pumps

Short term more work, I have found much better stability on pump (11 months).

Control not horrendous before with hba1c's of 7.1 ish...but now I haven't got the big swings in levels...and this is so much better for me. 11 months on, I honestly do not regret anything about moving across to my pump. I have had ups and downs, but now recognise what are me and what troubles stem from pump/sets.

Think I am the only person that wears my pump on my arm, as the combo comes with a remote, and I have absolutely no reason to NOT recommend it, as honestly I never know it is there. Stays there apart from bath/showers and that is it...never, ever makes a blind bit of difference to me.....even had a breast scan recently..and never had to remove it for that!!!!!!

Personally, I wish it had been available 25 years ago!!!

I had a day with a pump while babysitting for a friend. This child is 3 yrs old and came to me with a bsl of 8.7 and went home with bsl 6.5 and remained really stable all day. Obviously I had a few lessons first as my son is MDI. I loved it and wish Khaleb could get one and would put up with it being attached. You can still have pump free days/weeks and go back to MDI even when you get the pump. It would just be a whole new level of flexibility.

I think it's important to identify why a pump would help you gain better control. If your control is moderate because of the inflexibility of injected insulin then a pump definitely is a better option. If for example your control is moderate because of inaccurate carb counting then a pump isn't going to help you and it will just be more work with no better results. I'm not saying this is your case, just pointing out that a pump isn't the solution to everything.

Basals can be fine tuned and set to different rates at different times of the day, this is something that has helped my daughter so much, particularly overnight which is where we had so many problems. Boluses can also be set to deliver over a period of time or all at once depending on the type of food being eaten. All these features can help you get more stable control and a better HbA1c, injections just don't offer you this level of flexibility.

Starting a pump and learning how to deliver the insulin most effectively for you takes an enormous amount of work and testing. Unfortunately not everyone is the same so there's no manual that tells you how to deliver insulin for different types of food or what basal rates to set, you will only learn that by trial and error and lots of testing. Working that all out can be painfully slow and frustrating. But once you are past that the pump is a wonderful tool.

As for wearing it, there are so many ways that you can wear it no one even needs to know you have it on you. It can be hidden under your clothes and if you get one with a remote you can deliver insulin without even getting the pump out. All it will look like is that you have a gadget in your hands, a bit like a mobile phone, no one will even think twice about seeing you with it. The pump can also be removed for an hour or even more if you do a small bolus before removing it so if you want some pump free time for a short while you can get it. As Jen already said, you can go back to injections at any time as well so perhaps a beach holiday you want to be pump free then you can do that.

Yep, my troubles were frequent hypos at night, and huge dawn phenomenen. A pump has corrected these superbly, but like Sophia says, a pump is good when MDI has failed, despite correctly carb counting and splitting doses etc....

I went onto the pump about 6 weeks ago, even though my last hba1c was 6.7, I had waht my DSN dubbed "life distrupting diabetes" ie my hubby was suffering from lack of sleep due to having bad hypo's during the night about 1x a week... in the 6 weeks i have had 2 i was however lucky and have seemed to have found stability quite quick

It can be a lot of work with all the testing and carb counting and getting it set up intially (I've been carb counting since I was diagnosed at 4 - OKOK so my parents did it then - refused to stop carb counting when a few years later we were told we didnt need to anymore!!!) but i belive from what most people has said that it gives much more flexibility that maybe MDI cant

Re wearing the pump, I personally don't care if people see it or not, I've never hidden the fact i was injecting (i WAS discreet) so it doesnt bother me if ppl see the pump - as it happens noone has actually seen it (first day back at work today from mat leave and my team knew i had got the pump but had no idea where it was until i showed it off )

This is just my opinion from everything I've read from all the lovely people here but there are sooooo many ways to wear the pump, such as in the bra (not done this myself as petrified the insulin would get too warm), strapped to arm, waist, thigh (i believe) - I know you can buy pouches but im stingy with my money so i made a belt tiype thing that straps round my waist under my clothes (satin)

its not easy to come off the pump. i asked to come off mine for a holiday and you have to come off it about a week and half before hols to make sure the mdis are working before you go. then you have all the worry of taking insulins and stuff with you. then come off mdis and back on pump where you have to check that the basals are right - a lot of testing!!!!!!!!!!!

I found it easier to stay on pump and where a swimsuit rather than a bikini :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: so having pump free days/weeks becomes a bit complicated. Its not something you can pick up and have on one day then not the next because you dont want to.

jojoabs - wearing a pump becomes second nature and i hardly know mine is there. I usually wear trousers so it goes in a pocket and if i have a night out - down my bra

If you decide to have one you are allowed a trial pump to wear for a few days to see if you like wearing one 24/7

Josie

I've been pumping over 3 years now...

First thing to remember is that a pump is only a delivery system, it's not a 'plug and go' nor a magic wand the pump will only be as good as it's user..

Work Load..

What sort of start off and how hard this will be really depends on several factors..

If you've got a very good understanding about your diabetes, alreading know the in's and out's about carb counting, know why and what is causing you to struggle with MDI or why it's failing you are likely to fair better, also if you understand the principles of pump theapry all makes for an easier start off..

You have also got to be prepared to do the necessary testing involved pretty intense at the begining, with fastings testing involved to pin down basal profiles, then re-working out carb ratio's etc... If you aren't prepared to commit to doing this then you'll find that a pump will become a very expensive piece of wasted kit indeed as it won't make an iota of difference to your control..

If you are willing to put the effort into it all you will get

A piece of kit that will improve not only your control but your quaility of life no-end it can give you so much more flexibility than MDI, and the more stable your BG's are the better you feel overall..

I actually started to feel the benefits of my pump in the first week I just felt so much better in myself, purely because my BG's were reasonable stable and I didn't have one hypo when I'd become accustomed to having several a day, a week without an hypo brought me to tears.. My HbA1c's are now down into the 5% range.. I suffer the occasional mild hypo and if I tell my husband I'm high I mean that my BG is 7 mmol/l

As to whether you will be able to get a trial pump will depend on your clinic, different clinics have different procedures... From how they issue a pump, how long it takes to get it, the training given and how you start, some ciinics start pumpers off on saline in the pump others like mine you go straight onto insulin...

But if you want to get a notion to what wearing a pump is like, get a mobile phone, a piece of wool/string/ribbon which about 60cm long (most used tube length) stick one end to the mobile phone and the other to yourself, such as the stomach area.. It will give you a jest what it's like..

If you decide that a pump is for you, a book called Pumping Insulin by John Walsh is a very worthwhile investment (£20 I think) it's know as the pumpers bible..