Macbeth: The Diabetic Edition

'Out damned spot!' A pretty iconic line in the Shakespearean play Macbeth, where Lady Macbeth experiences night walking and paranoia, washing her hands of unseen blood in her sleep.
Now whilst I may not be as murderous as Lady Macbeth, I can understand her issue with having blood on your hands.

I promise, whilst it may look as though I've been moonlighting as a hit-woman with my blood-stained hands, this isn't the case. What happened is some more pump mayhem, well cannula mayhem to be exact.It's gross, it's rare and it's terrible- it's called a 'gusher'.

I was treated to one of these Lady Macbeth moments a night ago as I changed my insulin set. Usually, pulling out the cannula isn't an issue, it's like ripping off a band-aid. But this time, it was intense.
After taking off the sticky white cannula, I was treated to what a stream of blood that wouldn't stop. Once I got past the whole 'AAH I'M HEMORRHAGING' bit, I was preoccupied for 10 minutes in attempting to get this thing to stop. Feeling sick and dizzy from probably the sight of the blood rather than the loss itself I was stuck with the task of cleaning. Looking like a blood-stained fiend I went about cleaning my clothes and floor and finally it was all over. The result? I will never become a cleaner on a crime site... or a surgeon for that matter.

Gushers, are gross and are probably one of the few drawbacks of the insulin pump. Reading up about it, they're apparently not all that common, but being underweight apparently doesn't help as your veins and blood vessels are closer to the surface and more likely to be hit by the cannula.

So, now that I've channeled my inner Lady Macbeth I can understand where she's coming from! If I were dreaming I had the blood of my enemies (or worse my own) on my hands, I'd be rather psychotic too!





Comments

  1. Ramblings 17 May 2015 at 03:02

    This made me smile as I had one of these this morning. Just hoping the blood comes out of the sofa before my MIL next comes to tea 😂

    ReplyDelete

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