Life's Lessons

Lessons learned this week:

Lesson One
- do not, I repeat, do not almost but not quite yank your infusion site out right before a four-hour meeting, leaving it barely holding on

- should you do that despite my warning, do not, and I mean it this time, go to your office and tape it back on with masking tape

- if you've ignored me to this point, do not, when you get home, decide to remove the masking tape and replace it with something a little more 'comfortable' to secure the site for a few more days until you run out of insulin and actually need to change it.

- masking tape, as it turns out, seals itself very effectively to your skin and it's a challenge not to remove said skin as you peel it off hours later. On the other hand, I do have a few strips on my stomach that are completely devoid of any form of body hair.

- masking tape, as it turns out, also bonds very nicely with your infusion site, and the only way you're going to get it off is to completely destroy the site, yank the cannula out of your body and rip that too

- masking tape saved me during the meeting and avoided an emergency trip home but I had to change the site two days before I should have because of the destruction it caused

Lesson Two
- insulin does freeze when you run outside

- I had heard stories but never, despite some pretty chilly runs, experienced it

- Thursday morning, after a rather bone-chilling 8k run, I bolused for breakfast and alarms started ringing.

- I waited a few minutes, primed my pump to make sure things were moving, and tried again. No problem. And my numbers were within range all day so the flash freeze didn't seem to harm the potency

Lesson Three
- despite the cold - running is almost always better than not running

- despite the early morning wakeup call - swimming is almost always better than not swimming

- despite the dreary basement, spiders and lack of fresh air and sunshine - cycling is almost always better than not cycling

- people complain about the dark, cold winter. Heck I do too. I've learned over the years that running, swimming and cycling every day makes the days feel a little less cold, dark and dreary. Ive also learned that the early morning winter runners are the ones who smell the first hints of spring in the air. And the early morning swimmers are the ones who first notice the sun coming up a little bit earlier every day.

- as for early morning cycling on the trainer - all I can say is I do it because it keeps me fit and ready for the day when it's finally warm enough to take the bike outside and hit the streets again. Soon enough my friends. Soon enough.