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

Insulin pump

Kelsie123

Kelsie123

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi everyone I am new to this forum and I am just looking for some advise on the insulin pump. I have type 1 diabetes and have been diagnosed since around 2010. I do everything to try control my diabetes but it just doesn't seem to cooperate with me! me and my diabetic team have tried all sorts including me having several CGMs, but I'm just constantly up and down with my bloods! One minute I'm high the next, I'm low. My nurses and doctors have advised and told me to consider the insulin pump as I exercise a lot (I own horses and work at a farm) so they feel I would benefit from a pump more than individual injections. I'm a bit weary of it - partly because I'm quite squeamish (funnily enough even though I inject daily!) and I don't want it to affect my daily life style (horse riding and working) does any one have any advise on the insulin pump? Thanks in advance appreciate any comments/advise.
-Kelsie
 
Hi Kelsie123 ,welcome to the forum,I've been T1 for54 years and using a pump for 9 months and it was life changing for me.Its a lot of testing at the beginning but things settle after a couple of months and it's like MDI you only get out what you put in.Im am sure there will be be more experienced pumpers will come on and give you advice.
 
Hello Kelsie and welcome to the forum. Everyone has worries about going on a pump it's called fear of the unknown.
I worked on farms and ran my own stud farm and the pump is ace and does not interfere at all. There's nothing to be squeamish about either as the cannula have an automatic inserter on most of them, so just hold it to the insertion place and press a button it's done :)
 
Hi Kelsie just to add to what the others have said you don't even know you've got your pump on you half the time I have had a Medtronic veo for just over 2 years now and have also found it life changing, the main reason I got mine was dawn phenomenon but I have better bg results, better hba1c and feel more in control of my diabetes, I can't believe I waited so long to get mine X
 
Hi there @Kelsie123
welcome to the forum. :)

agree with all said above me -- been pumping for 4 3/4 months now -- i was wary before starting but @CarbsRok hit it spot on -- it is a fear of the unknown.

I can highly recommend pumping !!
 
Another recommendation from me too! I've been pumping for 12 years and I'd never go back to injections!
 
@Kelsie123, I'd imagine everyone is apprehensive about moving to a pump but those fears/worrys are soon gone once you make the change over.

A insulin pump for someone like yourself who is very active it will be a game changer as you can use features like the TBR (temporary basal rate). I've been using a pump for just over a year now and wouldn't like to go back to MDI.
 
Hi @Kelsie123 ,

Not that I'm telling you what to do, and with apologies for ripping off a well-known advertising slogan: just do it!

I had no idea for years that a pump would be available to me because I didn't obviously fit the guidelines, but I'm so, so glad that I finally gained the confidence to ask about a pump last year. And behold: yes, I did fit the guidelines with a bit of 'head-screwed-on-thinking' by my fabulous DSN.

With the horses, and working on the farm, I think you'll find the pump a really positive and very useful alternative to MDI - if you're dropping, you can knock back your basal rate for a bit to avoid a hypo using the temporary basal rate function (took me a while to get my head around that one, but I use TBRs frequently and can be incredibly flexible as a result). On MDI, basal dosing is a little bit 'sledgehammer' - on a pump, you can make changes to your basal rate with much more flexibility, and for someone as active as yourself I would imagine that a pump would be of huge benefit to you.

I started in October, and haven't looked back. It has been life-changing. After a month, and after two months, I did perhaps think 'hmmm, okay, this is a lot of work, it's going okay I suppose' but since Christmas I have realised what an incredible difference it has made to every single aspect of my life, and I value my pump immensely.

It seemed an awful lot to have to take in, but (in my experience at least) we are not set up on these things without access to support from people with experience of switching patients from MDI to pump therapy, so (again, in my experience) it was much, much less of a 'thing' than I had feared.

And it was fear - indeed, as already mentioned here, fear of the unknown. I'd been injecting for 29 and a half years, and pumping was always going to be a massive re-boot!

I can recommend the book 'Pumping Insulin' - also, 'Think Like a Pancreas' is very good. Pre-pumping I did all the reading I possibly could (and regretted some of the more complex, confusing stuff, actually, because it gave me some - unnecessary, as it turned out - sleepless nights) and despite some confusion I was actually glad to have had access to all that information.

