u/JayandMeeka

I spoke to my oncologist today and he’s wanting me to get another PET scan.

I searched in this sub for recent experiences and didn’t find much. Anyone had one recently? Will I have to take everything off like an MRI? Or am I good to keep connected (minus removing the physical pump) like a CT?

I had one at the beginning of this journey and I remember having to sit in room and wait for the radioactive sugar to circulate for an hour or so before the scan. I also know I have to fast but if it’s a morning appointment that should be fine.

Any other tips?

Can someone give me a quick rundown of how they work again? I had to do language and a few other subjects term one, but not math. I haven't written a comment for math in years since being on leave.

What do I have to comment on, specifically? Is it a general comment? Do I have to touch on specific strands?

How is everyone handling this?

I'm going into offline mode until the majority of things are updated, but I'm wondering about the event rewards and the timing to claim them.

If I wait a week or so, will I be missing out?

Spoilering for talks of self harm.

Before anyone asks: I have an appointment with my therapist Friday afternoon. I'm not sure I'll bring this up, but I probably should.

I was diagnosed with stage four melanoma three years ago - to the day, actually. Gave my mum quite the news on Mother's Day that year. The immunotherapy treatment for it is what gave me T1.

I got scan results back today from MRIs and CTs I had done last week. The mass they were watching that shrunk post treatment and has been stable for the past two and a half years grew significantly. I don't know what this means for me yet, but I speak with my oncologist Thursday.

What I do know is that if this means more battling, I'm done. I can't do this anymore. I have no partner or dependents. I can clean out my house and deal with all my assests so no one else has to once I go.

I searched across reddit for what it's like to go by overdosing on insulin. From what I understand, your body goes into fight or flight, and it's pretty terrible. I thought about adding a sleep aid like Nyquil or something to bypass that. Knock myself out and then let insulin do it's thing. Anyone else have more insight? Is it peaceful, or truly awful?

I'm pretty scared and angry right now. The stress of dealing with carbs and numbers seems pretty minimal at this point. To be brutally honest, if it turns out that the cancer is back and I have to go through treatment again, it'll be a relief to know I won't have to fight with food or cancer anymore. I'll just be done. I might even ask my doctor what the progression would be like if I chose to just not fight it. I looked that up too, and apparently melanoma is one of the quickest spreading and most aggressive forms of cancer, so it wouldn't take long. That might be another path to being done with pumps and insulin and cancer. I want to take whichever one is quicker.

Anyways. Thanks for reading if you made it here. Hug your loved ones close please. Life is really, really hard.

Random shift in basal needs last night resulted in me spiking out of nowhere. (I mean, I can guess.. period is around the corner so that's likely what it is depsite the fact it doesn't do this every month).

So many tears of frustration last night as I watched myself just rise and rise while I manually bolused on my pump and monitored.

Family members say I'm being too hard on myself. A1C is good and TIR is good as well. I think that honestly makes it more difficult to accept the highs/lows because they aren't too common, and I'm doing "fine".

Now all I can think about is: will it happen again tonight? Will I be up all night monitoring it, again? Or will it be the opposite now?

I'm just so tired. I want a mental break from this, and I will never get one. No one I know understands how that feels. They all just say "It's fine! A spike won't kill you!" and while that may be true, it's the mental load of caring for that spike that drains me.

Anyways. If you read to here, thank you. I'm not even really sure why I'm posting. Just had a rough night, and likely in for another one tonight, and needed to let it out somewhere people will understand.

How do you normally open your learning skills comments? It's been a few years since I've written final reports.

I was thinking something along the lines of "<NAME> has completed the fourth grade." with adjustments like "successfully" or "with support".

Any suggestions?

I can find the wild nightly mushrooms easily enough, but the other ones are so difficult to find. I'm trying to get the spicy mushroom, the lovely mushroom and the mysterious mushroom.

I've searched the snail, I've combed the Bramblewood a few times, and I've visited the stall oustide the bar. I also know you can do an errand and get mushroom as a reward as well so I might try that. I'll continue to hunt in these areas, but any other tips?

