Hopefully getting an insulin pump soon.

Hi all,

I'm kinda new to the forums - but not new to T1 diabetes as I've had it since I was 2 (and I'm now 42).

So, bit of background, I always thought my sugar levels were a bit like a yo-yo and having got my myself a Freestyle Libre 6 months ago I can confirm that my sugar level graphs do indeed look somewhat like a rollercoaster ride - though a slightly less stomach-churning one now that I've been on the Libre, bizzarely though despite the ever running rollercoaster my HBA1C over the last few years hasn't been too bad, my latest one (last week) was my best ever at 49 (6.6%), this last one is I believe the result of much micro-management.

Anyways I'm now hoping to get an insulin pump, my diabetic nurse at my GP surgery has referred me to the local hospital as she agrees with my reasons (many shots needed for micro-management being one), so hopefully at some point soon I'll get to see someone - though given my not too bad HBA1C I may have to fight to get it once I get seen

So far my preference is the Omnipod as it's tubeless, as I can see myself catching tubes on anything/everything.

So yeah, just thought I'd say 'Hi' and I hope to be joining the insulin pump club soon(ish) - though I'm not holding my breath waiting for the NHS.

novorapidboi26 said:

your HbA1c does seem really good.....is that down to just correcting all the time.....?

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Over the last six months yes a lot of correcting, before that though I think it mostly the lows cancelling out the highs, cos that is one thing I've seen with the Libre, in the morning I take my insulin, have breakfast (about 6:45am on weekdays) and my sugar level goes up and up until 9 or 10am at which point it'll finally be dropping, whereas with lunch and dinner I have the food then the insulin then my sugar level plummets to quite low and a few hours later the food finally kicks in* and I end up high ... so I think the lows may just have been cancelling the highs in the 6 week average for the HbA1c (* most of time, not always, sometimes my body seems to deal with the insulin/food in whatever way it feels like!)

novorapidboi26 said:

if you are correcting all the time and eating to avoid lows you could argue that all the injections you need to do to achieve that HbA1c is taking its toll......

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That is one of my arguments for getting the pump, after 40 years I think I'm running out of viable injection spots for the next 30 or 40 years.

Juicyj said:

Good luck in getting access, using a pump really is a game changer, puts a completely new perspective on managing your type 1 and is like a breath of fresh air, have a look at youtube to see how other pump users get on with theirs, it's useful to get familiar with them beforehand. I was turned down before the board then accepted my proposal to get a pump, it took near on a year but was worth the wait, don't accept no for an answer

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Thanks and yes I've had a few looks at YouTube (y'know when I was supposed to be working and yes I do sit right next to my boss) and have been doing research over the last few weeks.

novorapidboi26 said:

Have you tried playing about with dose timing to more accurately match the insulin profile with your digestion.....?

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I have tried a little, but whilst most of the time for breakfast my sugar level starts rising immediately and the insulin doesn't seem to kick in for 2-3 hours, sometime it does work fine.
Also If I got up even earlier I really would be falling back to sleep whilst driving along the M4 to get to work and that road is bad enough without me adding to the problems , and if I leave the house later I really do hit the rush hour.
With the Libres help it's not going nearly so high as it used to though

novorapidboi26 said:

what do you have for breakfast normally?

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Gluten-free cereal flakes - exciting huh!

The Libre has however shown me that my glass of orange juice in the morning with breakfast (I thought I was being good and getting one of my five a day) was making me go really high - so not having that anymore.

It is possible that for however long my coeliac disease wasn't diagnosed/realised (was diagnosed just after my 30th birthday) my digestive system may not work quite as well as some peoples so it may do weird stuff which may not be helping the situation.

novorapidboi26 said:

In the morning there is the liver dump that we all go through, which you may or may not be aware of......alongside this glucose dump from the liver there is a cocktail of hormones that actually make us more resistant to our insulin.....the dawn phenomenon......

so you may need to adjust your insulin/carb ratio to deal with that....I was on 3 units for every 10g when I was injecting.....

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I had heard about it, however, most of the time the amount of insulin I take does get it back down to a decent level, it just takes an awful long time to do it - ie. somewhere between 3 and 4.5 hours after taking it

novorapidboi26 said:

you should try experimenting with a larger lead in time between dose and breakfast to help with the spike.....how long are you waiting currently....?

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Anywhere between 5 and 20 mins, if I manage 20 mins I can see the sugar level start to go down but then as soon as I eat it starts going upwards and then it finally sorts itself out some hours later

novorapidboi26 said:

have you done a carb free basal test in the morning?

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I'm afraid you're going to have to explain what you mean by that because I just don't know what you mean . Noting that until a few weeks ago when I started looking at these forums I've never even heard the terms basal and bolus before.

novorapidboi26 said:

You want to have the basal dose as close as possible to spot on as you can.....

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Well I did some testing a while back (after someone told me I should be using more of the long lasting insulin given how much fast acting I take), I use Lantus at night, however I found that if I had more than I'm currently taking then I was verging on hypo when I woke up in the morning and felt groggy, so that plan didn't last long So hopefully it's somewhere near correct.

But no I've never done a carb free basal test, for a start I can't think straight til I've eaten something in the morning (even if my blood sugar level is high), I'm one of those people that is always hungry (that might be related to what damage was caused by my coeliac disease before it was diagnosed).