Hi,
I've been on a pump for almost 6 months - its Roche Spirit pump - you get a main pump and a spare - invaluable as I found out recently when the main one went down!!!
Lets sort out some misconceptions - you dont have to test 10 times a day and if you did a) you fingers would hurt like hell and b) your local GP would not allow repeats to that level due to cost!
Being on the pump requires a fair bit of info upload and the first few months are a trial and error time.
When you first go on you are set a level indicative of your current insulin load - think mine was less 20%. Meal time shots call bolus are roughly same as before - at lest they are for me. You need to work out your ratio. Mines quite easy and is about 10g carbs per 1 unit insulin. To reduce highs I do 1 unit per 2 mmol of high BG.
You need to test a bit when you first go on the pump - I was doing up to 10 - you can get a bit OCD on i too! (now down to about 4 per day). You also need to do basal testing where you starve yourself (!) for 6 hours and test every 2. This needs to be done over a few days and over a few different time periods. This helps you to understand what your basal requirements really are. It means your background (basal) is then working with no food onboard. Once thats sorted, the rest is easy! It does mean setting the alarm during the night tho :-(
I found for 2 months I was swinging all over the shop but now have quite good control. However you can expect this not to last as your body changes - especially through the seasons, so you do need to recheck basal tests every now and then and make adjustments.
My local SDN is fab, Mandie at GWH. She has given good support along with Susie at Roche and the support team are getting better too - its quite a new group.
In addition to their pump, I also use the Aviva meters and now have their Palm Treo with Compass software to help me even further-this provides bolus calculations and maintains a history over any given time period.
I'd say overall my control is better and more stable. I went on the pump due to complications - mine being retinopathy.
Whatever you might hear on this forum from certain individuals, you are not responsible for poor control if your trying your best. Some people just cannot get the best from background insulin. I was on Lantus and although it was the best i'd tried, it still gave me peaks and troughs. Pumps dont. They drip feed you with one type of insulin all day long every 3 mins, as your pancreas would.
My retinopathy, for the first time appears to be less aggressive than prevsiously. Hopefully will reverse somewhat. But the NHS wont just give you a pump - you need a good reason, like a complication or poor control. I had to try calorie counting and all sorts of close supervision before I was approved for pump therapy. Pumps are expensive so if you have good control, you may not get one thats funded.
Go see your SDN! And good luck to anyone that wants one. Id say its worth the effort. Now its just there, I can change a cartridge and canula in under 2 mins. I sleep with it and do sports with it. No probs.
On the beach I need to be a bit more thoughtful but hey, its only for a week or 2 and you can take a pump break and go back onto injections when you want to - although I'm not sure I'd want to now!
Paul