Having this pump is the best pre-30th diaversary (I hate that word!) present I could have wished for.

:happy:
 
Wow thank you all so much for your replies and advise. I think I am defiantly going to have to consider the pump following all your comments - there is only so much you can take and I think I've had enough of constantly feeling unwell with my diabetes being all over the place. Thank you all again. I have a diabetic appointment in March so I will definitely be discussing the pump further :)
-Kelsie
 
Kelsie123 said:
Wow thank you all so much for your replies and advise. I think I am defiantly going to have to consider the pump following all your comments - there is only so much you can take and I think I've had enough of constantly feeling unwell with my diabetes being all over the place. Thank you all again. I have a diabetic appointment in March so I will definitely be discussing the pump further :)
-Kelsie
Click to expand...

Do let us know how you get on at your appointment Kelsie, I have honestly never felt better since having mine, it takes its toll constantly waking up with high bg no matter what you do whereas with the pump I am always within my lower range :)
 
Kelsie123 said:
Wow thank you all so much for your replies and advise. I think I am defiantly going to have to consider the pump following all your comments - there is only so much you can take and I think I've had enough of constantly feeling unwell with my diabetes being all over the place. Thank you all again. I have a diabetic appointment in March so I will definitely be discussing the pump further :)
-Kelsie
Click to expand...
@Kelsie123, Having just gone through the process of getting funding for a pump myself, you may want to read up in advance of your meeting next month with regards to what the criteria is to qualify for a pump. Unbeknownst to me, I asked for a pump just after I had bought a CGM and lowered my HBa1C, proudly telling my DSN, who then informed me that the lower (and better) HBa1C now excluded me from one of the criteria! I am definitely not suggesting you should manipulate things to your detriment, but the scoring system used by the CCG to determine whether people qualify, is very black and white can sometimes penalise or discount people for, in my personal opinion, the wrong reasons.
 
Its my guess that the funding process for pumps is starting to go back to how funding was secured in the years from 2000 to 2008. I became interested in pump technology in 2004 and found out that the only way to get a pump funded was through very low bg levels resulting in loss of hypo awareness or through a high hba1c and developing nerve damage.
 
I qualified for mine because my anxiety about hypoglycaemia was affecting my quality of life.

'Anxiety' and 'quality of life' - these were the box-tickers for me - anxiety related to diabetes is a real issue for people with diabetes, and I was very fortunate that this was immediately identified and I was put forward for consideration for pump therapy. It is all in the interpretation of the criteria.

Had they just considered my HbA1c and other blood test results, I would still be on MDI.
 
i got mine due to fitting all the nice guidelings, my consultant don't belive it would benefit me but i can prove it now.
I'd say if you got the option to go forward for one then do it because it's life changing i was on 10x injections a day and now do 1 every 3 days, at first it was scary but you get used to it :]
 
Hey @Kelsie123 :)

I can honestly say I've had no problems with my pump, even when being given flying lessons by my very lively, very thick section c!! :joyful:
I found it so much easier to control my diabetes when I got my pump - for instance, you're going xc or sj - you really need a lot less insulin than if you're going for a quiet plod around the village! :joyful: So I found that marvellous!
No need to worry about being squeamish, I find the set change every 3 days is WAY better than multiple injections all day! :)
 
Thankyou all again with all the advise and comments! I think my NHS is currently free also, I think I qualify for a pump as my diabetic nurses/docs have been advising me for a while now. I appreciate all of your replies and defiantly taking them into account I will let you know how I get on! Thanks again
-Kelsie
 
Kelsie123 said:
Thankyou all again with all the advise and comments! I think my NHS is currently free also, I think I qualify for a pump as my diabetic nurses/docs have been advising me for a while now. I appreciate all of your replies and defiantly taking them into account I will let you know how I get on! Thanks again
-Kelsie
Click to expand...
yes pumps are free on the nhs, the cgm is funding under certain circumstances :) depending if you get a pump with cgm <3
 
Back
Top