Latest daft holiday pump disaster

[sedge]

So what went wrong this time, what's Sedge done now? - surely she can't beat last year's setting off on holiday without her pump, or can she?
 
So the beginning of this week,  my pump told me it was getting to the end of it's reservoir.  20u left, so next lunchtime I took my insulin out of the fridge.  After lunch I went for a new reservoir - no reservoirs.  Had I got an old pointy end and screw in handle for the plunger then to re-use the old one? - Nope.  Ooo-err.
 
Hah ! - I had syringes, fill it with a syringe from the pointy end .... Nope, no room in the reservoir and the force of the insulin out of the syringe was not sufficient to move the plunget back down the tube.
 
Pete has a Think, then get's one of his fishing tackle cases out of the locker.  A second size 'boilie stringing needle'* was sufficient to drag the plunger back down the reservoir tube.  TG he's a carp fisherman!  And I then filled the res from the pointy end with a syringe.  Job done.
 
* these are like mega-fine, steel crocheting hooks, wicked hooks on em.  If you wanted to crochet something using hairs from your head instead of wool or cotton, these would be about the size hook to use.

[Pattidevans]

Thank goodness you have a resourceful hubby!  Did you have any pen back ups if all else had failed?

Oh silly me... you had those old fashioned syringe thingies!

[sedge]

I recently decided that syringes made a lot more sense as a back up and took a lot less room, on the basis you've always got to have the insulin even if  it's all - or only - in your pump reservoir.  What I didn't have, was Levemir though and I was already working out how I'd have to play it with just Novorapid and only 10 syringes ...... Haven't any Lev in the fridge iether so think I need to get a vial of lev prescribed, will check the prices on the BNF but I think a vial should be less expensive than a box of pen cartriges, plus I don't have to carry pens and pen needles on top of all the pump junk, just a couple of packs of syringes, which one could easily re-use a few times in an emergency.  Syringes take up far less room.

[Winni]

Hehe. I love the fact you think of all the 'emergency' situations then forget the ruddy basic kit x x

[Alan]

So what went wrong this time, what's Sedge done now? - surely she can't beat last year's setting off on holiday without her pump, or can she?
 
So the beginning of this week,  my pump told me it was getting to the end of it's reservoir.  20u left, so next lunchtime I took my insulin out of the fridge.  After lunch I went for a new reservoir - no reservoirs.  Had I got an old pointy end and screw in handle for the plunger then to re-use the old one? - Nope.  Ooo-err.
 
Hah ! - I had syringes, fill it with a syringe from the pointy end .... Nope, no room in the reservoir and the force of the insulin out of the syringe was not sufficient to move the plunget back down the tube.
 
Pete has a Think, then get's one of his fishing tackle cases out of the locker.  A second size 'boilie stringing needle'* was sufficient to drag the plunger back down the reservoir tube.  TG he's a carp fisherman!  And I then filled the res from the pointy end with a syringe.  Job done.
 
* these are like mega-fine, steel crocheting hooks, wicked hooks on em.  If you wanted to crochet something using hairs from your head instead of wool or cotton, these would be about the size hook to use.

Glad it worked; excellent thinking by hubby.

We dislike carp here and refuse to eat them; they have invaded our inland waterways. An enterprising bloke on the Murray has started a business turning them into fertiliser.

[sedge]

This is the ridiculous thing Alan - in Europe it's strictly 'No Kill'/'Catch & Realease' and very large carp change hands for hundreds if not thousands of pounds/euros, as it's a huge business selling fishing holidays and people always want a decent number of 'gut buckets' in their lake to attract the people prepared to pay lots to catch em.  Or try and catch em.

We were quite shocked to discover they are considered as vermin !

I cannot understand for the life of me why Oz don't encourage 'carpistes' to come, pay handsomely to have their sport catching the slimy buggers and then pass em over to the bailiff to dispose of - if they can't cope with doing that themselves.  Some of em haven't had the pleasure of fishing for eg salmon or trout and would be uninitiated in the use of a 'priest' or similar instrument for quick despatch purposes.

I'm told it can taste 'earthy', no idea if that is true or not but in the wild they live on eg bloodworm which they grub up off the bottom - so it would follow that they taste of mud, really, I suppose!

[Pattidevans]

Wasn't "Stewed Carp" a delicacy in Tudor times?  I believe they kept Carp ponds for this very reason.

