Saturday, February 20, 2010

Until eternity

Maybe one day, a cure will be found to help Diabetes out of the world. I hear researchers are getting there. But then again, isn't that what they said 30 years ago? I admit, things have changed a whole lot over the years. I'm glad I never had to use glass syringes that needed to be cooked to be sterile. I'm glad I didn't have to pee on a strip to know an average blood glucose reading. I can't even imagine life without my Terumo Finetouch blood glucose meter. Things really have improved.

When I got my insulin pump in September 2006, I kinda told myself this was going to be my lifelong partner. Till eternity. Till death do us part. It was always going to be there, attached to my body, wherever I went. It would sleep with me, eat with me, walk with me, talk with me. It would watch me take a shower, go to the bathroom, making love. I would hear alarms in the movie theatre, at work, in the middle of the night. That's the consequence of having this kind of artificial pancreas. It's always there.

I read as much information I can lay my hands on. It looks promising. Scientists are working on making a real artificial pancreas. It won't replace the pump though, on the contrary. You will need the pump and a continuous glucose monitoring system. Meaning you will have two cannulas in your tummy. I'm on that CGM system already, so no big deal about the two cannulas. It will be a big improvement I believe, even with two cannulas. The continuous glucose system will make its own adaptations, according to the blood glucose of the moment. Now we still have to count carbs and tell our pump what we're going to eat. The artificial pancreas will no longer need us to tell it about our menu. Nowadays, we have to justify every gram of food we put into our mouths. That's scary! There's always someone who knows exactly what you've been eating.

So yes, I still believe my pump will be my until eternity partner..


No comments: