How to get an Insulin Pump advice

[chalky]

Good Afternoon,

Ive looked in to it and see that I meet some of the criteria for an insulin pump, now im looking for some advice of how others went about getting one, any tips etc

I feel it'll make my life easier

 

[Spiker]

You get them from your hospital clinic usually. Do you mean help in choosing one? There is a sticky topic in this forum (Insulin Pump Forum). Also quite a lot of threads in this forum are about "Which pump?" or "Pump X vs Pump Y", so have a read of those threads and then you may have some more specific questions.

A key thing for you to find out yourself will be what pumps your hospital or other provider offers. You can only really pick from what they offer.

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[chalky]

its more looking at how n what people did to get theres
what they said n did etc

 

[Emma_P23]

You need to ask your diabetes team. Pumps are great but they are hard work. They don't make like easier, just more flexible.


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[Spiker]

its more looking at how n what people did to get theres
what they said n did etc

Basically you have to demonstrate that you know how to do MDI (multiple daily injections) and that's not working for you. Then you have to demonstrate you are committed and sensible enough to manage with a pump, which actually takes more effort to manage than MDI, at least until you get the hang of it. Typically this means going on training courses organised by your doctor or hospital.

If you are under 18 they will look at you as more of a priority.

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[Spiker]

I feel it'll make my life easier

In what was are you expecting it will make your life easier? In some ways it does, in other ways it doesn't.


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[chalky]

im forever correcting myself with jabs, then it leads to either high or hypos... its a mission to keep it in check

 

[Spiker]

im forever correcting myself with jabs, then it leads to either high or hypos... its a mission to keep it in check

I wouldn't expect that a pump would necessarily change that at all. Instead of correcting with jabs you would be correcting with pump correction doses and you would still be getting highs or hypos. :-(

Any idea why you keep going high and low? Have you done a carb counting course, DAFNE, something like that. where you learned to check your basal rate is correct, work out your correct ratios for carbs and for corrections? That has to be the starting point, whether you are on a pump or not. You need to show that you can do that kind of stuff before they will consider you for a pump. And learning those things might be enough, you might not need a pump once you have mastered those techniques. In some ways a pump is more hassle than jabs. It's something attached to you all the time that you need to carry around all the time, plus all the spares and supplies for it, plus you still need to carry a pen injector just in case.

For me anyway, the only clear benefit of a pump over jabs it that it offers a lot more flexibility on control of basal, and much smaller/finer doses for bolus (down to 0.05 of a unit on my pump).

 

[CarbsRok]

Hi Chalky, you need to be able to carb count and be able to demonstrate that you understand carb ratios, correction factors and can keep half decent records showing what you have done to sort your problems out using MDI.
Have you tested your basal to see if this is correct?
Do you understand about insulin stacking and the consequences?
If not perhaps invest in a couple of books called using insulin and think like a pancreas, both can be found on amazon.

 

[CarbsRok]

I wouldn't expect that a pump would necessarily change that at all. Instead of correcting with jabs you would be correcting with pump correction doses and you would still be getting highs or hypos. :-(

).

If the pump is set up correctly by the user then very few highs and even fewer hypos would occur
Pumping is work in progress for the majority of the time.
There's a very good saying a pump is not plug and play, you only get out of it what you put in.
Pumping is not an easy option.