Holiday happenings....Part 2

I arrived home on Monday at about 11am.  A little earlier than planned because I had to drive my youngest to work for 11:30, but I was OK with that.  By Monday morning we are all ready to pack up and head out anyway.

I had packed enough for a 2 week stay, I swear!  Anyone else do that?  I mean, I know that for Diabetics there is alway "extra" stuff, but boy sometimes I think I over do it!

Anyway,  by the time I got one daughter to work, and the other daughter back home (she's one of the group of 9), I was ready to just do nothing.  

Of course that's not possible, as I had all my unpacking to do.  Deciding to do that and then either go for a dip or perhaps catch a few zzz's, I got to work.

It was site change day and so before my nap (choose to nap first and swim after dinner), I got all my stuff out, and set about changing my site.  Of course that includes new cartridge, new infusion set, blah blah blah.  Everything went like normal, and withing 10 minutes I had set the alarm for an hour and was trying to flake out.

Woke up 2 hrs later, feeling refreshed.  

I made myself some dinner, and was just tidying up when my pumped buzzed at me.

I was getting a "pump not primed. no delivery" warning.  hmmm.  I unattached myself, and went into the pump.  I primed about 3units and it seemed to be fine.  Hooked back up and thought about going for a swim.

I didn't stay in the water long.  By now the sun had moved and it was getting a little cooler.  I got out and was just sitting, drying off when the pump buzzed again!    What was going on??  I did the whole unattach, prime, reattach thing and thought that was that.   I did notice that the screen seemed to have some condensation in there, but was that the problem?  

This happened again just before I left to pick up my daughter from work, and once more while I was driving.  I just quickly hit "confirm" and decided I would call Animas when I arrived home.

I disconnected from the pump and called the 877 number on the back.  A very nice woman answered and after talking with her, and describing the issue, we went over a few things.  She determined that I would need a new pump, because she thought there may be a tiny hairline crack somewhere.  Because I am in Canada, she would have to have someone call me back and make the arrangements for the pump's delivery.  I was fine with that.  When asked if there was anything else she could do, I mentioned the problems I had had over the weekend with the meter and she said she would have someone call me regarding that as well.  

I was quite pleased with the service I received, and waited for the calls from Animas Canada, and LifeScan Canada. 

About 10 minutes later, I got a call from Tricia.  We went over a couple of things and then she asked if I would like a pump that night.  I was shocked and said that would be awesome.  She asked what colour mine was and I told her green.  She said they had green, would I like that?  Yes!!  She then told me she would call me back in about 10 minutes with the shippping information. 

Sure enough, 10 minutes later she called and said my new pump would arrive at my house by 1am.  Probably closer to midnight but just in case there were problems on the highway.

I was amazed and so glad.  I didn't want to have to go on injections even for 1 day!  

I thanked her profusely and told her how impressed I was with Animas Canada's Customer Service.  

I then went about making sure I had all my basal info and I:C and IS stuff written down before the pump just died completely on me.  

The next call came from LifeScan, and Tim determined that the strips must have been faulty, so they are sending me a package of 100 strips to replace the ones that wouldn't work!  How cool is that?!!

At 12:30am, my pump arrived!  There was a knock on the door and nice older gentleman asked me to sign for my delivery!  I thanked him and as he got in his vehicle I shut the door and jumped up and down!!  

I was and still am, so impressed with Animas!  I have been very lucky with my pump, and this is the first problem I have had.  

They came to my rescue and were so pleasant to work with!

I will be writing a letter to them to tell them about my awesome experience with them!

ANIMAS ROCKS!!!!

 



 

Holiday happenings....Part 1

I am officially on holidays!  And what a crazy start to my holiday week.  

Let me first say that I don't often take holidays, and this year I have decided to take 2 weeks.  Not at the same time, mind you, but 2 weeks just the same.

So to begin, I went to work last Thursday night, as per the norm.  Before punching in I checked the schedule for the following week, knowing that I would not be on it!  I had booked from Friday the 21st through to July 1st off.  

As I mentioned in my last post i was going on my "girls weekend".  Nine lovely ladies spending a wonderful weekend at a cottage.  Plenty of food, music, sun, some tons of alcoholic bevvies, more food, and laughter till our stomachs hurt!(you get the gist).  We would be gone Friday afternoon until Monday afternoon.

