Welcome back to Day 4 of Diabetes Blog Week 2012!

The topic for today is “Fantasy Diabetes Device:”

Fantasy Diabetes Device – Thursday 5/17: Today let’s tackle an idea inspired by Bennet of Your Diabetes May Vary. Tell us what your Fantasy Diabetes Device would be? Think of your dream blood glucose checker, delivery system for insulin or other meds, magic carb counter, etc etc etc. The sky is the limit – what would you love to see?

My fantasy diabetes device is really not all that fantastical. You may or may not know that JDRF is already working on creating an artificial pancreas. Though not a cure for diabetes, an artificial pancreas would be totally and utterly awesome because it would be to predict and respond to my bloodsugar levels automatically, like most people’s pancreases do everyday.

But, while the FDA decides whether or not it wants to move forward with the artificial pancreas, let’s focus on something a little less fantastical: a smaller insulin pump with a reliable built-in CGM. My pump isn’t huge by any means, but it would be great if it could more easily slip into my jeans pocket, or more easily hide in general. And while Medtronic does produce a CGM that’s integrated with the pump that I use, the sensors were unreliable and painful enough that I made the switch to the Dexcom system, which added a not-so-pleasant, football-shaped device to the list of need-to-carry’s for my diabetes care.

Let me be honest for a moment: I still get asked “IS THAT A PAGER?!?” often enough to wish that people were more educated about diabetes and insulin pumps… or that I could just hide it somewhere out of sight!

p.s. Sorry to the guy at Starbucks in Redlands last Saturday! You were nice and overly apologetic when I replied, “no, it’s not a pager; it’s an insulin pump,” but our conversation was awkward and I’d rather just not have conversations like that at this point in my life! :)