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Exhausted with pump

E

Emck

Well-Known Member
Messages
170
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
SORRY LONG VENT POST - please skip if you don’t want to read my grumbles…

Hi all,

I’m new to pump life but so far I’m really finding the adjustment from MDI very difficult.

I really thought that moving to a pump would make my life easier. However, I’m finding myself more frustrated, exhausted and burnt out than ever.

I have been using the t-slim x2 pump with fiasp. I know that I’m not getting on with the infusion sets the hospital recommend (autosoft 90) but my hospital have been really slow in changing me over to new sets so they are all I have at the moment.

Tonight I’ve been awake since 2am (it’s now 5.30am). I was woken by a high glucose alarm so I assumed that this must have been a misjudgment of mealtime insulin on my part ( I ate late tonight). I corrected and waited to see if my readings would come down. It took from 2am -4.45am for me to hit 11mmol. At that stage, I knew I was on the way down and tried to drift off to sleep. 15mins later - high glucose alert 16mmol (the 11.4 must have been a bad reading).

At this stage I assume that the infusion site has failed so here i am, post 5am pump site change waiting to see if this one is going to work. Changed the site and it looks fine, no kinked cannula, no leakage (***?). At this point, I’ll be up until 6.30 to check if this site works, at which stage there’s no point going back to sleep as I get up at 7.

This seems to happen with the pump, multiple times per week and I’m just so tired of dealing with it. On MDI a high reading at night would mean taking a correction and going back to sleep, knowing that it had been successfully delivered and that even if I had misjudged the dose, I’d have my basal to keep me out of trouble.

With the pump I’m in constant fear of going into dka overnight if the pump fails, as I’d have no insulin in my system. I’m up for hours of the night, multiple nights per week just waiting to see if the pump is even giving me insulin.

Is this what pump life is like?? When I mentioned it to the dsn she tried to reassure me (?) that she had been contacted the same day by someone who had been using a pump for 15 years, who had to change their infusion set four times during the previous night. I don’t know if this is something I’ll just need to get used to or if she was trying to suggest that there’s some issue with the infusion sets.

Sorry for the looong vent - it’s been a month and I just don’t feel like I’ve fallen into a rhythm with the pump yet. I’ve been so excited to get started with it, but so far it hasn’t been an easy road.
 
Hello @Emck

It's perfectly normal to feel this like, you've just made a major switch so are essentially out of your comfort zone right now and not seeing good numbers is just going to make that feeling worse, in my opinion people need support right now more than ever when managing this change, it's difficult ever visualising good control when in this moment of transition, but and this is where you need to dig very deep and have faith.

Early days are disruption, it's a period of change, you need to adjust and really put the work in, the reward is a life that's not controlled by t1, I am also a tandem slim user and believe it's the best pump out there, my life is not governed by t1, I run 2-3 times a week, manage 2 businesses, am a mum, and my life is non stop, if I were ever to go back to mdi then that would all change, i'd have to manage night time hypos again, instability with levels, extra effort required to micro manage my control again, this pump does all this work for me, my anxiety levels would be back through the roof too, that was me before I started on the Medtronic 640g and since then things have just improved no end.

Try the sure t sets - I couldn't cope with the autosoft teflon sets, too many kinked/failed and caused me sore spots so went onto steel tip sets, not had an issue since.

Stick with it, it is worth it, you have the best pump system out there and once the work is done tweaking and getting the set change sorted it will change your life.
 
Sorry you're having all these issues @Emck

As Juicyj said, a lot of people have issues when they go from mdi to a pump, but then find it a real game changer. You mentioned in a previous post about trying Novorapid, did you manage to do that?

Hope things get better soon.
 
Hi @Hopeful34 yes I am definitely getting on better with the novorapid and the autosoft 30s. I’m still trying to work out the right pre-bolus timings with novorapid as it’s a bit slower.

There is less pain around sites than with Fiasp- I can get about 2.5days before it starts to hurt. I’m also more confident that the cannula has gone in as I can see it, so I have had far fewer site failures!!

Hopefully starting to get more used to the pump now.
 
That's good @Emck
It takes time to find what works for you when you move from MDI, as we're all different, but most people that on to pumps find they prefer them, once the transition period is over.
 
Hi @Emck glad to hear your finding something that works for you. I really like the autosofts (I now use 90's with 9mm needles). They can be bit fiddly but once you have got used to making sure they are fully clicked back before releasing and you hold them flat to your skin then chances of a kinked cannula are very small. Doing it in a rush or if having hypo can cause me issues. I always carry a spare or two in the car and on my person, just in case. In two or so years I've had maybe 4 kinked ones and looking back each has been caused by either rushing or not being careful with placement. I have to say that moving to a pump was the best thing I ever did, I put it off for 10 years because I had silly thoughts that I'd never cope with something attached to me.
 
@Chas C - I definitely started to get on better with the 90s whilst I was waiting for my delivery of 30s to arrive. However it was the not knowing whether it had gone in successfully that really stressed me out! They always seemed to fail overnight or near bedtime, meaning I had to wait up most of the night waiting to see if the next one worked. Being tired probably contributed to the failure of a few of them!

The 30s aren’t perfect, they definitely do still cause a bit of pain around the cannula especially after 2ish days. I’d love to get 3 days from a site but think I’ll have to preserve with the 2day changes to avoid the irritation.
 
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