When I looked at the schedule I was shocked to see that I had been scheduled to work all of this week and the coming weekend!  That couldn't be right.  I had booked that off way back in March!  This needed to be fixed and fixed right away!!!

I spoke with the supervisor on duty explaining my dilemma.  She then called the supervisor above her, and her suggestion was to come back in in the morning and talk to our boss.  She was the one who did the scheduling and a note would be left for her regarding this.  

I'm just going to put it out there.  My boss is not the most personable person in the whole wide universe.  She never looks you in the eye when she talks to you.  She sometimes thinks she is never wrong.  And she believes that her rules rule.

I was not looking forward to having to speak with her.  However, bright and early the next morning I went in to work and approached her.  This being the Friday that I am leaving for the cottage, I have come prepared for battle.  

I had played the scene over in my mind so many times the night before, with her telling me that I was out of luck.  Of course I had my argument all planned out and was ready to go on the attack.

There was no need.  

She was actually quite pleasant about the whole thing. She actually remembered our previous discussion about my holidays and was taking part of the blame.  I was shocked.  What had happened (in a nutshell) is that I had already booked the Friday, Saturday, Sunday off, and then when it was time for holidays, chose the Monday thru to the following Monday.  Well I guess holidays run Sunday to Saturday, and when I wrote down the 24th to the 30th, (since July 1st is a holiday anyway), she thought I wanted the 30th onwards.

Now I know that doesn't even begin to make sense, however, I did understand what she was thinking.   

In the end, I got what I had originally asked for, and she now has me working the week of the 2nd, which is better for her anyway, because she was going to be short-staffed and now she won't be.  

All in all the weekend was a blast, with only a slight glitch.  My meter and test strips seemed to be bothered by the humidity.  I kept seeing error messages and when I used the strips of one of the ladies who is Type 2, they 
worked fine.  

I was planning on giving Animas a call when I returned home on the Monday if that kept up.  It cleared up once I was home but then something else happened, only this was my pump!  

I thought not having a working meter was bad, but that was nothing compared to what happened next!

More on that tomorrow!!!

  

 

 

Busy days are on the way!

Things are beginning to get that "summery" feeling around here.  Not because of the temperature (it's still early spring/early fall feeling), but rather because of the activities that are about to commence!

This weekend is Father's Day weekend.  Every year I gather my parents, my sister and her family and all my children and their children to my home to celebrate "the Dad's".  In total there are 4 dads that we celebrate each year.

My dad, my kids' dad, my nephews dad, and my grandkids' dad!  We have a lot of fun.  Good food and lots of laughs.  Depending on the weather, the kids will be swimming in the pool.  Although I'm sure the weather won't hinder the swimming.  It never has.  In fact, it could be raining and hailing and snowing and I'm sure they would still go in!!!  Crazy little toads!  Well the boys (my nephews) are both well over 6 foot.

The following week is my yearly weekend with the girls.  The girls are a group of friends and myself that rent a beautiful cottage for the weekend and spend time relaxing, eating, drinking and generally just enjoying each others company away from the stresses of family, jobs, and life in general!

We are there from Friday to Monday, and I am on holidays for the week following.  Heaven!!

The weekend after the cottage, is my Family Reunion/Golf Tournament.  
This is a yearly event, that changes locations depending on who is hosting it.

This year it will be at one of my cousins homes.  Her and her husband have a beautiful home on Lake Huron, about 4 hours away from my home.  We will be golfing and swimming, visiting with family we haven't seen since the year before.  Oh and the food!  Well let me just tell you that the pot luck table is overflowing!  There will be hamburgers and hotdogs, every possible kind of salad you could think of.  Someone always comes with something new!  Desserts of every kind!  Fruits and cheeses and pickle trays galore!  

There will be prizes for the golfers including the "Plaid Jacket" for the best golfer and the "Green Jacket" for the worst.  All in good spirit of course!

There will be tickets sold for the silent auction, the money from which goes to the family hosting next years event.  It is always a good time!

I am really excited about my upcoming weekends and holidays.  Although by the sounds of it I may need an extra week just to recover!!