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Pump advise needed

S

Spiff

Member
Messages
7
Hello,I'm going to be seeing my diabetic nurse on 15th of March.I'm considering asking her for a pump.
1.Can anyone explain what benefits there are to the pump.Does it only give the amountof insulin needed?

2.I've heard it's a postcode lottery in regards to getting it?What credentials do I need to be moved to pump?

Thanks in advance,by the way I'm currently on levemir and novorapid.
 
Hello - I understand that you need to meet certain NICE criteria before getting a pump. So they look at your HBa1c, whether or not you sufferer frequent hypos, is your quality of life affected, your understanding of carb counting, amongst other things. I'm sure someone has posted a fuller description or link to the guidelines before on this forum - try the search facility.

Postcode lottery - well definately in Wales this is true. I'm extremely lucky that our LHB fund pumps (I think they had some money put aside previously before these recent budget hits) and also they are very pro-active and try to get patients on to pumps if the meet the criteria. I hear that in certain areas in south Wales is a very different story and diabetics who even meet the criteria cannot get them because of lack of funding and general lack of support/understanding of them.

My GP's advice to me was - if they offer you a pump bite their hand off. I now realise that 'offering a pump' is not all that common and I am very lucky.
 
Spiff said:
Hello,I'm going to be seeing my diabetic nurse on 15th of March.I'm considering asking her for a pump.
1.Can anyone explain what benefits there are to the pump.Does it only give the amountof insulin needed?

2.I've heard it's a postcode lottery in regards to getting it?What credentials do I need to be moved to pump?

Thanks in advance,by the way I'm currently on levemir and novorapid.
Click to expand...

Hi Spiff,
here's INPUTS site http://www.input.me.uk/ all info can be found there including NICE guidelines.

As to the pump only giving the insulin needed! it only gives what you tell it regarding boluses for meals and corrections. Same with basal you set it up to your own body needs. So the pump is not plug and play and involves a lot of work.
Have just read your other posts regarding your tiredness as well. Have you tried the animal insulin's? Are you also sure your problems are diabetes related? No chance you have Chronic fatigue syndrome/ME is there?
 
Ive only had a pump for about 8 months but was a bit of a mission to get it! but well worth the fight.. i had to go to a diabetic education course every week for about 8 weeks and learn every thing about counting carbs again, then they leave you a few months to see if the course has worked then they meet up wit u and discuss the pump.. their are a few different ones out their all i knew was i wanted a pink one.. lol! bad i no! but i love my pump n would never want it taken away! life is soooo much easier on the pump it does take a lot of hard work in the first few months and my pump still isn't completely right but its so worth the effort sooo keep nagging and fighting for it!

my bloods were rarely below 10, nothing really ever worked when it came to my diabetes it never did any thing it was meant to no matter how hard i tried but now on the pump my blood sugar average for the last few weeks is 6.7 it does varies a lot but you can down load all of the info and see them on charts on the comp its amazing

Kim
 
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