Sort of
@azure .
I had 2 pregnancies on injections (not MDI) and strict low carbing. This time I got pregnant unexpectedly and was having a general freak about not having taken any of the precautions (hba1c was 7.5, no folic acid, happily taking hayfever tablets etc) and remembering just how much work the pregnancies were plus the really bad hypos and loss of hypo awareness of certain points (1st trimester and post birth). I requested a pump, preferably one that would do everything for me (not funded by the nhs according to my consultant) and got one at 10 weeks. It's been a lot of work and I'm still mixed over whether I prefer it to injecting but it has meant that I've got through this pregnancy (32+2 now) with no comas, good hypo awareness and exemplary hba1cs plus not much low carbing. My last hba1c at 28 weeks was 5.6 which given I'd had a day the week before where the canula hadn't gone in properly and I was horrible levels all day was pretty impressive. The one at 20 weeks was 5.8%. The one at 10 weeks just before I got the pump was 6.5%.
I think it took me about 3 weeks to sort out my initial rates, complicated by canula issues but I had the advantage that I am quite familiar with the profile of my insulin, my usual high and low points etc. I also had a huge amount of help from people on these boards particularly the pumping forum and a few of the posters who use the same insulin as me. My hospital is a large teaching hospital but I didn't find them particularly helpful. I'm not sure if that was because the DSN assigned to me was thrown by the fact that I insisted on keeping my usual insulin (porcine) or because she's not so familiar with pumps.
I'd really recommend that you buy the Pumping with Insulin book. It helped me enormously with the testing and working out rates.
It is daunting, it's not easy if you're used to other methods (I use a particularly old fashioned one that worked well for me) but providing you can carb count and use the Pumping Insulin book or training from your hospital it is manageable. The wonderful thing about the pump is that it is easy to vary rates to manage different needs at different times of day, to take additional insulin if you're going high. The danger is the temptation to over correct which leads to hypos. The most frustrating thing for me is never being sure if I'm going high because of a usual factor (pregnancy, weather, stress, miscalculation on food etc) or because of a technical malfunction (is the canula/pump working, air bubbles in the reservoir caused by hotter body temp in pregnancy).
So top tips are:
1. If you're unsure on carb counting get the carbs and cals app
2. do lots of basal testing (however much of a pain it is)
3. If you can get funding for a CGM at the same time use it to try and help work out your patterns (I got it eventually but it hardly ever seems to work for me)
4. Buy Pumping Insulin by John Walsh
5. Try a selection of different canulas and different sites to work out what works for you. Everyone is different.45degree sets can be inserted by hand - you don't need the gun like device minimed tries to get you to use.
6. Look at the threads on here and ask people for help. Everyone is very willing to share their experiences.
Good luck!
