• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

how do i get a pump?

weeezer

Well-Known Member
Messages
272
Location
bristol
hi, new to this forum. type 1 12 years, would love opinions....

lived in 3 different areas over the last 12 years with varying degrees of care, where i am at the mo is quite bad, and i feel very left to 'get on with it'. always had a 6 monthly appt for a diabetic clinic but since i was discharged from my pre/post-natal care in 2010 after having my baby girl, i haven't really been under any care, my local surgery insist there is no need to see a consultant if i haven't got any 'diabetic issues'. i get a yearly eye check, but that's it, and i took myself along to get a few basic tests done inc hba1c, which for the first time ever is in double figures - 10.7, always been 6-7, 5 point something in pregnancy, once it was 9 something, but got it back down quickly (i think this one is down to an excessive christmas with not much testing going on). as a result of the latest high result, a diabetic nurse is paying me a visit next week (weird, i can't go and see her, she has an office at my local surgery but can't use it as a consulting room so has to do home visits)

anyhoo (if you're still reading, thanks!) i really want to go on a pump, but how on earth do i go about convincing anyone i should be given one? should i just ask? can i use this latest lapse in control as a reason for needing one or should i prove i can be a most excellent monitor & injector before i ask?

any advice gratefully received, should i even worry about going on a pump? any opinions on whether pumps increase control that significantly? last few times i've mentioned it to anyone, my hba1c was 6 point something and was told i wouldn't get any better results with a pump so advised not to worry about it. (surely the hope is to achieve a 5-6 like a person with a fully functioning pancreas would be able to get?)

what do y'all think?

(have posted this on pump board too...)
weezer xx
 
A pump is only as good as the user ie a lot of work and input. Pumping is not an easy option there is a lot of testing involved and you do have to understand how dif foods work with your body.
As you have a high A1c due to not testing etc. Then I doubt very much you would get a pump. So save yourself the embarrassment and don't ask :lol:
There is no reason not to have a pump even when A1c's are in the 5's and 6% range. Infact the majority of people with pumps had these A1c's when starting on a pump.
 
Well, the NHS *has* to fund a pump if you continue to have high (>7.5%) HbA1c despite the patient's best efforts; so I don't think that citing poor control due to Christmas excess and/or lack of monitoring as the reason you need a pump will do you any favours.

Whether or not a pump would help will, presumably, depend on what issues you are having. Do you know why the HbA1c is high - bad carb guesstimates, uncontrolled snacking, greater safety margin due to high BG variability, non-constant basal insulin requirements, dawn phenomenon, high BG due to lack of ability to give insufficiently precise bolus (e.g. if you needed 1.5u you'd take just 1u because you can't do half units?)?

My position is that I will stick with MDI unless there is a good reason to get a pump.

Finally, I was asked by my consultant if I wanted an insulin pump when I showed up for the review (HbA1c 5.7%) with a continuous glucose monitor (which would be ideal for a pump). I am not entirely sure if that constituted an offer (I dodged the question by saying that MDI was working well enough) though
 
good input, thanks

this is a real bad excuse but since having my little girl 2 years ago i've not been under any specific diabetes care, i pushed for a referral a year ago, and the nurse at my local surgery invited the diabetes nurse to our appt...she supported a consultant referral & also referred me to dietician so i could get a grip on exchanging carbs for insulin (terrible, but have largely 'guessed' at my insulin amounts & meals/snacks since diagnosis in 2000)- no appt so far. chased it twice last year, still nothing. mentioned to several doctors who just said there's no need to see a diabetes consultant anymore unless there's a diabetes related prob.

i was super controlled during my pregnancy but with that came lots of hypo's and some i couldn't deal with alone. i think i kinda took my foot of the pedal and with no one to check what's goin on in my little diabetic world, this has contributed to my lackadaisical attitude as the year progressed, and having a particularly demanding toddler (as well as an older son) kinda pushed my diabetes to the back burner. have always just guessed at things and popped insulin in every time i put something in me gob seemed to have worked fine in the past. a1c's always been good apart from last one @10.7, it was a wake up call, and finding this forum is amazing, i feel so alone in dealing with my diabetes, there is a whole community of you out there, some very knowledgable peeps.

AMBrennan...i think my prob was uncontrolled snacking mostly & not having enough insulin for meals also.

maybe i thought having a pump would force be back to the good side, and i would have to be more aware of what i was doing. i think i need to get a grip before considering a pump & understand how to balance what i put in my mouth with insulin via MDIs a bit better.

think i need to pretend i'm newly diagnosed and start again
 
Hi weeezer,
From your last post comments a pump def wont help you at the moment. But structured education will.
So when this nurse turns up have a list of expectations lined up.

1 A referal to a consultant.
2 DSN
3 Carb counting course.

There are a couple of good books which will help you with understanding your diabetes and insulin usage, Think like a pancreas and using insulin. Both can be found on Amazon.

Personally I think your care is and has been shocking :shock: You are entitled to consultant care so insist that it is given.
 
More immediately, this site also has some helpful (if basic*) information you might find helpful.
* I was "lucky" enough to be sufficiently ill to warrant a 3 day stay in intensive care, and there is no information on that site that I hadn't been told by the DSN already.
 
Hi Weezer, 1stly, I would ask your GP to re register to the consultant, they may do satelite clinics at your practice, or you may have to go to your local hospital, @ the clinics they will have all the people there that you may or may not need to see, from dietitians to consultant, to DSN's, or if that dosnt help lookin in the phonebook for local hospital and ask for the diabetic liason nurse, she will be able to point you in the right direction, you say that you dont think you have been to a clinic for some time, and would like to be included, also whilst you are talking to her she' should be able to help with some ideas to get the sugars back to where you want them, ask about the availability of an insulinx or a roche expert meter which uses similar software to calculate insulin doses from what you input into the machine, I've had my insulinx for about 3 weeks, and found it a cracking peice of kit, I cant praise the thing enough.....

my advice is to get in touch direct to the diabetic team....its your health ..go for it.


Bob
 
well this is a turn-up for the books...i had a phone call at 6pm from a nurse at my practice as a few things were 'outstanding', weird questions about depression screening (had i had any) and regarding diabetes - was i under a consultant & how were my feet (!?!) - anyway, i said the diabetes specialist nurse was coming next week & i was going to take this up with her because i'm not under a diabetes consultant - nurse was amazed as she herself put the referral forward & also chased it up, she said it seemed it was never taken forward by the doctor.

i said i was quite upset, especially as my hbA1c was so high, she said it wasn't, i said 10.7 is high, she said no, that was your fasting BG, your hbA1c is 6.8!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the doc i spoke to on the phone told me my diabetic blood result was 10.7 and i needed to see the DSN - i only knew that i'd had my hbA1c tested, not my bleedin fasting blood glucose! so i have been having a huge panic over, er, nothing!!! :crazy:

your comments & help is ace tho...thanks. carbsrok - the DSN is comin & i'll def say i need to learn about carb counting & chase this blummin consultant appt again. ambrennan - just registered at bdec, thanks, it looks really informative. copepod - great pump site, will keep me eye on that & use it to help me when the time is right to ask for one (dunno if i should know a bit more about carb counting before i ask? know next to nothing about it)
 
Glad its getting sorted for ya...thats you over 1 hurdle.... watch out, they come up thick and fast......lol :?

Bob
 
thanks bob...good advice tho, my next step was to ring the hosp direct seeing as i wasn't getting anywhere. let's hope there is a 'system' out there and i can get into it!!! cheers x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…