Trying to Get an Insulin Pump When Your Job Doesn't Have a Diary

One of the more frustrating parts of managing Type 1 diabetes while working in the live events industry has been trying to get onto an insulin pump.

Specifically, I've been trying to get an Omnipod.

And I still don't have one.

The slightly ridiculous thing is that the problem isn't that I don't want one. It's almost the opposite. I've been trying to get onto one, but actually getting through the process when you're a touring sound engineer has proved surprisingly difficult.

## "We need you to come in for training"

Completely understandable.

An insulin pump isn't something you should just be handed and sent on your way with. There's training involved, appointments to attend and things that need to be set up properly.

The problem is when those appointments are offered.

My working diary doesn't look much like a normal working diary.

I can be in an arena somewhere in the UK one week and on a flight to the other side of the world the next. There are periods where I'm away for weeks — sometimes months — at a time.

And being on a UK tour doesn't necessarily make things any easier.

If I'm working at an arena in Manchester, Birmingham or London, I'm technically "in the country", but I can't just disappear from a show day for a hospital appointment.

A touring day might involve an early load-in, getting the PA and system running, soundcheck, the show itself and then potentially a load-out afterwards.

There isn't really a:

*"I'll just nip out for a couple of hours."*

## The strange cycle I've ended up in

This is where it becomes frustrating.

I've explained that I tour for a living and that there will be periods where I simply cannot attend appointments.

But if I'm away and can't engage with the clinic when they need me to, I can eventually be considered inactive and discharged back to my GP.

Then, when I want to continue the process, my GP has to refer me back into the hospital service again.

So you end up going around in a circle.

**Hospital → touring → unavailable → discharged → GP → referral → hospital.**

Meanwhile, I still have Type 1 diabetes every single day.

It doesn't become inactive because I'm in China.

## I'm not refusing appointments. I'm at work.

That's probably the distinction I find most frustrating.

There's a big difference between someone who doesn't want to engage with their diabetes care and someone saying:

**"I absolutely want to do this, but I'm currently thousands of miles away."**

I've spent months at a time touring internationally. Even when I'm touring around the UK, the schedule is dictated by the tour.

Unlike a normal job, I can't necessarily ask to move my lunch break, take an afternoon off or work from home that day.

If it's show day and I'm responsible for part of the audio system, I need to be at the venue.

The irony is that touring is one of the reasons I'd particularly like to try pump therapy.

My days can be incredibly inconsistent. Meal times change. Sleep changes. There are overnight buses, flights, time-zone changes, long show days and periods of intense physical work followed by hours sitting on a bus.

Diabetes loves routine.

Touring very much does not.

## I don't really blame anyone

I don't think there's someone sitting in a hospital deliberately making this difficult.

The clinicians have procedures they have to follow, and I understand why someone who repeatedly can't attend might normally be classed as no longer engaging with the service.

The problem is that the system doesn't seem particularly well designed for people whose lives don't fit into a Monday-to-Friday calendar.

Touring musicians and crew aren't the only people this affects either. There must be plenty of people working offshore, at sea, internationally, in aviation or in other jobs where disappearing to a hospital on a particular Tuesday morning simply isn't possible.

We're not necessarily disengaged.

Sometimes we're just not there.

## So, for now…

I'm still using insulin injections and my FreeStyle Libre 2 Plus sensors, carrying everything around the world with me and managing my diabetes as I always have.

Hopefully at some point my diary, the hospital's diary and an Omnipod training appointment will all miraculously line up.

And when they do, I'll happily write Part Two:

**"I finally got the bloody pump."**