorite days of the year in Halifax. This day marks the beginning of spring in my opinion. Haligonians come together for the start of the running season to host and participate in the annual Bluenose Marathon.

I woke yesterday morning to a rainy and cool morning. "GIDDY UP", I said to myself when my alarm went off "LET"S GO GET 'EM!". Off to the races I went....literally!

I met up with my running buddies, and we headed for the race. What a blast! I thank Halifax for the intertia.......keeping all of the runners going through a beautiful race that took us all through many km's of historic streets, through the greenery of the Point Pleasant Park, along the waterfront and dockyards.

I had 3 goals with my race yesterday, and I am happy to say I made them all.

1. First and foremost, make it through the race alive. DONE, that one was easy. My wonderful Medtronic glucose sensor and insulin pump combo allowed me to know at all times where my blood glucose level was at.....I was able to approach each water station and know with confidence if I should drink gatorade or water, if I should take a carbo gel, if I needed a bolus or a stop....... It was such an ease to not have to worry about what my blood sugar was doing during a long race. I could actually focus on my running like all the other racers!

2. Finish in under 2hr30minutes. I ran the half marathon, so that equals 21.1km / 13 miles. I finished in 2hr21 minutes. Not a stellar time, I certainly did not win the race, but I met my goal of under 2hr30 minutes. My time result made me very happy, and later in the summer I will set a goal to shave a few minutes off that time, aim for less then 2hr15minutes!

3. My third, and most important goal, was to finish the half marathon before any of the full marathoners finished their race (How do they run that fast!?!?! They obviously are not short like I am!!!). The lead marathon runner finished in 2hr35minutes.....which is an amazing time (WOW), but still more then my time.

A success! Felt great!

Thanks Halifax!

Giving my carelink username and password?!

What a dilemma. I have an endo appointment monday morning. This is a good thing - my previous endo moved across the country, and after 14 years in this endo clinic, I had to go back to my GP to re-refereed for a new endo. I have had endo's leave in the past, and my case was always handed over to a new physician. Well, this time was different. My Ha1c was not great, but it was good enough to triage in to a 2+ year wait list to be assigned a new endo........now the wait is over.

I have been emailing back and forth with my education nurse, who thanks to the small number of patients on pumps, she remembers me by name. She said, if I gave her my username and password for carelink, she would print all of the data off for the Dr.

This is very helpful - and I agreed.....but now I sit and think about how my views of my diabetes control have changed over the years, especially over the past years since I ventured in to "adulthood". Take this scenario when I was 15 years old, and I would have been hiding all of the bad readings in order to avoid the "lectures". Now, I am laying it all out there.

There is a part of the health care system that is steering away from the "lecture" technique to encourage proper diabetes care....and allowing persons to step back and accept that their control may not be perfect, but small changes and small steps will make a big difference. Maybe adding a bit of realism?

I do feel vulnerable allowing people in to my secret diabetes world. All of the data that is secretly stored in my pump will be examined and critiqued by my diabetes health team......my goodness I don't even like people to see my meter screen when I test!

This is my first appointment with no carelink limitations. Last time, I took in the printouts I wanted the Dr to see. This time........

Cozmo exits the pump scene

Yahoo Canada News

I'm watching the snow blow horizontally across the beach....

Over the holidays, I was up in Ontario visiting family.

I flew out of Halifax, during the January 1st winter storm. We were experiencing an extreme blizzard, and the flight I was scheduled on was cancelled........and re-cancelled......cancelled again......and again......and then after multiple stand-by flights, I did made it to Ontario.

No surprise, but during this process, my luggage was lost.

Thankfully, I had my life packed in my carry on .... with the exception of clothes for the week. Easy enough.

I spent the week in Ontario with no luggage. No winter clothes, no gifts for the people I was going to visit (I am going to rewrap them in Easter wrapping paper!!), but still had a WONDERFUL time.

I received my bag back, a week later, on the day I was returning to Halifax.

When I arrived at the check-in terminal at the airport, with my bag, I was asked "Has this bag been in your possession the entire time?".

I looked at the agent who was waiting to take my bag, and I said "Well actually no. It has not been".

