De-mystifying the motor errors

Before Diabetes Blog Week started, you may recall that I was whining a bit about insulin pump motor errors.

Well, I don’t know what caused them – and Medtronic has certainly been willing to work with me so I don’t end up in a potentially troublesome situation (i.e. like Swampy, but asking “Where’s my Insulin?”), but I’ve decided to make a few changes on my own, just in case. But first…

Every time I’ve had a problem with my Revel, I wax nostalgia about my old Medtronic 515 which worked for years without even a hiccup. What’s different about that pump and this one? Well, first of all, the older one had much less precision with insulin delivery. I don’t know the numbers off the top of my head, but the old one only gave me the choice of one digit beyond the decimal point, while the newer one gives me a choice of at least two. That’s a tenfold increase in precision right there if you’re talking bolus.  But if you’re in the basal-domain, take the hourly basal and divide it by sixty minutes (or however often the pump delivers pieces of basal) and you’ve got some really tight tolerances.

Maybe those tighter tolerances mean a better ability to detect when the pump falls out of those tolerances? Though the official definition of a Motor Error is vague and circular at best,  The best definition I’ve heard of a motor error is that it occurs when the piston doesn’t line up where it’s expected. It makes sense to me, so I’m sticking with it.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Today is May 21, 2013. It has been thirty-two years since my diagnosis.

Life goes on.

#DBlogWeek ’13 – Day 4 – Coming out of hiding

It’s Diabetes Blog Week again! For the next four days, I’ll be letting other people dictate my blogging topics (I relinquished control this time last year, too). Today I’m supposed to write about accomplishments, big and small. But writing for seven days straight is hard – so instead I’m going to do it in pictures.

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Just two short years ago, I was shy about my diabetes. I kept it to myself and kept all signs of it hidden.

Just two short years ago, none of these images would have been possible.

#DBlogWeek ’13 – Day 3 – How I met your mother

(Or, more accurately: How my mother met your mother)

It’s Diabetes Blog Week again! For the next five days, Karen , author of Bitter-Sweet diabetes, will tell me what to write about. (She did this last year, too). Today, she wants me to write about a memorable diabetes day. I don’t know if this one is my MOST memorable, especially since the most significant diabetes-events tend to be the ones where I’m in no capacity to remember things, but here goes…

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This happened over ten years ago. Add old-age to hospital-grade hypoglycemia, and memories get hazy, but I’ll do my best.

Back then, I was living alone in a second floor apartment in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. I was dating a girl who lived on the outskirts of Queens, NY. Because of the distance between us, we only saw each other on weekends – and the “dates” usually included an overnight stay.

Don’t judge.

It’s wiggity, wiggity, wiggity wack

How does the model keep the transmitter from flopping around without IV3000?
Source: Medtronic PR photo

After writing yesterday’s post, I had some time for some more rational thought, and I remembered the reasons I use the suite of diabetes devices that I do.

1. The meter automatically sends my BG’s to the pump
2. The meter automatically sends my BG’s to the CGM
3. The CGM is built-in to the pump
4. The meter is small, accurate, and uses little blood.
5. The buttons don’t fall off.

These features are important to me.