Complacency: winging the cannula change.

Dexcom site change day.  

Prescription order day. 

Prescription collection day. 

Sensor order day.  

Pump supplies order day.

Insulin reservoir refill day.

Cannula change day.

Keeping on top of diabetes self-care must-dos can be a challenge. None of the jobs above ever seem to fall on the same day, for me, anyway.  Sometimes they are days apart; sometimes they take a few days to organise; sometimes they fall on the same day.  On more than a few occasions I've put in a (way too) late Friday night order at 4:59pm to my diabetes team for supplies, knowing that Monday will be a race to the (clinic) finish line, kind of morning.

Over the years I've used a host of methods to try and make sure I don't use cannulas longer than I should. I've used iPhone alarms, always changing on certain days (clearly whomever invented weeks didn't have to change cannulas every three days....) and the old favourite, 'winging it'.  Since switching to steel cannulas (which are two-day wear, rather than the three-day Teflon alternatives) I've been pretty good at remembering to change them.   Of course now and then, I may let things slip.

Since 10am this morning I've felt a little as though I've been fighting to keep the blood sugars in their usual fairly happy morning state.  The temporary basal have had to creep up on an almost hourly basis to blunt the effect of somethingorother affecting them.  My overestimated 2-unit dose for a 1-unit bowl of fruit didn't even blunt the sides.  I may as well not have taken any insulin. And my 13.7 and rising hardly reflected the 20g fish and stir-fried vegetable dinner.

"But I changed it on Wednesday evening!  It's only Fri.... Oh."

By day three my cannula is usually the biggest reminder that I've by-passed change day.  Of course, I shouldn't be waiting until day three, and had I been a little more organised I'd have switched it out last night.  But what do you know, 40 minutes post-change and the 3rd or 4th correction of the day finally budged me back in the direction of the black.

Do you struggle to make your diabetic routine match up?