- Messages
- 533
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Other
Hello....
As I think a few of you know, I'm on porcine insulin, I switched to it because I *really* didn't get on with the analogue insulins.... and once I'd switched I got on much better.
I'm now about to start on an insulin pump, and so as not to complicate things, I agreed to using Novorapid -- I know people do use animal insulin in pumps but I really didn't want to give them the teeniest reason to turn down an insulin pump.
Now as I'm approaching my start date (this tuesday am - so less than two days to go!) I'm getting a bit apprehensive about the novo... I know if I wanted to use animal insulin I could (I can get it on prescription because I've used it already) but it would mean entirely figuring things out myself -- which is exactly what I did when I switched my injections to porcine too - but the pump makes me a little mor nervous about doing that.
I have been using entirely novo as my fast acting for meals the last few days, to help with the switch over, and I've already had hypos I've not felt and only picked up on through testing. I also feel super bloated and achy -- but this could be "girls stuff" -- but it's worrying....
So; I have some questions/concerns and wondered if anyone who's used animal and either stayed with it for their cross over to a pump, or switched to newer insulins, could share their experiences please...
- I *suspect* that it was the long acting that caused me the biggest problems before -- and the pump obviously only uses short acting -- does anyone else feel they do OK on just the short acting where they didn't on long acting analogues?
- I'm worried that the porcine neutral (the one I would use solely in a pump) has a definite 'tail' (kick) at 5 hrs for me.... on MDI it's not a problem at breakfast cos I always wake high, but presumably would be once I'm on a pump as I hopefully won't have the problem of being high... at lunch I often skipped injecting as I walk 4 miles straight after, and at dinner I used to watch it/test, in case I needed a snack at about 4.5hrs into it's duration.... but my brain can't figure out how you would overcome this if you were having tiny doses of insulin all day?
- I'm also worried that my whole life felt "controlled" by insulin injections and timings; the long duration nature of the porcine was brilliant for helping reduce anxiety around hypos, but it did feel very very rigid -- no snacks, no unplanned exercise etc etc... part of the huge appeal of the pump is getting those aspects of my life back, but if I were to use porcine I still wouldn't be able to have snacks or do unplanned exercise would I....? I don't often need / want to do these things when it's just me, day in day out, but those aspects crippled my relationships with friends, family, my boyfriend....
- but the flip side of that is that the weight gain and moodiness and aches -- not to mention lack of hypo awareness....
Those are my early thoughts -- you can see I'm a bit unsure of things and would muchly appreciate any advice / thoughts from peeps; particularly who have either switched from animal to new insulins to go on the pump and been fine (or indeed not!), or those who use animal insulins on the pump; and how/if they manage things like the 5hr "tail", snacking, unplanned exercise etc....
Thank you!
As I think a few of you know, I'm on porcine insulin, I switched to it because I *really* didn't get on with the analogue insulins.... and once I'd switched I got on much better.
I'm now about to start on an insulin pump, and so as not to complicate things, I agreed to using Novorapid -- I know people do use animal insulin in pumps but I really didn't want to give them the teeniest reason to turn down an insulin pump.
Now as I'm approaching my start date (this tuesday am - so less than two days to go!) I'm getting a bit apprehensive about the novo... I know if I wanted to use animal insulin I could (I can get it on prescription because I've used it already) but it would mean entirely figuring things out myself -- which is exactly what I did when I switched my injections to porcine too - but the pump makes me a little mor nervous about doing that.
I have been using entirely novo as my fast acting for meals the last few days, to help with the switch over, and I've already had hypos I've not felt and only picked up on through testing. I also feel super bloated and achy -- but this could be "girls stuff" -- but it's worrying....
So; I have some questions/concerns and wondered if anyone who's used animal and either stayed with it for their cross over to a pump, or switched to newer insulins, could share their experiences please...
- I *suspect* that it was the long acting that caused me the biggest problems before -- and the pump obviously only uses short acting -- does anyone else feel they do OK on just the short acting where they didn't on long acting analogues?
- I'm worried that the porcine neutral (the one I would use solely in a pump) has a definite 'tail' (kick) at 5 hrs for me.... on MDI it's not a problem at breakfast cos I always wake high, but presumably would be once I'm on a pump as I hopefully won't have the problem of being high... at lunch I often skipped injecting as I walk 4 miles straight after, and at dinner I used to watch it/test, in case I needed a snack at about 4.5hrs into it's duration.... but my brain can't figure out how you would overcome this if you were having tiny doses of insulin all day?
- I'm also worried that my whole life felt "controlled" by insulin injections and timings; the long duration nature of the porcine was brilliant for helping reduce anxiety around hypos, but it did feel very very rigid -- no snacks, no unplanned exercise etc etc... part of the huge appeal of the pump is getting those aspects of my life back, but if I were to use porcine I still wouldn't be able to have snacks or do unplanned exercise would I....? I don't often need / want to do these things when it's just me, day in day out, but those aspects crippled my relationships with friends, family, my boyfriend....
- but the flip side of that is that the weight gain and moodiness and aches -- not to mention lack of hypo awareness....
Those are my early thoughts -- you can see I'm a bit unsure of things and would muchly appreciate any advice / thoughts from peeps; particularly who have either switched from animal to new insulins to go on the pump and been fine (or indeed not!), or those who use animal insulins on the pump; and how/if they manage things like the 5hr "tail", snacking, unplanned exercise etc....
Thank you!