It occurred to me today that I’ve only ever physically met two other people who wear an insulin pump! The first was a young man who was visiting Byron Bay and who showed me how his pump operated, not long before I got mine. His demo was a great experience for me. The second person was my Animas pump-start rep.

Now that I’ve moved to a more populated area, I’m hoping I’ll meet more pump users. While the Diabetes online community (DOC) is teaming with pump users, and I’ve come to know many of them over the past couple of years, talking face-to-face with others seems to be quite a different experience.

I was a bit worried about getting a new Diabetes Educator up here. I’ve known about one DE who is in private practice in this area. I wasn’t sure I could afford appointments with her, but since I’ve made further enquiries, it seems I can. I’m really excited to be seeing Deb Foskett from Insulin Pump Angels. She not only comes highly recommended but has won awards as a DE. I’m not sure when I’ll be seeing her yet, because I need to get some referrals from my family dcotor, but I’m hoping it will be soon.

So that’s one worry about being in a new area, organised and solved!

I’ve also had an endo recommended to me, so I’ll give him a go too. Apparently appointments take a while. No problem – I’m not so eager to see an endo right now.

Being up here has played some havoc with my diabetes. I have no idea why. I’ve had to increase my basal by a quarter of a unit for about three quarters of the day! Yet, I seem to be more active here! I’m still going to have to tweak the basal a tad. It’s not quite right yet.

I’ve been in the pool nearly every day, and I’m still working out how to avoid higher BGs when I get out, despite exercising in the pool. I must say that with all my aches and pains, I’m feeling ever so comfortable swimming and floating around weightless and cool. It’s hot here – so far, not as hot as it can get, but hot enough. (Read: too hot for me.) The pool is a godsend!

The winters here, like Byron Bay, will be glorious! Few more months before that though.

Annoyingly, I’m getting raised BGs after some very low-to-moderate exercise in the pool. Really, there’s hardly any effort at all in 30 minutes of swimming, floating and walking in the pool.

What usually happens to me is that the first lot of increased activity for the day raises my BG and the second lot (if there is one) lowers it.

I’ve not yet experienced this amount of swimming on a pump, so it’s an experiment in itself to see how I’m going to manage it. So far, I’ve only been in the pool once per day. It’s such a hassle to peel off that miracle suit (which doesn’t work because I still look like a beached whale), shower the salt water off (yes, it’s a salt water pool) and then wait for the swimsuit to dry again before wriggling and struggling my way back into it. A second swim will have to wait for a second swimsuit! Those suits are hard enough to get on when they’re the right size. I think mine is one size too small! Maybe time for two new ones?

I’ve tried eating a small amount of carb before I get in the pool, taking a bolus and then taking my pump off for the 30 minutes. It didn’t work so well. I’ve tried doing nothing. That didn’t work well either. Next experiment is just a small bolus without any carb. Two hours after swimming, I’m still not going any lower and I always have to bolus.

I’ve only just ordered replacement parts for my Animas that will ensure it is waterproof. They should arrive in the next couple of days, so I’m not worried about managing all this without the pump on for the swim-time. I will pay closer attention when I get the parts and I can wear the pump while swimming. That will mean no break in basal insulin and I’ll get a better idea of what my BGs are doing both in the pool and a couple of hours later.

I haven’t gone anywhere near the gym yet (which is right next to the pool). I’m hot and sweaty enough and that gym looks like pure torture! I’ll leave the gym to the cooler days/months.

A change in lifestyle often means a change in insulin regimes and a learning curve to figure out what’s right. That’s on top of seasonal changes in insulin needs. I’m hoping that Deb (the new DE) can give me some help as well.

My right hand is doing ok. Still can’t fully straighten the middle finger, but I’m sure that will come. My stitches come out on Tuesday. Shortly after that, we move across a state line and into a different life.

I am so sad to be saying goodbye to the beautiful, peaceful, alternative place I’ve lived for the last 11 years. I have truly loved it here and wish I could stay. I wake to the sound of birds and go to sleep to complete silence or the sound of the sea.

I go into town and it’s all about relaxing and getting your life together the natural way. Massage therapy on every corner, naturopaths, chiropractors, alternative medicines, organic food, interesting restaurants, incredibly talented buskers on the weekend, monthly markets and weekly farmers markets and best of all, healthy fresh air, untainted by diesel, crowds or horrendous honking-horn traffic.

We have no buildings over 3 stories and no traffic lights.

A beach is never far away – either in the bay or seaside. We live two streets from the beach and sometimes I can smell the sea air amongst the sub-tropical gardens of the beach house I’ve just sold.

There are a list of reasons a mile long that explain why we’re moving. I’m not going to bore you.

