starting pumping

[neededthat]

heres my story so far in getting a pump, its not a long story , had appointment with consultant he thought a pump was a good idea, last week i had dn ring me at hospital with a start date,so i'll be attached 8th april had the letter telling me to only take half usual background insulin the night before. see told you not a long story lol,but from asking to having it will be a total of 4 and a half weeks.thought i'd share this to show its not always a long wait or a battle to get one.

 

[jopar]

Re: staring pumping

Sometimes in life, you just really want to kick someone in the shins :roll: :lol:

I am pleased for you, I had to battle with my consultant for 2.5 years, then wait for 4 months before I got the actual pump once I got the go ahead

Have they told you which pump they will be given you, is are they leaving this as a surprise for when you get there?

If they give you a Accu-chek spirit pump, you know that this has been tucked the back of the cupboard since about last May, as it was discontinued and replace with the Accuc-chek combi pump..

Good luck for the 8th, and don't forget to let us know how you get on with it, or ask any questions

 

[neededthat]

hi, will keep you informed very excited about it all, yes i was given a choice of pump after reading everything i could on availble pumps i decided on the combo, i like the idea of the remote.

 

[jopar]

You've got the up-grade to my pump.. You'll deff will have to let me know how you get on with it..

As this is likely to be my next pump! My clinic hasn't only got an adversion to suppying a pump, but one of also of not allowing one to chose which one, my peferance was the Amis 2020, but alas it was the spirit or nothing :evil:

I would be interested if with all the other whistles and bells, have they've included an IOB (insulin on board) so that you know how much insulin is still active.. This is something I wish I had on the spirit pump, as all my calculations of bolus, correction have to be carried out mentally, which isn't a problem when you've working from a standard bolus but when you've used the square or multi-wave bolus can make this calcualtion very difficult indeed..

 

[Manderley7205]

Hi, new to this forum as just got a pump last month. I'm still learning, but I can recommend the Combo. No more hiding the insulin pen under the table to inject or having to go to the Ladies - just dial up what insulin you want on the remote control which doubles as the BS tester. Love it!

Lots of useful features - still learning and moving on to the advance features soon - scares the living daylights out of me when I see choices like Multiwave and Extended! Have used Extended for when I have pizza or a meal which goes on a while - it worked!

Have had great support from hospital and the Accu-Chek rep. Lots of learning re changing cannulas and the cartridge but practice makes perfect. Still an issue with bubbles but have got some useful suggestions from this website.

The fasting regime is a bit of a pain but a total necessity to get the basal rate right - I've had to delay this as have a chronic tooth infection.

My biggest fear was having to wear the pump as I don't even like wearing jewellery. Have to say that I don't even notice it, yes, occasionally wake up with wire wrapped around me, but during the day it's been so easy to adjust to wearing it - just keep it in a pocket or clipped to the top of my trousers. May be more of an issue in the summer but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

For the moment, just enjoying not having to inject - I'm a thin T1 and it was getting beyond a joke as to where I injected next!

As to BS levels, lots of tweaking needed on basal and I'll address this when the infection has cleared. What I have noticed is that I don't get the sudden fluctuations I used to and am not going hypo thru the night like I used to. I used to laugh when other T1's said they could go to bed on 7 and wake up on 7..... now I can do that - a big improvement.

Sorry, have gone on a bit............ it's the Irish in me!

Cheers

Christine

 

[JANROU]

Hi jopar, the remore for the accu chek combo does tell you how much IOB you have left. I wasn't given a choice of what pump i cuold have but I love my pump although still learning and adjusting, the remote makes things really easy for me, you'll enjoy your upgrade.

 

[neededthat]

hi heres a question which sets do people prefer, i know everyones different but are the soft ones thicker than the metal needles? thus beening more painful to insert? im a total wimp by the way also the metal ones as there not going to be very flexable can you feel them if you being active.

 

[jopar]

I use the tenderlink 13mm 45 degree teflon angle sets and self insert

Several reasons why I chose this route..

The whimp excuses

The metal 90degree sets, I was put of from there whanger thingy, as it went of with a hell of a clank to fire the sets in... Put me right off the thought of having something lituary fired into me, reminded me of nail gun!

Also yes I could self insert, but alas, this also felt that I was stabbing myself, didn't like this notion at all :lol:

The senseable reasons...

I'm very skinny so haven't got much of a fat layer to insert the cannular into, using the 90 degree angle ment that I increased the likelyhood of the cannular touching the underlaying muscle kinking it not good.. Tends to play advoc with blood glucose levels

With the tenderlinks, you can self insert at an angle so could get it to lay along/above the muscle lessen the risk of kinking, the teflon cannular is naturally less likely to kink as it quite flexable...

Another bonus, the recommended length of time before changing sites, the metal it's 48 hours, for the tenderlinks 72 hours...

