I am a Type 1 diabetic on Insulin for around 45 years now. On Actrapid and Insulatard thrice a day. Actrapid thrice a day and Insulatard twice a day. Now for past six months though my HBA1C is 5.7 fructosamine assay is very high 288. Urine protein and urine creatinine levels are very high. I have become very sensitive to insulin. Any changes in actrapid puts me to hypoglycemia. My life style has been ups and downs with Injection. Doctors advice for Insulin pump. Any users in the forum can let me know the pros and cons of using Insulin pump. Have you faced a similar situation and your life style has improved? Any suggestion on what questions I should ask the doctor?
Pros and Cons of Shifting from Injection to Insulin Pump
- Thread starter SHmano
- Start Date
- Messages
- 9,037
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Pump
- Dislikes
- Hypos, rude people, ignorance and grey days.
Hi @SHmano I have no experience of Actrapid or Insulatard so can't comment on sensitivity of these vs using novarapid. The pump I use - Medtronic 640g is set up using Novorapid which acts as both basal and bolus, hence the need to pump 24 hours, using a pump means you can really tweak your doses over a 24 hour period and adjust ratios based on timed settings to replicate the action of the pancreas, it involves alot of input to finely tune settings and then of course these will change over time, so from season to season, weight changes so an eye on levels to manage adjustments is required over time. You can use smaller units of insulin so whereas a pen will either use a 5/10 unit function the pump will operate on single units for bolus calculations so using less insulin.
Personally I feel much more balanced using a pump, so more stable BG control, it's helped me exercise more as I can use pump settings to control insulin output, I have great contact with my nurse and we review monthly, it has helped me both reduce and stablise my HbA1c, I was very anti the idea once upon a time, but I wouldn't change it for the world now
Personally I feel much more balanced using a pump, so more stable BG control, it's helped me exercise more as I can use pump settings to control insulin output, I have great contact with my nurse and we review monthly, it has helped me both reduce and stablise my HbA1c, I was very anti the idea once upon a time, but I wouldn't change it for the world now
novorapidboi26
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 2,828
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Pump
BASAL delivery.......
you can fine tune your basal almost exactly, resulting in a much more accurate, effective and very likely smaller dose of basal insulin over a 24 hour period......
having that almost perfect basal dose right also allows for a much more efficient bolus dose too....as you wont be compensating for a surplus or deficit that the inflexible injection almost certainly provides.....
the way the insulin is delivered is generally much more efficient than putting a dose into your body all in one go, and hoping it absorbs consistently....
there are many more pros I would say but nothing as great as the above mentioned basic functions...
you can fine tune your basal almost exactly, resulting in a much more accurate, effective and very likely smaller dose of basal insulin over a 24 hour period......
having that almost perfect basal dose right also allows for a much more efficient bolus dose too....as you wont be compensating for a surplus or deficit that the inflexible injection almost certainly provides.....
the way the insulin is delivered is generally much more efficient than putting a dose into your body all in one go, and hoping it absorbs consistently....
there are many more pros I would say but nothing as great as the above mentioned basic functions...
It's ultimately about what works best for you and your lifestyle. I like to eat what I want (within reason), when I want and how much I want of it, so I find the insulin pump makes this easiest. I don't find being attached to something much of an issue most of the time. You are using an outdated insulin regimen though so you could get benefits from just switching to modern MDI. I'm Canadian and we have different brand names for insulin, but I assume Actrapid is Regular and insulatard is NPH? You should consider (with the advice of your doctor of course) at least switching to a rapid-acting insulin for meals (such as Apidra, NovoRapid, Humalog or Fiasp) and a real basal insulin such as Levemir, Lantus or Tresiba instead of NPH in then meantime. You should get better results and be able to live a more flexible lifestyle just by making those changes.
As far as benefits are concerned, it's easiest to start with the things I hated about MDI when I tried it for the last few months, which pushed me back to the pump and are as follows:
-Very difficult to find a basal insulin or dose that gives good coverage for day and night - I tried splitting Levemir, splitting Tresiba (the holy grail of MDI basal) or taking it in 1 daily dose and just couldn't get either where I wanted them. I was always left with gaps in coverage or periods where they would kick in way too strong and had to eat my way through them. Absolutely impossible to make adjustments to deal with specific issues at times in the day which frustrated me, especially since I was used to pumping and knew there was a better way. Sometimes injections didn't absorb well or I'd see blood when I took my basal and I was screwed for 24 hours knowing I wouldn't get good basal coverage. Also hated having to set timers to take injections and if I was out somewhere and had to take my basal. I didn't have my Levemir pen with me a few times and this caused problems I don't have to deal with on the pump.
-Very difficult to eat a lot of the things I like to or in portions I want. Since pens only work in half units or more, had to eat more or less to match food to the dose. If I ate anything that digested slowly I had to take multiple injections and if I ate something like that before bed I would wake up with high blood sugar. The pump solves this problem with the ability to program an insulin dose over time. Even if I had Levemir or Tresiba working 100% for me, these food/bolus problems still make the pump worthwhile.
-Hated injecting. Even with a pen it could be a huge hassle, especially when wearing a suit for work. I really didn't like injecting in public since it draws everyone's attention to it at least in my mind, and I often wouldn't eat if on the subway or in public places when I was hungry. If my BG was high I would wait till I could find a private place to take a correction injection. I took a few shots while driving but this was dangerous and ridiculous. On the pump I just dial in my dose and eat or correct away no matter where I am.
I'm sure I'm forgetting more things I hated, but I would say if you're bothered by any of these problems to consider pumping. There are certainly drawbacks to it too which I could mention in another post, but honestly the list is a lot shorter which is why it's a better option for me and could be for you.