We’re going soon and I can’t afford to have any regrets. I just know I’m very sad to be going and I’m not looking forward to what amounts to ‘big-city’ life again.

Know how people sometimes ask… if you could do anything you want, live anywhere you want, what would that look like? I’ve been living that dream for 11 years. I never thought for a second this would end.

It’s a case of circumstances beyond my control.

They say that moving is one of the most stressful times of your life. It probably is. Moving and the death of my best friend in the same year… more than I bargained for. I think this whole year has been one big stress for me in so many ways.

Moving and diabetes doesn’t necessarily go together. The spurts of activity play havoc with blood glucose levels. It’s imperative for me to test more than usual at the moment.

I’ve had the move planned for a while and I was adamant that I didn’t want to do all the packing in the last week. Over a couple of weeks, I packed about 30 boxes before my hand op. That was great and fairly easy. And yes, I had some near hypos. I also had trouble getting up off the floor where I sat, packing. I feel so old!

It’s also too soon to be taking down artwork or leaving myself with nothing to wear or cook with. So I’m taking it easy on the packing front and getting caught up with all the phone calls and other things I have to organise.

My movers have been engaged to do the last bit of packing for us. There will be a good few hours left with a few packers.

I’m a list maker by nature and for the past several years, I’ve made those lists on my computer. Now, with my Macs (desk and lap), iPhone and iPad, those lists go with me everywhere. They get checked off one by one and added to on the fly. Making lists for a move eliminates about 50% of the stress, I suspect. Or is this the calm before the storm?

The one thing I really feel is my lack of energy of late. Don’t know what that is. Maybe just age, as I said.

I may be able to take it a bit easy this move, but diabetes never takes a holiday. With activity increasing over the next week and my larder getting more and more empty, I will have to be even more careful about lows and not eating well.

I would love to hear how others manage moving house with being on insulin or other meds. Did you find you had lots more lows than usual?

I’m not one of those people who can jump out of bed and eat breakfast. In fact, I’m lucky if I’m feeling hungry even 2 or 3 hours later. I would gag if I had to eat before my brain was in gear.

Morning basal tests are never a problem. In reality most mornings are basal tests for me. And I know for sure that my basal is exactly right.

Note: Basal is the insulin I get 24 hours a day – the background insulin that is needed all the time, without food. If you do not have diabetes, specifically Type 1, your pancreas does this for you automagically. The most important reason is that your brain needs glucose to function. If your blood glucose is low this is one of the reasons you end up in a kind of brain-fog, unable to function.

Back to breakfast. Often, however, I don’t eat anything at all for many hours after I wake up. Yeah, that’s supposed to be bad for you. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, they say.

If I end up having a reasonable breakfast within a few hours of waking, then I can forget about lunch. I’m just not hungry.

So why am I carrying around all this extra weight? No idea! Most of the time I do reasonably low-carb. All that falls over in the evening. Doesn’t matter what I do during the day – eat, not eat, snack, have big meals, the evening is the deal-breaker.

If I ever had to do lots of little meals a day (they say that’s better for metabolism), I know I couldn’t cope.

Unlike breakfast, in the evenings, I can eat when I’m not even remotely hungry. It’s a real struggle to tell myself I don’t need that snack and I’m not hungry. My brain tells me I am. Maybe it’s something to do with leptin not functioning at that time of night? I don’t know. Sometimes I’m successful at resistance and sometimes I’m not. (Yes, resistance is futile!) Even so, everything’s easier with an insulin pump. I can bolus in the middle of an extended bolus with anything I add to dinner, like desserts or snacks, or even more dinner. It’s so easy!

I think it’s the evening snacking that is playing havoc with my weight, but even if I don’t have them, I’m not losing a single ounce. It’s sooooo annoying! I think having a desk job doesn’t help either. And truly, I hate planned exercise, but I know I have to do it. I just keep putting it off. Lupus and arthritic pain doesn’t help. Any exercise I could actually do, probably wouldn’t make any difference. It never has before.

Exercise doesn’t really burn off calories… well I guess it does when you do enough of it. Figure out how much exercise you’d have to do to burn off a Big Mac! I don’t think anyone has THAT much time on their hands, let alone the effort-value. Exercise helps your cortisol levels, which in turn helps a whole bunch of things in your body. That should be the primary reason to do exercise, not the calorie-burning part of it but the cortisol part.

One time I always lose weight. When I have to move house! Something to do with skipping tons of meals, not snacking and moving bits of me a great deal (like 12 hours at a time) while packing boxes. If only I could do that every day! Moving house is coming up for me in the next few months. Something to look forward to in terms of weight loss!