Context: I use Tslim/Trusteel with G6.

The scan is at 8am. Right in the middle of dawn effect. Great.

I am going to leave everything on until the moment I'm getting into the machine. I am going to bolus 2hrs worth of basal before taking the pump off.

After the scan I am going to put a Dexcom back on right away and get that warming up. Then I'm going to get home and shower, then put my pump back on.

After that, I need to eat so my plan is to have eggs and sausage for breakfast. Normally I'd have fruit as well, but without a CGM, plus a new site, I am going almost no carb for a bit. Debating whether to have coffee, although leaning heavily towards it because I love it. I don't think it impacts me, but it could just be that my pump handles it well.

Then the plan for the rest of the day is to just monitor numbers and ride it out while the sensor fluctuates and settles.

Any other tips? Dreading this, heavily.

Those with doctors notes requiring the use of metal canulas, are you able to order at all? If so, how are you going about it? I typically use Diabetes Express but no online options are available. I am going to call them when they open at 9am, but was curious what others are doing.

Do you always change your cartridge when you change your site?

I usually don't, especially if I have more than 30 units left. But I'm wondering if I just should anyways.

I changed my site this afternoon, and then a few hours later I bolused for dinner and noticed a ton of bubbles coming from the cartridge. This isn't the first time, either. For some reason near the end of using a cartridge I get these bubbles when I change my site but not my tubing. I'm sure it's user error on my part, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong to cause this.

Either way it's got me wondering: do you change your cartridge with your site every time? I think I'm going to unless I have a lot of insulin.

I also have to preface this with some context: I am Canadian, so my insulin is covered. I completely understand if circumstances warrant you having to save insulin as much as you can before refilling.

But if cost is no concern to you, do you?

After a long week of work, all I wanted to do was sleep last night.

Beetus said no.

I woke up to my Tslim pump screaming at me that CIQ was turned off because it wasn't getting any readings. I opened the Dexcom app and saw "Connection Issue. Wait 30 minutes". I've had this before if I sleep on my pump or sensor awkwardly, but it always fixes itself the next reading or so. Not last night.

At the two hour mark of this issue I called Dexcom. She got me to remove all of the old transmitters from my bluetooth devices. Then she had me turn my bluetooth off and back on, and force close the Dexcom app and reopen it. None of which helped. Thankfully I had back up supplies of everything, and they're also sending me a replacement sensor and transmitter. This current transmitter had a few weeks left, so I'm guessing it just gave up early. Has this happened to you? First time in almost three years of using Dexcom for me.

I'm just so tired. All I want to do is sleep.

I noticed this morning that I was running higher despite eating the same, usual things. I looked back at my notes and could see a sort of pattern of this day in particular running high. It's been effort to keep my numbers in check.

It's day 15 of my cycle, which I think is the beginning of the luteal phase if I understand it correctly. Looking back, it seems like this has happened to me consistently on this day in particular.

Anyone else find this as well? Have you noticed trends with your cycle at all?

I'd say for me it's the mornings. Since diagnosis, I have become such an early riser. I find things much easier and more stable. I definitely have dawn phenomenon, but with my pump I've figured out my basal rate, which I think I've adjusted maybe once or twice in the last few months. Sleep mode is great, too. I can sit and have my coffee, and then get things done without worrying about lows, while at the same time my pump is handling the dawn effect. It's a nice zone.

The evenings, though? Completely different story. For some stupid reason my basal rates constantly change at this time of the day. Tonight, for example, the rate I've been using for the past few weeks is suddently too aggressive. Other times this rate won't be aggressive enough. It feels like I have to adjust it daily (I don't, obviously, but it feels that way). Breakfast hits consistently well, but dinners can fly off the handle if I look at my meal the wrong way, apparently.

It's freaking irritating. I know evenings are so fluctuating because of meals, hormones, weather, etc etc but ugh. I'm exhausted after work right now, and all I'm doing is wishing to not go low so I can get some sleep. Like, tears of frustration because I just want to sleep.

What's the time of the day that's most consistent for you? What's the hardest time of the day?