She stopped, and looked at me, waiting further explanation.

"Well??", she said, "where has it been that it was out of your possession? We need to know for security purposes"

"Funny that", I said, "the bag has been with Air Canada for the past seven days. I just received it back. For once, I can not answer yes to this question"

I asked if she wanted to take a look in the bag. She seemed unimpressed, said no, and the bag was checked through.

Funny that..............

Almost to the new year.....so close.....

2009 is almost days away, which means I need to compile my "to do" list for the year......

Places I want to go, people I want to see, things I want to do.....stay tuned :)

The list-making queen is at work!

Brrrr that was fast....

I have no doubt that Purolator is FAST, in terms of their $hipping. I also have no doubt that Medtronic is fast with their order processing. Combine these two and you result in top notch customer service. I have never been let down by either.

Something changed recently, with the shipping process for the Medtronic glucose sensors. I was not aware .... hence this posting.

I enjoy ordering online, rather then speaking in person to someone in a call centre. No offense to the actual human interactions, but I enjoy the simplicity of the "click and ship" process. No dialing, no voice prompted menus, no waiting!

I booted up the Medtronic website the other night to order my glucose sensors. I have been without sensors for awhile now, but made the realization these little gems are the key to my diabetes control. I dusted off the credit card, and ... click click click, they were on their way.

I went on to the Medtronic website the next day to track my order. Another technological advance we have all grown to love, the ability to track every move our parcels make along the way. "oh look, the truck just hit a bump outside of Montreal. Oh look, the driver has stopped for a pee". Play by play, 24 hours a day.

When I checked the status of the order 24 hours after it was placed, I saw no update. "Ok, no problem, likely a Christmas delay. I am sure Glucose Sensors are a hot item on everyone's Christmas Wish list......what, no?". The next day, I was off to work. I started my work day at noon, and worked through until midnight. I was very tired when I pulled in to the driveway ..... put out the garbage, and then crawled in to bed.

Before closing my eyes, I pulled out the laptop to check the status of my Northern Vagabond. I saw my web browser still open to the Medtronic tracking page, so I clicked refresh to see the play by play updates! I was taken back when I read the following line "Item delivered to residence at 13:25".

"WHAT?". No one was here.....I saw not box on the kitchen table....no sticky on the door....what does this mean?

I jumped out of bed, ran down the stairs an opened the front door.

There is front of me, on the front steps, was a very chilly box from Medtronic. Sitting on the front door step like a dog waiting to come in the house.

I looked at the clock, 02:15. I looked at the thermometer, -10 degrees.

My box of 4 glucose sensors, that cost $220.00, sat on the front steps of my house, for over 13 hours at sub zero temperatures. I had to literally scrape the ice off the box to open and inspect the contents.

I called to Medtronic in the morning, to see why this happened. Typically I have to sign for the parcel, to keep it safe. It seems enough people complained about missing their deliveries that Medtronic took away the need for a signature on arrival. Wow, the internet site did not mention this during the ordering process!

Medtronic states they have tested and can confirm the sensors are good to -20. I am not comfortable that my sensors spent over 13 hours in the subzero temperatures. I asked the rep at Medtronic if I could store them in the freezer from now on (yes, I was a LITTLE sarcastic). I was advised the sensors do not even need to be refrigerated anymore. I had heard this rumor, but I have also heard the fragility of the chemical compounds on the sensor itself. I have heard the sensors are sensitive to "movement", and now I wonder how extreme temperature fluctuations would affect these sensor chemicals.

The sensors are sitting in my closet now, at a toasty 20 degree temperature.

We will see how these sensors will pan out. I will start one up in the morning and get back online. I know for next time to expect Purolator to drop the parcel anywhere and anytime. I do have the ability to request a signature on the parcel when ordering, to avoid this from happening. If I had not checked that webpage in the wee hours, I can guarantee those sensors would still be on my front door step. I only check those steps on Saturday and Sunday.....when the weekend newspapers arrive! By tonight, they would have been under a foot of freshly fallen snow.

Well, truth be told, I am very happy to have my little friends back. Merry Christmas to me!