How long to get your head around a pump?

Bottom line is the pump is only as good as the user. Everyone is different on time taken for setting up and getting basals correct, some people only take a couple of weeks and others can take six months depending on how difficult their basal is to sort out.

Hi @abysimons

Have a look at the following to see if you do fit the criteria, either the NICE criteria or the ABCD recommendations:

http://www.inputdiabetes.org.uk/alt-insulin-pumps/is-it-provided-by-the-nhs/

How long it takes depends on the individual and of course the support they receive, I felt comfortable using my pump after about a week and after a month I had sorted out a few niggle problems which were mainly infusion site issues,

You can prepare yourself if you do get funding by reading up on pumps and attending the pre-pump training sessions with the pump DSN, that's what I did anyway.

Good luck.

With a libre it ought to be much more straight forward to get settled into your pump. It will make a big big difference to getting basal rates sorted.

abysimons said:

Thanks for the luck, will definitely need it with the diabetes team i have at the moment. It seems like they are trying their hardest to warn me off it but it sounds so good. Thanks for sending the criteria, i've printed it out ready to see the consultant tomorrow!

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You wont be given a pump just like that it can and does take months for funding to come through even if you are approved for a pump, plus all the other hoops you will have to jump through

I got a pump while pregnant. I asked for it on getting the unexpected positive and received it 6 weeks later. It probably took me about a month to really get to grips with it but being pregnant means ever changing basal rates which is a challenge when you've never had such an exact carb ratio or correction factor. On the other hand I have had this condition for 33 years, know my insulin profile and dawn phenomena well and was diagnosed when they taught carb counting so had a good idea where to start with structuring my basal rates and using the pump.

My hospital were very willing to give it to me and very helpful. I think that was probably the main reason I got it. I qualified on the grounds that in previous pregnancies I had hypo unawareness (comas at night) because of very tight control. Do you get this? My hba1c was too good to qualify but the hypos were enough.

The pump is really worthwhile but is a lot of work and is not an unmixed blessing. Saying which 3 months after the baby was born I took a break for a month to see what I'd prefer to use and decided the pump was much better. I find that I have the ability to achieve really good control at a much lower cost to me emotionally and can eat so much more than when on injections. It is amazing during pregnancy.

If I recall correctly they held off doing my hba1c between 12 weeks and 20 weeks and I got the pump in week 10. By week 20 I was 5.6 and eating more or less what I wanted.

catapillar said:

With a libre it ought to be much more straight forward to get settled into your pump. It will make a big big difference to getting basal rates sorted.

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THis is exactly what I was going to say. With a Libre it took me all of about 3 days to get my levels right, which I was really surprised at. But having real time, continuous data does make the process a lot easier.

I'd also suggest that three days is really short, and was a result of the approach I'd been taking due to the Libre prior to getting the pump.

May I ask why you want a pump? If you don't fit the criteria, then you need to look at your reasons for wanting it. A pump simplifies some things, but complicates others. Yes, it is less injections, but it is more BG tests. To benefit most from a pump, whilst it calculates you bolus and corrections for you, you need to look at you BG numbers more carefully and count carbs more accurately, and "sugar surf" more accurately. For some people it works, but for others it doesn't. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't, but I think it would help if you can give an idea of why. If you are willing to put the effort in, then for me, it has been life changing, but if I had gone onto a pump with the belief it was a simpler life, I would have been vey sadly disappointed. Please don't take this as discouragement, I just aim for it to be a discussion point!