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Pump Etiquette

B

Bluey1

Well-Known Member
Messages
429
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
People who try and make Diabetes the centre of the party and poor me, I'm special because I have diabetes now everyone run around after me.
I'm about to get my first pump in less that 2 weeks. Although debate rages about injecting in public, most suggest discretion. I'm concerned there will be a backlash if we become to bold with Syringes flying across the table.

With a pump what do people do? Flop it out at on the dinner table, same in a restaurant or be discrete about punching in the numbers? I assume you wouldn't do set changes in the middle of the office?

How do you treat your pump? Like a pet and give it a name or this **** thing that is stuck to me?
 
I try to discretely punch in my numbers. I don't leave the dinner table or meeting room (unless I've been hiding my pump in my bra ) to dial up my dose but nor do I "flop it out" (I'm not sure the tube is long enough).
However, as I have found very few comfortable and convenient places to hide my pump, it is clipped to my waist band most of the time for people to see and comment (few do).

But like injecting, there is a way to do it in a public which is not necessarily publicly: I just dial up my numbers as if it is perfectly normal thing to do (which it is for me) and carry on. I have found myself doing this whilst continuing a conversation and I don't believe I have offended anyone.
 
Wow I'm shocked that people still feel this way. I've been IDD since 1970, I've never hidden injecting even in the old days with glass syringes. No one has ever challenged me in public - not even sure if anyone notices.

I've even blood tested before injecting in the open.

The only thing I did hide was the pre-blood test chemical urine tests (for obvious reasons)
 

I have always felt the same as you.....

there are obviously people out there who are anxious in public and are maybe scared of confrontation....
 

All I can say is you are very lucky where you live. Below are just a few highlights over the last 14years (I got D as an adult).
  • I have been chased out of large shopping complex by a couple of women whom created such a fuss the real police told me if I didn't leave I would be charged with breaching the peace, I'm amazed they could see anything under the all the clothing they were wearing and I was being discreet all they saw was the pen cap, so they must have known. This apparently is far complex after talking to my local MP.
  • Marched out of the same shopping complex by rent a cops whom could hardly speak a word of English and told never to come back "you %$#@# filthy drug addict".
  • Pens confiscated by security at the domestic terminal of Australia's second largest airport and the Drs letter as well.
  • Work colleagues telling me I'm not invited to team lunches because I might inject. That was a number of years ago.
  • Lectured about how I should donate my organs including heart etc before I wilfully and deliberately destroy them (yes they were serious) and give them to someone whom will appreciate and look after them.
If there is no convenient loo I will either not eat or skip a shot. I go onto a pump in less than 2 weeks.

Then there are people with serious medical problems. I can't blood test anywhere my brother could see me or he faints. He can't go into a hospital as faints even seeing non blood product drips.
 
I really can't believe this, especially your work colleagues. Surely if there isn't a convenient loo you could ask to use a room or office? Before I was DX, I needed the loo urgently during a journey, so I stopped at a small convenience store and asked if I could use the staff loo - they were really helpful and the manager himself walked me through the stockroom to the loo. 25 years ago when I was breast feeding, I was in a hotel bar and asked if they minded me feeding 'in public'. They took me to one of their bedrooms and let me use that! I have always found that if I have the 'cheek' to ask, most people will help out. I'm sorry you have not had similar experiences to mine.
 
I keep my pump clipped to my bra. A few weeks after starting on the pump, my DSN told me she was really surprised that I kept it there (she didn't say, "at your age" but that's obviously what she thought. I told her that in the first couple of weeks I had it clipped to my waistband, but during a dance lesson it almost came off when my husband bumped into me. I decided that the safest place for my pump was between my boobs.

At first, I was a bit embarrassed to reach in to get my pump in public, but after a while I realised that few people noticed, and if they did, it didn't matter, as I wasn't making a big show of bolussing.
 
A lot of the girls in school keep their mobiles in their bras (uncomfortable I would have thought) but they think nothing of reaching in their shirts to get it!
 
I keep mine in a sock in the middle of my bra, I usually wear a top that is cut low enough so I can just stick my hand in and whip it out and bolus as required. Most people don't even notice, friends are always asking me if I shouldn't be testing my blood sugar / taking some insulin when I've just done both of those things sitting opposite / next to them in a restaurant!
 
I'm really sorry that people feel that they need to hide their diabetes, I've always taken the view that the more who know the less of an issue I will have and I've never had any issues like others have mentioned.

I once came across a security guard in Cairo Airport who asked to look into my bag containing my insulin pens (may have been plastic syringes and insulin bottles) in the early 1990's, when he tried to touch them I took his hand away and told him not to touch explaining why. He gave me a big hug and said I should take care and look after myself as I looked too young to be a diabetic which was quite nice but unnerving (as I was over 30).

As far as work and outside is concerned having this long term illness classes us all as being disabled so if anyone were to challenge me then it's clearly discrimination and I would treat it as such and under no uncertain terms tell them, but in the 47 years I've been IDD I've never had to do this.

