It's Hard Out Here for a Pump

After weeks of rainy, stormy weather, we had a weekend of sun and hot hot heat. And it seems to be here for the season, finally!

Summer entered with a bang just in time for Memorial Day Weekend, during which Anthony and I did lots of yard work, golfed, partied and generally spent a lot of time outside in the 90+ degree sun. In other words, we were sweating our asses off for the better part of three days!

As a type 1 diabetic on an insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor (cgm), this presents a whole set of problems the average person doesn't consider. This weekend's sweatfest caused me to lose a four-day old cgm sensor, which just seemed to melt off my leg, and caused a pump infusion site's adhesion to lose its sticky, which meant I was leaking insulin. Luckily, I guess, insulin smells weird, so I noticed pretty quickly.

Another consideration is the effects of the heat on the insulin being stored inside the pump and then transferred to me. If I let the pump get too hot or expose it to too much direct sunlight, the insulin can start to go bad by losing its potency. Think of leaving a beer out in the hot sun then re-refrigerating it...eww, right?

So, how does one get around these issues? Usually, if I know I'll be outside and sweating, I'll just unhook my pump and leave it somewhere cool. On beach vacations, I'll leave it shaded in a purse or insulated bag next to me. If I'm not being physically active enough to keep my blood glucose in the normal range, I'll go reconnect for a few minutes and give myself a bit of insulin to get by. As for the cgm and infusion sites melting off due to heat and sweating, there's not much you can do to prevent it. I tend to lose three or four sites every summer to this issue, and since the hubby and I are being decidedly more outdoorsy this year, it's bound to happen more often.

Anthony and I are still going strong on the Couch-to-5k program, now in week four. Week three seemed like a breeze, but bumping up to five-minute runs plus the new 90-degree weather has made this week's jump a little more difficult. We're planning to do a 5k in Huntington at the end of June, intimidatingly called the WV 5k Championship. It says the race is for runners of any skill level. I hope so, but the name alone is scary!