OH THE HORROR!!! Malfunctions galore.

Old post from February......


The old saying "Anything that can go wrong, will." rang very true today. TWICE!!! I woke up for class this morning and as always, went to promptly check my blood sugar.

Strip in the meter. Blank screen.

Held the power button. Nothing.

Changed the batteries. Nada. Zilch. Ditto.

Luckily for me, I am an incredibly intelligent human being with just a dash of OCD, so I always carry a backup. OneTouch UltraMini to the rescue!!! I mean it's probably the most boring, featureless meter out there but in the end, it does what it's supposed to. 

Here's where it gets fun. 

After class I got back to my room and went to call Animas Tech Support. As I was taking the skin off my pump to read the toll free number listed on back, the bottom corner of the keypad pulled away from the pump. Well damn.

My conversation with the Animas rep went a little like this…

Rep: "Hello Animas tech support, how can I help you."

Me: "I swear I'm not abusing my pump but everything is broken!!"

Rep: "……….could you elaborate?"

Long story short, both my meter and my pump are getting replaced within about a week. In the meantime the pump is still functioning and I shall be using my backup meter. 

NO WAY!!!

So I'm out for a midnight run to McDonald's with a bunch of my friends and I saw this girl there that I was acquaintances with. I went over to say hi and catch up because I hadn't seen her in awhile. We were sitting at one of the tables and she asked me if I was buying anything else. I responded with "No I have to be careful about what I eat because I've got diabetes." She just looked at me dumbstruck and was like "You have diabetes? Me too!" I hadn't known this fact about her before and because I have only been a diabetic for 8 weeks and I hadn't seen her since then and the topic of diabetes had never come up. We went on to have a huge conversation and yes, it came to us excitedly showing off our meters and insulin pens to each other. Some of my other friends walked in and I was literally jumping up and down and pretty much yelled "She has diabetes too!" Everyone in McDonald's must have thought we were insane. But then again it was the middle of the night and it was mostly filled with teenagers. She was just as excited as me because she also thought that she was the only one in our town that was our age who had type 1.

But hang on, here's the craziest part. About an hour later after this girl had left, I was still at McDonald's talking with my other group of friends and one of their friends who I'd never met before. My friend Lara and I were just getting up to go home and I was still talking about how excited I was that I had met another diabetic. Anyway, this girl that my friends brought with them looked up at me and said "Wait, you have diabetes? Same here!" Well to say the least my mind was blown. I looked to Lara who was getting ready to drive me home and just said "Well we can't leave now!" Same story as before. We talked about our diagnosis and experiences. This one girl had had a couple runs of DKA (Diabetic Ketoacidosis) just like I had when I was first diagnosed.

 My excitement was through the roof. I mean, what are the chances that I had never met another T1D and I meet TWO my age in the space of about two hours at the same place? It was so neat to talk to people who had to go through the same stuff as me and who completely understood. We must have looked like losers showing and comparing our meters and medical alert bracelets but to be honest it was so awesome to be able to see that someone else other than myself had to live with this condition on a daily basis. Although neither one of these girls goes to my school, I have swapped numbers with them and we have been talking non stop since last night. I guess they're right when they say "you're not alone".