Hehe. I love the fact you think of all the 'emergency' situations then forget the ruddy basic kit x x

Precisely Winni, and it's not only pumpers.  Had I have found out about the cracked cartridge of Levemir when I was away for the weekend I'd have been up the creek without a paddle, because I hadn't taken a spare as I knew there was plenty in the cartridge in use.  It also came home to me when I was running high teens that my Optium meter with ketone strips were safely at home!  Fat lot of use there if I'm not!

[Venomous]

V helpful hubby you have there Jenny!

[sedge]

Yes, very resourceful bloke he is, one of those types who can do anything practical that needs doing - only trouble is he resents paying others to do it when he hasn't the time or the inclination .......... so eg he hasn't rebuilt the front wall and I've been waiting for a new bathroom for 12 years come October ......

But I suppose he will get round to it one of these days and I am sure when he does it will be what I have always wanted and perhaps a bit more.

[sedge]

As for stewed carp, I am not sure - they probably baked it as they did pike or roach as well.  Chub apparently are a bit like chewing cotton wool;  eels are very tasty especially smoked.

However they did grow the carp in stew ponds. We still see quite a lot of stew ponds on our travels through France,  but they don't eat half as much mow in the way of freshwater fish as they did.  Pete was showing some Franch anglers last year a couple of photo's of a carp he had caught, and everyone of them asked if we had eaten it.

[Alan]

This is the ridiculous thing Alan - in Europe it's strictly 'No Kill'/'Catch & Realease' and very large carp change hands for hundreds if not thousands of pounds/euros, as it's a huge business selling fishing holidays and people always want a decent number of 'gut buckets' in their lake to attract the people prepared to pay lots to catch em.  Or try and catch em.

We were quite shocked to discover they are considered as vermin !

It's a similar problem to rabbits. An introduced species innocuous in their home environment which cause ecological disasters when transplanted to a land where they flourish without natural predators at the expense of native species.

[sedge]

We - and the French - have a terrible prob esp in rivers but obviously from there they percolate into lakes - with American crayfish (the freshwater so-called  'Louisiana' crayfish) which have virtually killed off all our native ones which are much smaller and lighter coloured (like freshwater prawns as opposed to salt water ones) and have correspondingly smaller inbuilt 'defences'. (ie claws)  Poor little things don't stand a chance.

Well I thought some enterprising Aussies could make a tidy living from encouraging visitors to come and PAY to help with the carp extermination problem!  Unfortunately nobody Aussie appears to have an interest in catching carp as they obviously don't know the fight they put up on the line!  You sometimes think you've got a very athletic U-boat on the hook - and it turns out to be just a single figure fish. (ie under 10 lbs, not kgs)

Time to get the designers of the Rabbit Fence out of retirement to design a Carp Net?  LOL

[Alan]

We - and the French - have a terrible prob esp in rivers but obviously from there they percolate into lakes - with American crayfish (the freshwater so-called  'Louisiana' crayfish) which have virtually killed off all our native ones which are much smaller and lighter coloured (like freshwater prawns as opposed to salt water ones) and have correspondingly smaller inbuilt 'defences'. (ie claws)  Poor little things don't stand a chance.

Well I thought some enterprising Aussies could make a tidy living from encouraging visitors to come and PAY to help with the carp extermination problem!  Unfortunately nobody Aussie appears to have an interest in catching carp as they obviously don't know the fight they put up on the line!  You sometimes think you've got a very athletic U-boat on the hook - and it turns out to be just a single figure fish. (ie under 10 lbs, not kgs)

Time to get the designers of the Rabbit Fence out of retirement to design a Carp Net?  LOL

Well, they've made a start: European Carp: The "Rabbit of the Warterways".

Most of ours are the koi carp. They don't fight on the line; it's like pulling in an anchor.

[Pattidevans]

Very resourceful lot you Aussies!

[sedge]

Had to laugh seeing the comment about the Thames.  David Walliams, the comedian here does things for charity under the 'Comic Relief' banner - much like Bob Gedlof/Midge Ure's 'Band Aid' thing - but for comedians/ennes. 

Last year (or the year before, I forget) he swam the Channel and raised over £1m; this year he swam virtually the whole length of the Thames over a period of X number of days.  Some stretches are pretty clean but a lot of it is still basically a sewer.  The British Waterways guys really did NOT want him to do it.  He took a course of heavy duty antibiotics before he even started and during it and STILL had the most awful D&V during the swim and only his determination kept him going.  All his doctors and coaches wanted him to quit but he kept on.  He raised about £2m or something; if we'd seen the documentary as the event was happening instead of well after it - I reckon he'd have got double that amount because he just was so ill and so incredible to carry on.