She’s got legs and she knows how to use them (the semi-Fashionista and her pump)!

One thing that I found in the beginning when going onto an insulin pump was the restrictions I found with what I like to wear.  Remember, I’m a semi-Fashionista living in the fashion capital of Canada – aka Montreal (okay – folks from Toronto and Vancouver you may not like my saying this – but if you can prove me wrong – tell us/me why ).

I found due to always having to clip the pump onto either my pant/skirt waistband/bra, or shoving it in my pockets of my pants, that some of my clothing I owned I couldn’t wear anymore.  Yes, I’m abit vain in how I like to dress, is it a girl thing?  Not sure, any men out there with similar frustrations – you can tell me what your frustrations are (besides George Simmons – aka Ninjabetic in the D-OC with the tubing length – which frustrates me from time to time as well).

Last year, Karen Graffeo had written a blog telling the D-OC about a  leg cuff that held her pump in place from T & J Design.  Even better, she posted a video showing her cha-cha-chaaing (dancing) away with the pump in place of her upper thigh.  I then contacted Joan Benz owner/creator of some great pump wear designs.  Her daughter Tynan is an insulin pump user and has been the model for many of the designs that Joan makes.

It took a few trial runs to get the right dimensions of the leg cuff to fit on my thigh so it wouldn’t slip down but in the end, we found the perfect fit.  Despite my living in Canada, Joan was great in getting my order to me as it originally had been sent to my SIL in Florida that I was visiting at the time, and then we had to deal with shipping across borders which worked out fine.  I now have two legs cuffs in white, and she also makes them in black which she didn’t at the time I’d ordered them up, so I maybe treating myself to one shortly, for those evening events I go to! 

All I can say is, that it’s so nice to be able to wear a dress/skirts again and not have the pump clipped to either my underwear waistband/bra, which due to not having a remote for my pump, you can figure out how annoying it can be to use the  pump at times.  Now all I have to do is just simply reveal abit of leg (yes, I’m a semi-exhibitionist – I’ve got legs and I know how to use them ), pull out the pump and do whatever needs to be done.

You can check out a few pictures I took earlier in the year at my Flickr account – if the link does not work here at Diabetes1.org – just look for FatCatAnna at the Flickr.com website – and you’ll find my pictures under the set title of  “T& J Design Leg Cuff “.