Bizarre intro to the blog. Been a pump user for 20 years, forever grateful to the technology that allowed me to live a pretty unrestricted life. Sympathy of course to anyone who's had it harder than I have ofc
Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation
11–20 of 203 posts
Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation
#12My wife is a t1d and has the same pump. It sucks their support staff has no idea how the thing works or what its failure modes are. My wife once had her x2 tell her it gave here a 40 unit bolis out of the blue . This would have killed her. While in the er support from x2 said something like "there is no way for it to do this .. you must be wrong.. are you reading the display correctly .." All in all the x2 plus dexcom was supposed to be a closed loop cgm plus pump. It rarely cuts insulin delivery on low blood sugar, or it does it way too late to matter .
Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation
#13My wife is a t1d and has the same pump. It sucks their support staff has no idea how the thing works or what its failure modes are. My wife once had her x2 tell her it gave here a 40 unit bolis out of the blue . This would have killed her. While in the er support from x2 said something like "there is no way for it to do this .. you must be wrong.. are you reading the display correctly .." All in all the x2 plus dexco…
also it didn't give here 40 units the pump failed .
Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
The author is a woman. She does call a support line during the course of all of this. The support line was fairly unhelpful.
the support line did everything she asked, and explicitly asked if she already had a backup plan in place, to which the author said "yes". the author admits to not even asking for the pump to be sent directly to her. the author admits to even ignoring the internet advice to call support, then gets mad that she wasted insulin while doing so
"I will probably also be meaner to everyone who gets me on the phone in the future during an emergency. I was trying specifically to not do that, but I suppose it's helpful to be mean when your medical equipment is failing."
advocating for yourself is not being mean
Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation
#15I don't think the attitude in the first several paragraphs, wishing harm to the pump engineers etc, can lead to a good discussion.
Not every blog is written to be discussed on Hacker News. That being said I enjoyed it and found it illuminating. It could be a regional difference, but I’m from the South East US and didn’t mind the direct communication style at all. I much prefer someone to speak their feelings rather than being nice for the sake of nicities.
Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation
#16Uh, okay, she didn’t advocate for herself on the phone and darkly alludes to not knowing what could have happened if she’d told them she wasn’t at her home and needed her replacement pump sent to another address. I think they would’ve sent it to the hotel without a problem. Her takeaway is that she should have been “meaner” on the phone, but I think just honestly expressing her situation would cover it.
And “I don't think it's possible to live without resentment for the technology keeping you alive.” This plus all the stuff at the top of the post about how she hates manufacturers of insulin pumps and she’s trapped. I have lived in a very developed country, and I currently live in a least-developed country. I am pretty grateful for the technology that keeps life in the developed world safe and comfortable.
Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation
#17I’m diabetic and found this strange for a few reasons. There’s a postscript in the blog post wishing death from diabetes on any diabetic who tries to point any of it out—so I’ll leave it at that.
The postscript in the blog post specifically wishes death on any diabetic who tries to point this out "from the perspective of Perfect, Unerring Care" via email: that's the "some percent crazy assholes" from https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2013-04-07. I think it's fair to post more appropriate commentary in a public forum, where it's aimed at audiences who don't already know everything the author does.
Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
the support line did everything she asked, and explicitly asked if she already had a backup plan in place, to which the author said "yes". the author admits to not even asking for the pump to be sent directly to her. the author admits to even ignoring the internet advice to call support, then gets mad that she wasted insulin while doing so
"I will probably also be meaner to everyone who gets me on the phone in the future during an emergency. I was trying specifically to not do that, but I suppose it's helpful to be mean when your medical equipment is failing." advocating for yourself is not being mean
No, but it feels that way if you're an agreeable people-pleaser. (This is, of course, a bad habit, but it's a common one, and it's not one that merely acknowledging will divest you of.)
Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation
#19I don't think the attitude in the first several paragraphs, wishing harm to the pump engineers etc, can lead to a good discussion.
First, let's acknowledge that when the actions of some people lead to endangering a human life, it's natural to be angry about it.
Personally, when anger is justified, I feel more comfortable with people who clearly and openly express it.
I find them more reliable, more honest, and usually better people to be around.
By my standards, I'd even consider the style very mild, considering a life is on the line.
I would also consider it normal to be on the receiving end of such language if my own work resulted in such a situation. That would cause me to pause and reflect.
The intensity of feedback is information. If everything is bland, it's harder to know how important something is or not. Logic has a limit because you don't have all the parameters from the other side.
It works the other way around. The overuse of superlatives and day-to-day outrage is equally unproductive.
This is not the case here, IMO.
Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation
#20I’m diabetic and found this strange for a few reasons. There’s a postscript in the blog post wishing death from diabetes on any diabetic who tries to point any of it out—so I’ll leave it at that.
> If you were even thinking of emailing me to criticize me about what I did, I hope you die. Of diabetes.
Found your comment strange, did you read this incorrectly?