A few days ago, I was changing my insulin pump cartridge. This is something I do every six days. For me, the insulin pump cartridge holds about a seven day supply of insulin. Why don’t I make use of that seventh day of insulin? I wrote a little bit about this a few days ago. Here’s a link to that entry:

Insulin absorption rates

Basically, the reason I don’t use that seventh day of insulin in a cartridge is I change my infusion site every three days. I can install a new seven day supply of insulin every sixth day (that is, on alternate changes of the infusion site).

Anyway, I noticed something about my pump as I was changing my insulin pump cartridge. The front LCD display which shows status information and allows me to input data such as bolus amounts, basal rates, etc. is getting really scuffed up. So badly that it’s getting hard to read. Here’s a photo that, hopefully, will give you an idea of the state of the LCD display.

I’ve been using this particular insulin pump unit since last September (nine months now). My previous insulin pump was the same model and I used it for a year and a half without ever noticing any difficulties in reading the LCD display.

I’m not sure what’s going on with it for sure. My theory, however, is that it doesn’t really like being carried around in a rear pocket of a cycling jersey every day. The jersey material feels quite soft, but maybe hanging around in it for 4-6 hours every day is taking a toll.

I wonder also if it could be something I carry in the jersey pocket with my pump. Except that I don’t generally carry other stuff in the same pocket as my jersey. Why? Suppose I were to be cycling and trying to reach in that pocket to get out whatever it is that’s in the pocket with the pump (maybe it’s an energy bar). If the insulin infusion line were to get tangled up with it, I might pull the pump out with it. Depending on the length of the infusion line (I usually use 110 centimeter infusion lines, but sometimes I use 80 centimeter ones), the pump could do one or more of the following, each of which would be very bad:

• Drop to the ground and drag
• Drop and get tangled in the rear wheel
• Drop and not hit the ground, but by the weight of the pump, pull out my infusion site. As I’m cycling and sweating, I find that my site isn’t nearly as secure as it is when I’m not sweating, so this is a real concern.

I’ve never had any of these things happen, but the concern that it might happen keeps me from carrying things in the same pocket with my pump.

Of course, some of you might be thinking “Why don’t you just stop before you pull anything out of your jersey pocket?” Good idea! And, actually, that’s exactly what I do IF I’m carrying anything in that pocket with my insulin pump.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 4th, 2006 at 6:27 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Diabetes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.