Day Three of Podding

My third day of using the OmniPod didn't go so well. This is mainly due to my having trouble working out how the extended bolus works.

When I eat food that is high in fat, it keeps my blood sugar from rising for awhile. The extended bolus is meant to help with that by holding back some or all of the insulin bolus for however long the user specifies. My big problem has been in figuring out how long that is. On Saturday morning I ate a banana muffin with peanut butter, and when I took a bolus for it my blood sugar dropped right away and then increased significantly a couple of hours later.

On both Saturday and Sunday I ate a burger and fries for lunch. On Saturday I programmed my extend bolus for two hours, only to have a high blood sugar by the time the pod gave me the bolus. The next day, Sunday, I programmed it for an hour and a half, and again I had high blood sugar by the time of the bolus.

Because of the high blood sugar, I did something stupid. I had a high fat coffee drink at Starbucks but I gave myself the bolus right away -- at the same time the pod gave me the extended bolus from lunch. This resulted in my blood sugar crashing in the middle of Wal Mart -- not surprising, really. I temporarily suspended insulin delivery and ate some candy that I keep in my bag for emergencies.

The rest of day three was uneventful until a couple of hours before bedtime, when the pod suddenly emitted an alarm. Turns out that the insulin reservoir was low. I probably would have had enough to last the night, but I didn't want to risk either going into ketoacidosis overnight or being rudely awakened by another alarm. I decided to change my pod early.

I was nervous about doing everything on my own, since the first time I applied a pod I'd done it under the watchful eye of Nicola the pump trainer, but I had a handy "quick start" guide that was easy to follow. Changing the pod wasn't as difficult as I had feared.

Today I am going to try to find food that isn't as high in fat if I happen to be downtown at lunch time, but I am going to have to figure out that extended bolus eventually if I want to eat pizza ever again.