Ketones?

Earlier in the morning, my pod fell off in my sleep without me realizing and I ended up waking with moderate-large ketones. According to google ... "Glucose is the body's main energy source. But when the body can't use glucose for energy, it uses fat instead. When fats are broken down for energy, chemicals called ketones appear in the blood and urine." The amount of ketones I woke up with was the most I've had to deal with. As I tried to stay calm and stay awake I decided to write out how I was feeling. 


You wake up at 5 am, body completely aching, mouth tasting gross and completely dry, and the sudden urge to pee. While you contemplate if you can hold it in until the morning or not, you can feel your heartbeat in your head. Your head feels heavy and about to explode as every heartbeat echoes. BOOMBOOM BOOMBOOM BOOMBOOM. The symptoms finally click in as you reach for your meter, very slowly as you feel your muscles ache. Muscles that you never even knew existed. As you reach for your meter you feel a lump under you, which you later discover was your insulin pump. But for now...you focus on your mission. Get a hold of that meter. And finally, with every achy muscle, your fingertips get a hold of that meter and you check your blood sugar. 27.3! THATS NOT GOOD...you tell yourself. You throw out a few curse words towards the pod and diabetes as you force yourself to get up and head to the washroom. Afterall if you aren't on that toilet in 3 secs...you're gonna pee your pants. Test ketones! Moderate-high! AHH, CRAP...thats the darkest colour you've had to experience. For the first time, you can smell the "sweet" pee everyone has mentioned (TMI?...oops sorry) Your head is still pounding but you try to clear out the fog inside and focus on getting these blood sugars to come down because after all the last place you want to end up is at the ER.

As you sway side to side, slowly twaddling back to bed, leaning on everything to support you because you feel like you're about to pass out...you finally make is back into bed. Slowly change out the pod, praying and hoping that this pod behaves and stays on. Firstly because you hate and avoid site changes and don't want to do anymore. And also because you don't want to end up with more ketones and high blood sugars! 

Ketones

You turn up some Ed Sheeran, curl up into a ball, inject some insulin through a syringe...hoping it works fast! Meet your new best friend, water. And your other best friend, the washroom (in which you've probably thought so many times so far "why can't I have a surgically attached toilet so I wouldn't have to leave my bed every 3 secs) 
You chug on water, go pee it out, curl back into a ball, snooze off for a bit, test blood sugars, test ketones. You're full of emotions, tears, frustrations. You feel weak, with every muscle ache. You don't like being out of control of your body. It's only 5 am...but you're all ready for this day to end. You planned on going to the gym with friends...but hey, diabetes had other plans and you can barely move. So you cancel your plans as you dedicate this day to spending it in bed.


All you need right now is LOTS OF INSULIN, water, and the washroom.

Omnipod thoughts

Happy New Year! Its been a while since I've done a blog post...so here's to hoping I'm productive enough and write more blog posts this year!

I'm a Medtronic pumper, however, over the past two months I've been using Omnipod for a clinical trial I'm participating in.  Through my experience of using the Omnipod I've noticed some disadvantages and advantages about it....so thought I'd share it.


The Omnipod consist of a PDM (personal diabetes management) and a pod.

The PDM is both a blood-sugar meter and your "remote control". All communication to the pod is done through the PDM....boluses, temp basal, carb ratios, ...pretty much everything.

The pod is basically the pump. Unlike Medtronic, the Omnipod is tubeless, which is something I've personally love about it. The pod holds up to 200 units, with a minimum requirement of 80 units. In my personal opinion....it is slightly bulky but is a relatively small size and you can easily be discrete if you want to hide the pod

The biggest disadvantage I'd say about the Omnipod is the PDM. I'm not the biggest fan it. It's large, bulky and pretty old school. The buttons are annoying to press and make a squeaky sound. If I want to just carry the meter on me without my diabetes bag (which I do often) it barely fit in my jeans pocket and make the pocket so bulky. However, Insulet is working on a new touchscreen PDM...which I think will look super cool once its out.

Comparing it to the Medtronic pump, I like that you can bolus from the pump...which stays on my 24/7. Unlike with Omnipod, you can't bolus from the pod. This may not be a disadvantage for many...but for a forgetful person like myself who always leaves her PDM in the car, at work, or at home it might be a slight disadvantage. While the pod still administers basal insulin if the PDM isn't nearby, you can not bolus or put a temp basal without the PDM.

Changing out the pod has to be every 72 hours (+ 8-hour window) ... now, this is definitely a good thing for insulin sensitivity and skin integrity. With the Medtronic pump, the pump continues working after the 72 hours (3 days), therefore many change their site every 4 days rather than 3. However, with Omnipod...the pod alarms at 72 hours and gives you another 8 hours before the pod expires and stops working. 

Now while this hasn't been an issue for me, many of my fellow ponders have complained of having issues with their pod due to static. During the winter weather, the static electricity results in pod failures. This often happens when wearing wooly fabrics over cotton. Hearing about pod failures taught me it is really important to carry a syringe or a spare pod with you at all times because if a pod fails (which doesn't happen often) ... then you can extract the insulin in the pod using a syringe or change out your pod. 

Inserting the pod is super straightforward and easy. The pod self-primes. Requires no inserting of needles or pokes. All is done automatically by the pod. My only comment in this area is, while the pod inserts the cannula it makes a "loud-ish" sound. 

While the pod is recommended on certain areas of the body...compared to Medtronic, you can be very creative in which areas you apply the pod. While the back of my arm is my favourite, I've used my calf, love handles, upper and lower back upper ribcage and abdomen. Be creative! To add on, being able to rotate my pod to so many areas has kept me insulin sensitive and avoided a buildup of scar tissue. This results in better blood sugars!

Comparing the Omnipod to Medtronic, I love the tubeless feature. It has brought so much ease not having to worry about any tubes.  The Omnipod is also waterproof....and while the new 640G Medtronic is also waterproof, I'm not too sure if I would want to swim or shower with a tubed pump, but, with the Omnipod its no hassle at all! 

Lastly, and probably the top reason I like the pod is I get to design it and make it look fancy. I always say, if I have to wear it, it better look good! Overall, I'm a total fan of the pod and enjoy the features it provides! I would totally stick to the Omnipod.