The new purple pancreas was with us for a very short period of time so it will not be receiving the 21 gun salute that the original purple pancreas received. In fact, if not returning the pump didn't cost $3,000+ for not returning (can you follow all those negatives?) it would currently be somewhere between my apartment and the Pacific Ocean for how far I would have thrown it! The freaking thing lasted from late August until mid-November; not my idea of a quality built product. Alas, here I am waiting for my new pump to arrive - it won't arrive until Wednesday, so I'm on lantus for the first time since June, 2008 for 24 hours.
The beauty of Triabetes and the diabetic community was on full display last night. After my pump would not prime and a ton of moisture was underneath the screen I called Medtronic. Since my pump died at like 9:15 pm PDT, UPS could no longer ship it out for next day delivery. Apparently Big Brown says you have to place an order by 11pm central time for it to arrive the next day. That doesn't sound like just in time logistics to me; but whatever I guess commercials lie.
I hopped on gmail to see if any of the local Triabetes crew was online, God smiled down on me as Anne of Annetics happily had the green available to chat button next to her name. The crazy thing is Anne was one of the first diabetics I had ever spoken with, how I became involved in Triabetes and was a guiding light during my early days of both triathlon training and more importantly managing the D.
Our conversation went something like - "Hey Anne, my pump broke, do you have any lantus or syringes?" Anne replied, "let me check; yep I do, come on over!" Simple as that I wouldn't have to totally freak out for 24 hours without any tail. I do feel kind of paralyzed though. I was supposed to ride in GG Park this morning with a friend of mine from SF Tri Club but I had to bail because I'm not sure at all how my body will respond to lantus. So for 24 hours I'll be eating pretty light (not that, that's a huge change) but won't have the ability to really work out. I remember when I was on multiple-injections I was low pretty much all the time so I'll just have to be extra vigilant about that today.
Pretty frustrating that technology failed me again so quickly. Maybe it's because I went for a run in the rain with my pump; maybe it's because it was a refurbished pump. I love the purple pancreas but lets just say if any pump manufacturers want to sponsor me right now I wouldn't be opposed to switching.
1 comment:
You mentioned "a ton of moisture underneath the screen". Do you know what might have caused it? I'm on my 3rd Medtronic pump in just over 2 years. Both of my previous pumps developed cracks in the outer casing. And no, I have no idea how they got there. I will give Medtronic credit for how quickly they respond when things go wrong. I was fortunate that my pump was still usable while I waited for a replacement. I can only imagine the frustration you went through and how long those 36 hours must have been.
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