Pump compared to MDI-feel more in control?

[donnellysdogs]

Hi

For new prospective pumpers researching this website for info, what do people really think about working a pump and the control you get....we can all research what pumps do, but there aren't that many places that give good detail what people have actually found their benefits to be...or what couldn't you manage on MDI but is under better control on a pump.
My contribution to this would be:

It has actually made me unknowingly much more in control of my life and now I have got over certain stumbling points I actually care a lot more about my levels, BECAUSE I know that I have a lot of different ways to get my levels balanced.
By this I mean, on MDI my levels of insulin were always managed in whole units, and changing doses were always whole units and now everything can be so fine tuned to my bodies needs.
So for the first time in 26 years I have been able to eliminate my highs first thing in the morning.

I've never been as much -'I love the pump' - as others, but thought it would just be nice to see what others have found the actual benefits are: perhaps we could have in the future what are any downfalls to a pump....mine would be very small on this- just having to detach and reattach at my weekly massages as a result of having my set ripped out a couple of times accidentally.

 

[donnellysdogs]

Or how long did people take to feel in control of the pump?

 

[ams162]

To anyone new or considering i would say life on a pump isnt easy its hard work but the benefits def out weigh the work involved. for us the main benefit is not having such wild swings in blood readings dylan felt ill all the time being low one minute and then high the next now that is gone no more readings in the 20s either.

surprisingly carrying it around all the time hasnt been a negative for dylan either and the less injections is a huge plus but the bit dylan likes the best is being able to eat when he feels like it and to be able to have a pudding or a treat more than he ever could on MDI, he also feels more in control himself.

we are def pro pump and wouldnt hand it back for anything

anna marie

 

[Levy]

I have been on the pump for two weeks now and I already feel much more in control than I ever have on MDI. My levels have been so much more stable which I can only attribute to the pump because I can set up my basal insulin to adapt to my body's needs by the hour. A long-acting insulin like Levemir or Lantus could never do this!

It's also the perfect way to remedy the Dawn Phenomenon I suffer from (where your liver starts releasing glucose just before you wake, which in my case usually lasts until I have my breakfast). When I was on MDI I could never combat this, but now I have set my pump to start giving me more insulin at 6am (an hour before I wake up) until 9am which is when I usually have my breakfast. It's taken a bit of setting up and getting it right but it seems to be working miracles now!

Anna Marie is right, it's definitely a lot more work but it's so worth it! I coudn't imagine my life without it!

 

[donnellysdogs]

So it seems that answers so far, find the pump more work, but the effort is outweighed by the fact that we can see stable numbers???? And in such a short space of time too....from going on to the pump!!!

 

[SophiaW]

I haven't found the pump to be more work, for us it's been about the same as MDI (during the day) and less as MDI (during the night). On MDI I was waking up either at 2am to fight off hypos (when basal overnight was increased) or waking at 4-5am to give a correction injection of rapid acting insulin to ward off high morning readings (when we reduced the overnight basal to avoid the 2am lows). No matter what we tried we couldn't get a good stable overnight reading even although we were only tweaking the overnight basal by half a unit. The pump has solved this problem for us and I feel so much better that I have a full nights sleep. My daughter's teachers have commented on her improved concentration at school, no doubt because she's getting a good nights sleep and also I'm sure as a result of improved BG control.

During the daytime we don't get a spike in BG immediately after eating like we did with MDI. The bolus with a pump seems to work much more efficiently. On MDI it was not uncommon to have readings in the 14mmol - 16mmol range within an hour of eating. On the pump it's not often that it goes above 9 or 10 mmol within the hour.

What hasn't changed a lot is the amount of attention to pay to diabetes. We still test regularly, although it's probably a little less now than before because the readings are much more predictable. MDI we tested about 8 - 10 times per day, now it's about 6 times a day. We do pump checks each day and set changes every other day.

Jess says one of the big advantages is that she now has one needle prick (set change) every 2 days as opposed to 6+ injections each day.

Using a pump is a much more positive experience for Jess because it's like a gadget. Her friends comment "cool" when they see it. On MDI the comments were more like "euww, does that hurt". So I think psychologically it's a positive for Jess.

Jess uses less insulin now with the pump than she did with MDI. That has to be a good thing to avoid insulin resistance. Even although we use less insulin her BG is better controlled and she feels healthier. We don't have such large swings between high readings and hypos. Hypos are far less frequent than they used to be, high readings now are something unusual rather than the accepted norm as they were with MDI.

Jess mostly has hypo awareness back now, something she lost when on MDI.

 

[donnellysdogs]

Jess saying about only having 1 prick every 2 days compared to MDI, brought me close to tears to be quite honest. That was a side that I hadn't actually thought of, and the way that Jess can be thought of as being 'cool' compared to that of the injections... wholly more positive things than I had actually thought of, as an adult.....