Disconnected - A day at Wet 'n' Wild

I woke  up this morning and after a week of having to drag the kids to work after school I thought it would be a great idea to get them out and take them to the local water park. This means swimming, water slides and a big day of walking around and climbing stairs.

OH wait I am on a pump!!!! This is something that comes to mind as to on of the concerns before going on a pump and for a lot if not all non pumpers the fear of having the pump connected to you 24x7 is scary and then the thought of having to disconnect for a period of time scares the hell out of most. Yes it is something that has to be managed but what day isn't full of management for this lovely disease.

So here is my day.

7am - Get up and have normal breakfast - BGL 6.5 mmol

7.10am - Have the children jumping around the house trying to get everything together for a day at the water park. BGL - 6.5 mmol

8.45am - Leave for the water park which is 40 mins away - BGL 7.2 mmol

9.45am - Standing in a ridiculous long line waiting to get into the theme park. (This may seem strange to say but in fact the amount of people and the length of the line is a critical part of what I was going to do today. The longer your standing still in lines the longer your not using the glucose up in your blood stream) - BGL 5.2 mmol

10.15am - We are in and locker for the day procured to hold all of our valuables. This includes watch, keys, wallet, a complete set change and spare insulin and yes my pump (and all the usual pool stuff). - BGL 5.2 mmol

The next 2 hours were full of water slides, swimming in the wave pool, sitting in tubes going around a lagoon, walking as quick as possible on the scolding ground trying not to burn our feet, climbing stairs and hills to get to the top of the slides and yes waiting in lines. The crowd today wasn't to bad so I think in the first 2 hours our longest wait was only 20 mins.

12.45pm - Ok the first check to see how things are going. The kids and I head back to the locker to test and reconnect for some lunch. I get my tester out and follow the usual process and to my surprise BGL 4.5 mmol. Now keep in mind my morning bolus amount was done at 7am so any residual insulin from that was gone and the exercise that we were doing was helping to keep the high sugars away. We had our lunch which consisted of a BBQ sausage in a roll and a diet coke. This was bloused for and I was connected for the duration of lunch. We then headed back to the locker to disconnect again. BGL 4.5 mmol

1.30pm - The fun resumes and I think it is time for the kids to head to one of the fastest slides in the park. Well for my 9 y/o anyway.

3.30pm - After another 2 hours of jumping to the shadows on the hot ground. listening to kids scream as they fly down the slides and just having fun the we all deserve from time to time it was time to call it a day. We headed back to the locker for another test, to reconnect and to collect our belongings. I take my meter out and preform the test BGL 5.9 mmol. I was ecstatic that the day had played out as it should. BGL 5.9 mmol

4pm - We headed home and I continued to test and the highest that I went to was 8.9 mmol. This I was happy with.

All in all I write this not to gloat and not to blow my own horn but to let people know that even though we have this disease and even though it takes management day in and day out we are able to push through and work out what is best for us. Being connected to the pump does not mean limitations it actually means greater amount of flexibility.  

One size fits all

This may be the case when we look at some hats, stretchy clothes and accessories however in the world of T1D nothing can be further from the truth. In the general public, through the media promoting a very general picture when it comes to T1D, T2 or even T1.5, it is believed that if you have Diabetes you have one not looked after yourself or your parents haven't provided  a healthy lifestyle when your a child. So in short the perception is that one size does fit all or even most.

What the general public do not realize is that there are so many things that are different to each and every T1D -

• The only one thing that is the same is that we all have a auto immune system that doesn't like out Beta insulin producing cells and we can either no longer create insulin or are on the way to that.

• How exercise effects us can be different. During and after the exercise some peoples adrenaline will cause the BSL to increase rapidly and then find that a drop in the actual BSL from the exercise will happen after the adrenaline subsides. Others have a drop during or straight after.

• Basal rates (the background insulin either with short acting insulin through a pump or long acting insulin on MDI) will be different. Mine change depending on the time of day. For some reason when my body rests is when I need the highest amount of basal insulin. Others such as my daughter have a very low rate over night and higher rates during the day.

• Food can have very big differences on everyone. A simple piece of bread can effect one person in one way and someone else completely different. Different times of the day is also able to see different insulin requirements for the carbohydrates eaten. Breakfast lunch and dinner are all different in my pump. 

• The way in which people are effected by highs and lows also vary greatly. Some people are highly susceptible to  DKA or dangerous lows without really knowing. Other people will know it is coming before it gets to a dangerous level. Some people become emotional with lows, some people get the shakes, some sweat heavily and there are many other possibility that are experienced however these are what I feel sometimes singularly and sometimes all together.

• Management methods are different also. Some people are happy with the management that MDI give them however there are others that have become fed up with the constant injections and move to the insulin infusion pump. As technology changes I am sure there will be more options with management so time will tell what other differences there will be.

Even though this list isn't complete as there are differences each and every day that show that One size does not fit all T1D's.