If I go through some of the area's where you can fine tune a pump a lot better than using injections...
Because of the ability to fine tune with the pump, must people find that their total daily dose (TDD) drops... A lot of this is due to the background insulin..
With injection even with injecting twice daily, you only flatten out the peaks and troughs of the basal profile into a smoother wave, which leaves you in the position that at times, you can have too much insulin floating around, and at others you won't quite have enough.. So you tend to counter balance this out, with increasing/decreasing the quick acting insulin to carbs... Which is fine if routines etc are pretty consistent from one day to the next... But can cause problems with spiking/lows if not..
Another problems with injected background insulin, is due to it's design to adsorb slowly over a 24 hour period, you can't adjust it to fit a changing need, such as a work day or rest day, perhaps a regular session at the gym, you've got to overcome these problems with either reducing quick insulin dose or carb adjustments such as increasing carbs, taking extra carbs on board, to feed the background insulin to prevent a hypo.
With a pump, you can program the amount of insulin to be delivered at any one time, from very small dose most pumps start from around 0.05u per hour. Another advantage is that pump dependant of manufacturer have between 3-5 programmable basal profiles, so you can set different profiles to suit your work day needs, day off needs, gym needs etc... You can also change which profile you'll using at any time you want. another advantage you also have you can increase/decrease your current profile temporary for anything from 15minutes to 24 hours (15 minute increments) So if plans change, you can react to them. Surprising to how much difference the fine tuning on the basal rates, can make a difference to over-all control
With the bolus insulin, several advantages here..
First, you can deliver a part of a unit of insulin, most pumps it's in 0.05 increments, some start at 0.1, so no more rounding up or down of insulin to match carb intake...
Then you've got 3 bolus programs for delivery..
Standard, delivers dose in one go, same as injecting
Extended, delivers the dose over a even period of time, programmable in 15 minute increments
Multi-wave, Combines both Standard and Extended bolus, you program the spilt to be delivered!
So again, no wasted insulin, and you can deliver your insulin to match the different adsorptions of different foods/meals, so no having to spilt an injection, then remember to take the rest of the injection later, such as when eating pasta, pizza etc..
Also, all pumps now come with wizards that will calculate your insulin needs, So once you've sorted out your carb-insulin ratio's, corrections ratios for different periods of the day, reductions for exercise, illness etc and programmed it into the wizard, it will calculate your insulin dose you require by entering your carb intake, or by BG result.. It will also let you know how much active insulin on board, so you can avoid insulin stacking..
It can take hard work, commitment and sleepless nights to pin down, basal rates etc but once done pumping does get easier, so well worth the effort!
You've only been diabetic for a short time, over a long period of time as life throws all sorts at us, the many changes it does, from the good to the bad, and we get older our regime needs change so what works today in perhaps 5 years time won't, and we have to recalculate/adjust our insulin to adapt to the changes in those 5 years...
With a pump because you are tweaking it all the time, it pretty much keeps up with all this, with out you noticing that much, I've been using a pump now for over 4 years, and the setting now are different from what I started with, but due to they've kind of evolved, so I've tweaked this setting here, then there at another time I really haven't realised...
But if they are offering a pump, give it a try see if you like it or not, and if you really don't like it you can always hand it back, and return to injections.. But I do warn you though, there aren't many pumpers who do, most are like me will fight anybody trying to take our pumps away
). My pancreatitis STILL causes major issues & am still on multiple meds including pancreatic enzymes every time I eat/drink as I can't digest any foods or fat without them, also suffer from 'daily 'memory pain' & attacks, BAD steattorea, daily vomiting (espec with meals), not to mention depression etc.