Insulin Pump

I picked up my insulin pump yesterday, and underwent the training session for it. The whole process was fantastic, the pump is a joy to use, although having it attached to me is a bit weird at the moment. I woke up this morning with Jane lying on it, which made getting out of bed a little difficult.

The pump is attached to me via a canular that I need to replace every 2-3 days. The process of fitting this canular looks incredibly vicious, but was totally pain-free (at least the first one was, we'll see about subsequent ones!) . Connecting up the tubing and filling the cartridge are pretty straightforward, as is the operation of the pump itself. I can now specify to the nearest gram how many carbs I've eaten with a given meal, input my current blood sugar reading, and it automatically calculates the dose of insulin I need to hit my current target (8 mmol/l). And I no longer need 4 injections per day

Diabetes and Blood Sugar Control

I've been struggling for some months now, trying to get my blood sugars under some kind of control. I had my latest review with the hospital today, and they've decided that I'm a candidate for an insulin pump. I don't know all the ins and outs of how it works yet, but it certainaly sounds like the ideal solution to my problem. I go for instruction on Weds.

This weekends hiking

We went hiking around Hardwick this weekend, following a route we took at the end of last year. It was nice to see the scenery in full bloom.
The weather was fantastic, and the walk took us about 2.5 hours to complete.

Photos available in the usual place

Camping around Harrogate

We went camping this weekend, instead of the usual hiking on a Sunday. I've been before, but this was the family's first time in a tent, and we did pretty well. We borrowed a tent from friends, who also went with us, although it's probably more correct to say that we went with them, as they picked the campsite.

We arrived about 17:30 on Friday evening, and we were pitched and enjoying coffee by about 19:00. Not bad considering it's only the second time we've pitched this tent.

On Saturday we went hiking around Grewelthorpe, and some fantastic scenery down in the gorge. The weather was a bit windy, but held fine, and we completed the walk in a little under 3 hours.
I struggled somewhat with my blood sugars this evening, due to the biting winds. Suffered a severe hypo during the night when my levels dropped to 2.3. Not good.

Sunday was a visit to Fountains Abbey (photos left). Stunning, but a bit windy again. Managed to trek all the way around the grounds, taking in all the recommended sights, and the Serpentine Tunnel from High Ride down to the water gardens.

We were supposed to spend a further night at the campsite, but we cut the trip short due to the prospect of bad weather. A bit of a wimps excuse, but I think we'd have stuck it out if we'd got a decent tent.

We're planning our next trip now, but first stop Yeoman's... for a decent tent

Hiking around Wellow

We went hiking again this weekend, this time around Wellow. We've done this walk previously, about 6 weeks ago, but back then barely anything was growing. We're now at the middle of May, and the paths are nicely greening up, and the forest areas really dark and full of bird life It's fantastic.

The weird thing about hiking around Nottinghamshire is the lack of people that we see. I know that it doesn't have the views of the Peak District, but it's impressive non-the-less. Still, I think I prefer not seeing many people, it makes the walks seem even more personal.

BookRabbit

I was trawling through my rss feeds this morning, and the Telegraph website had an interesting article on it about BookRabbit (link in the title above). Basically you can upload your bookshelves to it, and it will link to other people with similar tastes, and make recommendations based on your selections. I'm going to give it a go and see how it pans out

Latest Gaming Purchase - Philips G7000

I've picked up a boxed G7000 with 7 games a little over a week ago. It all works beautifully, and whilst it doesn't have a massive library there are enough games to make it worthwhile picking up. I have in my usual style compiled a list of wants for it, so we'll have to see how hard it is to collect for it.