Taking A Shower With An Insulin Pump
I love “free shower” – which, if you’re diabetic and using an insulin pump or a CGM, you know that means “the shower when you’re changing sites and you don’t have any hubs connected to you.”
It’s nice to lather up and not worry about catching on an infusion set or a sensor edge. Thing is, this is what’s waiting for me when I’m done getting all cleaned up:
The potlock o’ diabetes crap
Yesterday was “free shower” day for me, which is a rarity now that I’m wearing two devices. The chances of an insulin pump change synching up with a Dexcom sensor change are pretty low, so when I’m swapping both, it’s particularly nice. And this scene on the bathroom counter is what needs to be reapplied after the fact.
That’s the potluck of diabetes devices: the Dexcom sensor, transmitter, and receiver, and then the insulin pump, infusion set, cartridge, and little bits associated with pump site changes (like that all-important insulin). If you look fast, you can almost fool yourself into thinking it’s a photo of make-up stuff, like any lady would have on her bathroom counter. But the Sparlings don’t have a “powder room,” – we have a “site change room.”
I’m adjusting, though. Don’t we all? Back when I first started pumping, I was freaked out about the whole “external symptom” because I’d existed 17 years without one. Popping in those first infusion sets and clipping on the pump was a very surreal experience, and one that it took me some time to get used to. (“Do I look like a robot? Not really, but sort of. Am I okay with looking a little like a robot? Do I get special powers? No? That’s only super heroes? Okay, well what do robots get? They’re maids on the Jetsons? WTF?” The internal monologue was constant back in those days.) Adding in the Dexcom sensor and receiver sent me back into that “Wait a minute … I’m now like a SuperRobot!” mode.
But now, it’s been six years with a pump. And almost two and a half years with the Dexcom. So while free showers are nice and I like that feeling of not having anything attached, once I put on the new sensor and the fresh infusion set, I still felt fine. The sites don’t look so scary anymore.
They look … almost right.
(Note: But it may be the ever-growing belly that’s making things look more proportionate lately. Ask me in eight weeks. 
)
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
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