The visit was fun in itself, from needing to "strongly hint" repeatedly, that as I was going hypo as they put me on the drip maybe they go with the dextrose before the saline, to later being threatened with "being put on the sliding scale" if my 90g carb breakfast without a bolus "strangely" put me high. (Argh!!! That’s a new bogeyman phrase for me now. What part of "if I eat a lot of carbs, I need bolus", and "I already have a correction method that definitely works" is hard to understand? The nurses words sent shivers down my spine. If anyone wants to send me gibbering, tell me you’ll lock me up and put me on "The Sliding Scale"). As it is I just barely ate breakfast, and by lunch managed to wrestle them into letting me take insulin, and all up through the entire experience I avoided going above 12 / 215 which I was very relieved and happy with.
Anyway, despite a feeling my blood sugar therapy was on this knife edge between competent and not, I did get through ok through being very vocal, and at least they left my insulin kit and taking of insulin in my court. For that I am infinitely grateful.
Here’s the real cool bit though. A consulting endo at the hospital who they lined me up with later, was serendipitously the guy I have lined up to see first time in a week or so. Having a chat once I was stabilized, I was really encouraged he could be a good find. Asking why I was off the pump, and listening to my various issues with insulin that has led me there, one of his first comments was "so have you tried something crazy like plugging some Actrapid into the pump?" Music to my ears, to hear an obviously experienced endo make a somewhat out of the box statement like that so easily (Actrapid not a common pump insulin). He listened to me describing the various issues I get with different insulins, and while he didn’t have a lot to say there and then he seemed more intrigued than confronted. He made a number of comments about control in general that I found quite spot on. He seemed positive and personable.
So not only does this look promising, but I got to get a quick and dirty pre-initial session, introductions and basic details out the way, and a quick discussion about some of the oddities I face. It’s nice to have such a positive little side outcome from an otherwise oh-so-fun experience.