It's not an artificial pancreas.....or is it?

I wanted to update my thoughts about being part of the Closed Loop research this morning, but I’m afraid my concentration and happy state of mind is being thrown for a loop by various internet subscription systems which are NOT behaving in the seamless manner you would expect and by my internet connection running slow and causing me to see red!  It’s incredible how things can just derail your emotional equilibrium very quickly. I’m also sick today with a herpes attack and I think it’s just an accumulation of the various stresses about finance, doing the research project, trying to find work, trying to get my business up and running and having emails from someone who saw my ad on airbnb and decided to ask at 11:30 pm if it would be ok to book in for 3 nights starting today(!) Fortunately after getting up out of bed, and conducting an online conversation over the recalcitrant internet connection mentioned earlier, the person decided that they would stay in central Melbourne instead and I got back into bed at 12:30am. So this morning I was feeling on the verge of tears, but after taking time out for a coffee and chat with two very dear girlfriends and I’m beginning to crack a smile again.
Many thanks to Type 1 Diabetes Memes for this entirely appropriate one!

Back to the closed loop. I’m having daily conversations with my research DNE and we are doing some fine tuning of the pump, but that’s all a little uncertain because I think this attack of herpes is pushing my bgl’s up. I'm using a pump that belongs to the research project, not my own pump and I believe that the project pump is behaving differently to my own pump, which is an interesting thought. The Enlight sensors are amazing, they stabilise immediately and are very consistent with their readings. It’s bliss not finger-pricking 12 times a day.
Today my DNE explained a little more about the extra technology involved in closing the loop. This study is different from the ones you may have read about in other blogs. It’s not including glucogen in the interventions, it just relies on the pump responding to the rise and fall in bgl’s by increasing or decreasing insulin.  As well as the pump and the cgms, there are two more pieces of technology in the closed loop system. These are a smart phone with an app which will run the algorithms that tell the pump what to do and another piece of technology that translates between bluetooth and radio wave technology as the pump doesn’t speak bluetooth.
I think one of the things I’m feeling at the moment is just how amazing it is that I am prepared to basically put my life in the hands of this technology and how much this digital technology has progressed since the 1990’s. I mean,
1. I’m relying on the algorithms to be right,
2. I’m relying on the pump to continue to work properly,
3. I’m relying on the sensors’ to work properly,
4. I’m relying on the transmission of data over radio waves and via bluetooth translations to be right…..
I must be MAD!

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