I've flown all over the world for both work and pleasure, to many countries, I've been to music concerts and sports events where I've been searched and had to show all my carried diabetes kit and had no issues. Even been into events where your not allowed to carry food, taking some snacks for treating hypos and when explained been allowed to continue without losing my snacks.

Whilst understanding that its personal choice and some for their own reasons want to keep it quiet and hide it away, there are a lot of us who don't.
 
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Bolusing when you are in public looks no different to somebody checking their phone or changing songs on an ipod. I do it all the time, people really couldn't care less. I don't do scheduled set changes when I'm out, I try to plan those so I'm at home. If there's an emergency (bent cannula or whatever) I will change when I'm out though. I place my site on my bottom, so I try to find somewhere private and clean (NOT a bathroom if possible!) to do it. Probably in my car if possible.

I call my pump "Pumpy McPumpface". I often (affectionately) call it "this stupid thing" but I really do love it. It is my constant companion, I would feel lonely and naked without it.

Sometimes I forget my pump's not in my pocket and get up without securing it, it will swing around like a tail until I get it back under control, so I call it my tail
 
phdiabetic said:
Bolusing when you are in public looks no different to somebody checking their phone or changing songs on an ipod.
Click to expand...

Someone once asked me why I was still using a Pager and had not moved to a mobile phone
 
My daughter uses the minimed and keeps it on waistband - just pulls it out and diala up. Looks like she is changing a tune on the MP3 player as it has a jazzy skin on we bought from wearing dabbee website. The othe girl in school has roche pump so has a small handset the looks like a mobile phone.
 
Chas C said:
I'm really sorry that people feel that they need to hide their diabetes, I've always taken the view that the more who know the less of an issue I will have and I've never had any issues like others have mentioned.
Click to expand...
. I can assure you I don't hide the fact I have D, I just hide the mechanics of managing it, due to the offence (real or Manufactured for alternate political means) it causes. We are a minority group and if we offend too many people our rights and privileges and worse still subsidy's will be taken away. A lot of people have worked hard for the little we have
 

I see you from Australia, this would explain why most cant get their heads round this type of thing......are you in a remote area.....?
 

Hi @Chowie its great we can have an open discussion and each can have our own view, mine does not follow yours but were both free to follow our own.

It saddens me that your experiences have led you to feel this way but I do not see in the terms you present, e.g. causing offence will result in my privileges and subsidies being taken away. I've never offended anyone with regard to diabetes but I would stand up for my rights if I was challenged.

It was you who asked for opinions on using pump's then you appear to tell me off for expressing mine.
 
Be indiscrete. Most folks will assume you are texting which is far ruder than doing diab drugs in public! I bluetooth because it can be awkward to get the pump out of my bra on a cold day xx
 
novorapidboi26 said:
I see you from Australia, this would explain why most cant get their heads round this type of thing......are you in a remote area.....?
Click to expand...
It's exactly the opposite. 11Km /7mi from the second largest city in Australia. At the moment I'm working interstate in a much smaller capital city Brisbane and there it's great. I'm no wilting violet, quite opposite. Long before I was diagnosed with D, D's had to pay for syringes. Illicit drug users got them free, since mid 80's. I have been told, a number of D's gathered together and started to collect these free syringes at these illicit drug distribution points. They started to outnumber the druggies and caused such an uproar the govt decided that D's should get syringes and then pen caps free via select pharmacies. This has led to heavily subsidised pump supplies about $1 a day. If we annoy enough people it won't take much effort for a small organised group to convince politicians that a lot of money can be saved and hence higher costs will reduce the problem or even worse legislation as well.

Even today getting sharps containers and returning full ones are run by my local council, the goody 2 shoes staff are amazing and wonderful, until they find out you are a filthy D and not one of those amazing and misunderstood illicit drug users. They have been handling the sealed sharps containers with their bare hands up to that point. It's then on with blue gloves and you get snarled at that you are wasting and abusing valuable resources and wasting the communities money and the tirade goes on and on until you able to get away. I have complained to my local politician (now ex) and they were fully aware of the problem and were not interested in fixing it.

I was just curious if there was a common pump etiquette. If people around were threatened or concerned? I'm now 8 days away from going onto a pump.

NicoleC1971 said:
... I bluetooth because it can be awkward to get the pump out of my bra on a cold day xx
Click to expand...
What sort of pump do you have that enables you to do that? I know the Medtronic has pretty dumb push button to bolus a predefined amount and only via their supplied device. I was hoping you could put you carb count into a phone and send it off, not possible with the Medtronic 640g.
 

This is your life, not someone’s sensibilities, get on with it, most people if not all just assume ( I think ) it’s a phone or MP3 player, anyway by its nature it’s discreet and it just takes seconds to enter the data. For many many years I was ashamed of having t1 and having to inject, now I really don’t care but if people want to ask I’m only too happy to explain and discuss what I’m doing. If it’s any easier ask yourself this, why aren’t they comfortable with you administering life saving medicine ? They are after all being selfish. Be proud, open and enjoy.
 
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