Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

blog.lauramichet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 203 posts

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#71

Post by spacedcowboy »

asyx wrote: post #60
spacedcowboy wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean I'd far rather have the pump than not, also a t1d. I dont bother wearing it at night though. All my blood sugar does is decline overnight, and the pump isn't the signal that things are going awry, that's the GCM. The GCM will still signal the pump, my phone and my watch to wake me if I need to eat carbs (vanishingly rare) and the pump never changes my blood sugar overnight anyway as far as I can tell. So I dis…

You don’t have dawn syndrome? Mine shoots up to 200 in the morning without food. If I don’t eat breakfast I take 5 units fast acting in the morning to keep the levels down. I just don’t see pens as so much of a hassle that I’d give up the control of a pen for the convenience of a pump.

nope, just when i eat food. This morning i ate breakfast at 11:00, pretty much flat until then, mild slope upwards from 8am to 9am, but it only went from 6.2 to 6.7 then stabilised

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#72

Post by kccqzy »

ufmace wrote: post #70
jeffrallen wrote: post #38

My aunt had her American Express die on vacation and they had a new one in her hands, in her hotel room, at 8 am the next morning. Priorities. Sigh.

I wonder if it would be possible for a business to exist that was like super double ultra premium T1 diabetes support. Maybe it's really expensive and not many people can afford it, at least at first, but it'd be like you can call up an on-call desk any time, day or night, 24x7x365, and immediately talk to somebody who can pull up your full situation and history and do anything necessary to fix any possible problem.…

It sounds possible, but insurance probably won’t cover it. So this super double ultra premium T1 support will probably be only for the people rich enough to not need insurance.

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#73

Post by s1artibartfast »

redserk wrote: post #31
chemicalsnakes wrote: post #16

Uh, 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…

Blaming her is not the right call on this. The technology is absolutely amazing for the quality of life it’s given us, especially those with medical conditions, but the failure of technology in these scenarios can lead to hospitalization or death. The customer care line requesting information about a plan means the patient’s care in a will-be life-threatening scenario was not prioritized. Deprioritizing patient care…

It means the exact opposite. It is like when the tow truck operator asked if you are stopped in a safe location. If you say you have a backup to the pump, then they know there is negligible risk. Its why they asked.

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#74

Post by oompydoompy74 »

senordevnyc wrote: post #53
oompydoompy74 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ironic, because my experience of living in the south is that the fake niceties are deeply ingrained in the culture. Classic fun example: “bless your heart” basically means “fuck you”.

We are kind, but not nice. I generally find the west coast is nice, but not kind. Everyone in the south knows what bless your heart means, so it’s not really a veiled insult.

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#75

Post by jerf »

bonyt wrote: post #32
antasvara wrote: post #28

Reading this, my takeaway was less about the pump and more about how every part of the medical system is disconnected from every other part. There were some mistakes made but they were all pretty reasonable decisions. But the situation that caused this in order: 1. The support line for the pump won't suggest sending it to where you are because you say you have a backup plan. 2. The support line also isn't a doctor; t…

> Each issue is reasonable by itself... The problem of many hands - when responsibilities in a group that collectively does harm are divided between many people, who can be held accountable when each person individually acted reasonably? I think organizations are, more and more, siloing roles in this way intentionally (or at least emergently), such that blame can only ever be collective if they do harm. Since it's so…

I think it's mostly emergent. I can even point to a plausible mechanism, which is that if you think of an organization as a network of people and how they are connected together, you can think of "responsibility" as something that arcs through an organization like electricity and burns out whatever it courses through, prompting the creation of alternatives to avoid getting zapped the same way in the future.

It isn't completely inevitable, I think it's possible for relatively strong leadership to understand that the processing of responsibility through an organization is a necessary feature and people handling it without external forces conspiring to make it even more like that it will "burn out" a part of the org is a necessity and a good thing. But it's really easy for an organization to just default to burning out the path and evolving ways to avoid it in the future, and it is very motivated to make it happen.

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#76

Post by jfengel »

indrora wrote: post #26
1123581321 wrote: post #4

I’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 author isn't talking about you. The author is talking about the people who will inevitably email with explanations about how she's doing something wrong or things are not as bad as they seem or any number of other options. I have asthma in a particular form, and when people hear that I get triggered by extensive exercise and hill climbs and that I have to take things slow (it's gotten progressively worse in the l…

Exercise can't fix scar tissue, bob

Of course not. You need yoga for that.

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#77

Post by tosti »

senordevnyc wrote: post #53
oompydoompy74 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ironic, because my experience of living in the south is that the fake niceties are deeply ingrained in the culture. Classic fun example: “bless your heart” basically means “fuck you”.

The weirdest thing is "fuck you" doesn't mean "fuck you" at all! I learned the hard way when I started to unzip :(

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#78

Post by TimorousBestie »

jfengel wrote: post #76
indrora wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author isn't talking about you. The author is talking about the people who will inevitably email with explanations about how she's doing something wrong or things are not as bad as they seem or any number of other options. I have asthma in a particular form, and when people hear that I get triggered by extensive exercise and hill climbs and that I have to take things slow (it's gotten progressively worse in the l…

Exercise can't fix scar tissue, bob Of course not. You need yoga for that.

Actual laughter was produced, thanks.

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#79

Post by bdcravens »

I had an X2 (and before that, a couple of Minimed pumps), then I switched to the Omnipod. The Omnipod is a disposable pump you swap out every 3 days, so less of an issue.

However every time I've gotten a new pump, the diabetes educators always instruct you to have a backup plan, whether that's your insulin vial you may have already brought (even non-disposable pumps require you to swap out the reservoir every 3 days, so you should have insulin with you) along with old-school injection needles, or an insulin pen with needle tips.

Re: Having your insulin pump die while you're on vacation

#80

Post by s1artibartfast »

bonyt wrote: post #32
antasvara wrote: post #28

Reading this, my takeaway was less about the pump and more about how every part of the medical system is disconnected from every other part. There were some mistakes made but they were all pretty reasonable decisions. But the situation that caused this in order: 1. The support line for the pump won't suggest sending it to where you are because you say you have a backup plan. 2. The support line also isn't a doctor; t…

> Each issue is reasonable by itself... The problem of many hands - when responsibilities in a group that collectively does harm are divided between many people, who can be held accountable when each person individually acted reasonably? I think organizations are, more and more, siloing roles in this way intentionally (or at least emergently), such that blame can only ever be collective if they do harm. Since it's so…

Liability laws incentives play a big part. Good faith effort and patient care increase the surface are for attack.
Post reply on HN