Pausing to breathe

With holiday time upon us, I am reminded of the type of world that we find ourselves in, and the technology that is part of it. Whether the latest Nintendo, tablet or the handy robot vacuums that wander our houses, something is always competing for our attention.

Actually, I kind of wish my pump looked like this. Pump manufacturers, take note

When you have type 1 diabetes, even more technology makes demands on you everyday, all day. Remember those tamagotchis? Feed me, pet me, play with me now, or you will be sorry. If you treat me well, I might play nicely. For a while.

But there comes a time when it just seems to much. This past summer, this reached a critical level. My pump and CGM seemed to be nagging, demanding, day and night. One in particular went rogue. Rogue because there seemed to be no discernible benefit, because it was wrong much of the time, so after more lost sleep, I wondered what's the point. I put it aside for the time being, but when I upgraded my OS on my Mac, Carelink, which is used to upload boatloads of data, was ill prepared for the upgrade, and was deemed broken; the last straw. My colicky tamagotchi babies were laid to rest.

So I hauled out my Ping out of my trusty Dbox (my treasure box of diabetes supplies and retired equipment), programmed it up, ordered supplies, and I haven't looked back. Mind you, I still don't have a CGM but one day I will do something about that. I have mixed feelings about ramping up the technology again. I am rather enjoying the relative peace that the Ping provides.

I admit, some technology does improve quality of life. But one day, barring a cure (ha!) (sorry that was a cynical slip), I hope to only have to worry about the feeding and watering of a Diabetes Alert Dog. Not only will that dog give me peace of mind, but an occasional appreciative wag of the tail after a long walk, which would be much more than my CGM could ever give me.