Monthly Archives: March 2013

Tale of the Middle of the Night Occlusion.

It was a little after 1am when I woke up kind of suddenly.  I heard a loud car motor outside and thought that was probably what woke me.  Then I heard this faint, steady beep sound.  What the hell is that? I wondered sleepily.  The car drove away but the beep remained.  I sat up to get a better sense of where it was coming from.  Then I realized.  I lifted the blanket and the sound got much louder.  It was the undeniable sound of a screeching pod coming from my abdomen.  Come on.  I grabbed the PDM from next to me on my nightstand and pressed the home button.  That then began beeping  too along with the message that there was an occlusion detected and then poof, the pod was deactivated.  I have to be honest.  In my half asleep state, I pondered for a few seconds about saying no to the “would you like to activate a pod now” question asked by the PDM and going back to sleep.  But actually using my head, I realized that 5 hours was way too long to go without insulin.  So I reluctantly got up, gathered my supplies and went inside to do a pod change.   The pod was on day 2 and had become a bit sore but my BG readings were fine so figured nothing was really wrong.  When I removed it, the canula wasn’t bent at all but there was a small welt on my skin where it was.

Bad time for an occlusion.

This is only my second occlusion since on the OmniPod so it’s not as if it’s a major issue.  I just would have appreciated it to not happen in the middle of the night.  It seems like the occlusion was detected before it was bad enough to stop the insulin from actually getting through.  Thankfully my BG cooperated during this ordeal.

Extra Care.

Has it really been this long since I’ve written??  I’ve got lots going on it seems.  This particular post is overdue but I’m finally getting to it!

A few weeks ago, some folks from media relations at CVS Pharmacy reached out to me to see if I was interested in receiving more information on their ExtraCare Advantage for Diabetes savings program.  Being that I do use my local CVS as my primary pharmacy for both prescriptions and over the counter items, as well as being a regular ExtraCare member of theirs already, I agreed.

A short time later, I received a package full of stuff.  I mean full.


Sugar free cough drops, sugar free candy, toothpaste, a toothbrush, healing lotion, sugar free cough medicine, glucose tablets, socks, sugar free aspirin (did you know that existed?  I didn’t!), needle collector, etc.  I particularly liked the socks – I sometimes have an issue with my socks being too tight at the top, creating a mark which I would imagine is not so good for my legs.  I will certainly be on the look out to buy some more of these.  I also appreciated being able to try the Diabetic Tussin cough medicine.  I use cough medicine more than when I’m sick due to the severe allergies I have.  I find myself waking up during the night coughing a lot so I keep a bottle on my nightstand.  I typically use Robitussin and never thought it was bad for me using that type of product.  However, if I had the option to use one that is sugar and alcohol free, I could gather it would be better for me, despite how horrible it tastes.  All of these products, even some you wouldn’t think of,  specifically cater to people with diabetes.  I think this is something that can be very beneficial to a lot of people.

Being a member of the diabetes program, you are eligible for double ExtraBucks rewards (which if you receive ExtraBucks already, you know they are pretty generous with rewards), special offers and savings as well as a newsletter delivered via email that includes information, recipes and offers.  All it takes is a minute or two to sign up.  I think it’s a great program to help with the expense diabetes supplies can cost us.  And we all know, diabetes ain’t cheap!

The feedback on the items sent to me and the ExtraCare Advantage program is strictly my own opinion and I want to thank CVS for taking the time to share with me their products and for offering a program designed to help people with diabetes.