Arrival!

It’s here! Yay yay yay! Quite a sensation to open the box at last; felt like I was lifting the lid on my future. The pump is quite purply, much darker than the color shown on the Minimed website (well, darker than my monitor indicated, anyway). It’s very pretty, plumlike. I am inundated also with supplies and reading material. The BG meter is back-ordered though, booooo hisssss. Haven’t these people caught on yet that I am Not Patient?

Naturally I’ve been practicing all night—I’m not hooked up yet, of course, and there’s no insulin in the pump, but the functions work. I loved the drama of putting in the battery and watching the pump come to life. A mildly Frankensteinian moment, if you will. Also I was surprised by the appearance of the backlight, which is beautifully eerie. (Am I romanticizing? Uh-huh. But honestly, how often does UPS bring me a truly life-changing present?) The menus are simple and intuitive; so far I’ve learned to do simple boluses and basal settings, check the history, suspend and resume delivery—the easy stuff. The pump makes a very pleasant beeping sound, friendly in tone and not terribly loud.

Figuring out how it works is all well and good, but my preoccupation is—no surprise here—how to wear the gizmo. I tested the Thigh Thing, which is a spandexy band with a pocket to hold the pump. Not bad. Requires a garter belt to hold it up, ooh la la. Currently I have the pump in a sock, safety-pinned to the inside of my pajama top. I experimented with lying down on it; seemed okay. There are several places online where one can order nightshirts and jammies with sewn-in pockets to hold the pump, but for now I’m holding off until I have a more practical understanding of what I want.

Pump name is still pending. But I’ve already started talking to it…