Talkin' 'bout my wheels of steel!

Ah Saxon, thank you for giving me the title to my latest blog post as well as a damn good song.

So, when I started pumping I always had one thing that I wouldn't try, that was a steel cannula. Now thanks to a very kind person on the CWD mailing list I've now had a couple of them. This I suppose is something of a review.
Insertion:
These are relatively easy to put in as there's no faffing about with a Quick Serter or things like that. It's just a case of popping it in and leaving it there.

Comfort:
Now this is what I thought would be the problem when I did my research into the cannulas. I can't feel it at all. Even as I write this I have one in and it's no different to wearing an ordinary cannula. I like very much. The only downside is that it has an away from site disconnection thing. That's to say there are two bits that stick on instead of one. Small issue really. Then I have the equivalent of a tegaderm covering this one and the only issue with it will be when I take it off and it gives me an impromptu wax.
Also there wasn't a lump when I took out the first one. That's a first for me.

Endurance:
Now, in theory every cannula should be changed every three days. I managed to get four out of the first Sure T (for this is what they are called) and I'm sure I could have got more. My Silhouettes and Quicksets tend to last about four days at the most.

Overall I quite like them and I will be asking for several boxes when I make my next order with Medtronic. It'll be nice to have a change from the Teflon ones from time to time.

A new job and all the fun that comes with it.

So, this post does come a bit late but then again better late than never. For those that don't know I'm now working as a Health Care Assistant in the local hospital. I work on the Orthopaedic and Trauma ward. It's rather eye opening to say the least.
Now, as you can appreciate with the D a new job means just a little bit more than standing around, keeping quiet and learning. It means trying to sort out new insulin regimes and that. For me on a pump this is somewhat easier than it would be on MDI. Well, I say easier because when I've got it right it will seem like an absolute joy because my BG's will be pretty damn good and hopefully there won't be many problems. However, before I get to that stage there remains alot of tinkering to be doing. Now that I've been at the job for a little over a month now I've got a pretty good idea of the patterns of activity in my shifts and what temporary basals work when. Now to translate all that into actually doing things, which, as you can probably guess by my writing this is that I'm shirking doing that and have yet to do it. This is the plan for the rest of today. Fingers crossed.
As a rule of thumb, I find that a seventy percent temporary basal works well throughout the majority of my shift and alot of square wave boluses help avoid post prandial hypos. Now time to do something and actually sit down and work out all that I need to for this to happen.

Tom