Pump wanted!!

Hi sophh24,

I wouldn't recommend a pump: I don't need one.

However I could certainly make recommendations for keeping your blood sugar under very good control.

Pretty much all you'd need is an appetite for rye bread.

I've been diabetic for 30 years. And my normal HbA1C readings are 27mmol/mol - a non-diabetic normal.

I had to wait years to get a pump, so it's not an over night thing, and just because you say you want a pump, does not necessarily mean you will get one. You need to make changes to how you treat and deal with your diabetes. You need stop missing injections for one, you need to test to get a picture of your blood sugars to show any pattern and you need to get on a carb counting course. And see how that goes first.

Ok Michael, you wouldn't recommend a pump, ok as that isn't for you, because you don't need one, good for you.

But others do, and I for one was one of those that did and I would recommend a pump and it has made a huge difference to my life, but that's my opinion and you have yours.

What's you ratio??

Because of the commitment it takes to manage apump this would be one reason why you would be less likely to be considered for one than others who have tried everything and still cannot get control.

You should be managed by a consultant at hospital. NOT by your gp. Your GP will not offer you a pump, and you should be referred. Please ask to be reffered to a hospital.

If you can commit to regular injections, recording in blood books and try everything to get a better controlled level if diabetes you would stand more chance.

A pump requires a lot of commitment, why do you think a pump would be a better option for you?


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As these ladies have rightly said, your best chance of getting a pump is to prove to the hospital team that you can do a good job managing your condition using injections, your meter, and your brains. They do need to see commitment and staying power. Good luck. If you can demonstrate that self discipline, and then apply it to a pump, you will do really well.

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Firstly, never buy a pump 2nd hand esp if you never had any formal training so do ignore the post above.
Secondly, you do need to prove you can control your diabetes on MDI before a pump. On a pump, its not easier as some may think. You constantly need to test and bolus for any food and drink. You constantly need to keep a diary too to adjust and fine tune. Its ongoing - pretty much like MDI.
My advice is to keep a diary, keep trying on MDI and then also to make a case based on NICE guidelines. Unfortunately you do need to win your diabetes team over if you want a pump.
I have no doudt that a pump will help you but you do need to demonstrate that you are trying your best to gain control.

@micheal david...id like to hear more about the rye bread statement. Could you let me know? Im always trying to get my HBA1C lower.

Thanks

michaeldavid said:

Hi sophh24,

I wouldn't recommend a pump: I don't need one.

However I could certainly make recommendations for keeping your blood sugar under very good control.

Pretty much all you'd need is an appetite for rye bread.

I've been diabetic for 30 years. And my normal HbA1C readings are 27mmol/mol - a non-diabetic normal.

Click to expand...

Could you expand on the rye bread? thanks

Hello Omnipod,

I'm sorry about the lateness of this response. (I believe I wrote on my profile page words to the effect that I'd had enough of it around here for a while.)

I just came back to look - I didn't get notification of your posting. (I hope you get notification of this reply.)

First, I 'feed' the insulin I take: I take the same insulin each day and eat accordingly, rather than take insulin according to what I expect to eat.

I test quite a lot, on average once per waking hour (or more). Mostly I use visually read strips: Glucoflex-R or Betachek Visual - they're excellent for near-normal or low readings. (Not very precise for anything over 6mmol/l.) And that's where my readings are most of the time.

My HbA1C readings tend to be a non-diabetic normal. (I think the last was either 26 or 28 mmol/mol.)

I had a serious hypo - a 999 callout - in September '14, and another in August 2015. (Both my own stupid fault.)

I start eating rye bread each day just as soon as I need to eat anything. (That's not long after a cup of coffee, normally.) Just a bite to start with. And as the effect of the insulin builds, I eat more. (I east it with pear and apple spread.)

I eat plenty of other stuff too. But it's the rye bread - or spelt, or (I believe) any so-called 'heritage' grain - that serves to moderate the effects of low blood-sugar. I believe that's because, unlike modern wheat, they're all slowly digested; and therefore, if eaten steadily, a slow trickle of glucose is constantly being delivered into my bloodstream, whatever the blood-glucose reading might be.

I don't eat any further rye bread (or any of the others) after around 3pm - otherwise, my blood-sugar would rise later in the evening and overnight.

Here's the insulin I take: 11 units Actrapid first thing; a further 11 units at 10.30; then 5.5 units Novorapid at 15.30. (In my case, their effects run out at around the same time: 22.30.) 1.5 units of Insulatard (that's in Winter, rising to 2.5 in the Summer) last thing at night.

Again, my apologies for the delay in replying.

Calling @Omnipod for you.

Thank you!

I wanted to edit that last post, but I'm unsure how to do so.

First, I should have mentioned that I tend to get through well over 200g of rye bread per day.

The other thing is that the effects of the Actrapid I take at 10.30, and of the Novorapid I take at 15.30, both run out (for me) at 23.30 - not 22.30, as I stated. But if I've been eating sensibly throughout the day and evening then I know that, whatever my blood-sugar reading at 22.30, my blood sugar will conrtinue to fall by a further 2mmol/l. (I find that's covered by eating 17g of ordinary wheat bread.)

The consequence of all this is that I tend to wake up each morning as though I were a non-diabetic. (My first blood-sugar reading this morning was 4.4 mol/l.) Then I start each day anew, as a diabetic.