So far I've been pleased with my choice, and only had one ommedtion, caused by the sets/tubing in two years not bad going, I have a couple of time had the alarm go off during a bolus, but realised that my set was under my waistband, the pressure of the waistband against the infusion set, had stopped flow, losen waistband problem solved...

A advantage that I enjoy with self insertion, is that I am in total control, if at any point it hurts (rare occcasions) I can stop and resite etc... One piece of kit to remember/carry around with you, have you seen the size of the whanger thingy.. I hate using an hand bag at the best of times, but given the option of lugging hand bag around or a ruck sack it have to be the hand bag best of a bad choice...

neededthat it seems that you may not be the only whimp about :lol:

 

[Debloubed]

whanger thingy?! I don't think I saw that one?! :lol: I have the Linkassist which does punch the canula in but it is literally painless. I didn't even consider the other 2 options as the angle one looked way too complicated for my little brain and the metal one needed replacing every 2 days rather than every 3. so what's this whanger thingy all about?!

 

[jopar]

Hi Debs

the whanger thingy, was (in the case of the one I saw) a blue and white plastic oblong box, that you put the infusion set in the bottom, then onto the chosen spot, press the button and if fired it in.. Not sure that it's name, as different pump companies call them by different names, some are wiggets, whangers!!!

Not come across the link assist, unless is a rename, for the D-link set, which had a section of tubing attached to the infusion set, which could make it slightly easier to connect the pump tubing if placeing the set in a arkward place!!

 

[JANROU]

Sounds to me if the whanger thingy and link assist could be the thing, however from now on i want to call my link assist a whanger!! I've never ever had whanger before and it sounds so much more exciting. :lol:

 

[phoenix]

I use a medtronic pump... so no whangers but 'serters' .
I tried one of those on day one and lets say I was a bit scared of it... another wimp here. Then I remembered that I'd read on forums that manual insertion was much kinder.I tried that, found it was very easy and continued.. Like Jopar I use an angled set and normally have no problems with it being in for 3 days. Not invariably though, when I changed the set the day after my long run the other day, the cannula had 2 right angles and looked like this [ ... I wondered why I hadn't had my normal very low levels after the run!

 

[jopar]

I wouldn’t say I was a wimp but

2 years ago I ended up in our local small injuries unit after being bitten by a dog at my boss’s insistence! Well I only had one small puncture wound from the fang tooth in my hand...

After having a very overzealous dressing and bandaging to my hand and lower arm, to the extent anybody would have sworn that I had be savaged by the said dog!!!

It was decided, as I couldn’t actually remember if I had a tetanus jab, 9 years previously or when I was 18! that one would be given, What the practitioner Nurse hadn’t anticipated was a diabetic who’s scared of injections... When I explained he thought I was attempting to wiggle out the tetanus (in truth I was) he laughed as he said, she who wears a needle in her stomach 24/7 and had thousands of injections as a diabetic... He then noticed, as he came near with the tetanus needle, that I had gone rather pale and had started to swoon

It’s not the needle I fear, but because some-one else is doing it! It could hurt and I have no control the problem...

 

[phoenix]

It could hurt and I have no control the problem...
I think thats my problem with the 'serter', I felt I couldn't contro it)
(off topic... I had a nasty fall and hit my head last month whilst skiing, lots bruising but also a dramatic amount of blood from a small cut. The emergency doc gave me a prescription for anti tetanus to get and take to my GP. Because I haven't been vaccinated in 10 years as per French 'regulations' GP is starting again, I have to have another injection this month and another next year )

 

[neededthat]

thanks for the replys,funny my dn gave me a device which you put your pen in, this shot the needle in you, never liked injecting and would have to build the courage to do it :roll: ,but this thing after she shown me how to do it :? lol its still in its box never used :roll: like you say on the few occassions i might be able to feel the needle i remove to another area.

 

[Debloubed]

Sounds to me if the whanger thingy and link assist could be the thing, however from now on i want to call my link assist a whanger!! I've never ever had whanger before and it sounds so much more exciting. :lol:

I agree, LinkAssist must be the whanger but from now on, I will be using my whanger! Will be using it tonight as it happens :lol: :lol:

 

[neededthat]

well i've had my last full dose of lantus today half a dose tomorrow, pump thursday been looking farward to it so much, now having second thoughts did anyone else have these thoughts before they went on it? i think its because its the unknown. :?

 

[Debloubed]

Hi ya, I don't think I had second thoughts at all, I was soooo excited about starting on the pump I just thought about how much better control I would have! I'm sure you will be fine, it's like everything new, can make you feel apprehensive but all you have to do is pay attention at the training session and off you go you can always call the pump careline or your DN (ask her for her email address!) if you are having any problems or you can ask on here :wink:

Good luck!!

 

[JANROU]

Good luck tomorrow, i had a few second thoughts but the thought of less swings and hypos kept me going.