Re: Would you prefer to be on insulin injections or on a pum
MegHarveyJones said:
Desperately trying to get an insulin pump,my local Diabetic Centre in the West Midlands are eager to reccomend it,but that's all they do. I have learned that its hard for Type 1 Diabetics to get an insulin pump in the UK,without having to pay for it yourself. Im very frustrated and just want to get one to improve my Diabetes.
Me too, desperately been trying to get a pump for the last 4 years. Tried clinic after clinic in the area and across 3 PCTs. I THOUGHT I'd nearly got there a few months ago, with appointments booked with the pump clinic nurse. I'd done my research, I've done DAFNE, I've been using an Aviva-Expert, I've got pictures of carb-counted meals, I've gone and got a 0.5u pen (back on cartridges). Only to discover, "Well, actually, we call ourselves a pump clinic because we don't have enough staff to run a standard diabetic clinic as well" <cue sound of pedals going backwards quickly> I'm afraid your HBa1c is showing you're very well controlled [6.7] (blooming well should be after 6 blood tests a day, and correction injections every 3-4 hours). Although we often admit to being quite free with pumps and we do give them to type-2 diabetics as well {WHAT THE!!!?} we DO adhere quite strictly to the NICE guidelines. (except for the type-2 thing, I suppose).
So now I'm wondering if the only way is to "engineer" results to comply with NICE guidelines (yes I am completely FED UP with 8 injections a day, my injection sites are all swelling up <"you can use the top of your thighs and buttocks too you know" Yeah - right, they'll love me pulling my trousers down in the office every 3 hours, I'm sure!> So how do you "engineer" your results as the DSN "alluded" to? just HOW LONG is a "persistent HBa1c >8.5%" - how long am I going to have to sustain that? Alternatively, a little bit of chemistry might help ... "fear of unexpected hypos". Hmm, well guys, by my calculation, a standard dextrose tablet is 15mmol of glucose.
On a completely different, totally unassociated and off-topic line of thought, if a standard Boots lucozade tablet was diluted in 1l of tapwater you'd have 15mmol/l "blood" - dilute 100ml of THAT in another 300ml of water and you've got ~3.3mmol/l "hypo in a bottle". Its interesting to observe that the Aviva Expert meter doesn't do a conductivity test to see if real blood is present. The Insulix does, so a small amount of salt would be needed to get THAT meter to provide a result with this solution. Of course this is all purely hypothetical and I dare say that NOBODY keen on getting a pump would EVER consider using such a 3mmol/l solution of glucose randomly every couple of days. :roll:
... Interesting to note also, that if the consultant sees NICE-compliant reasons, then the budgets associated with the clinic are NOT a reason to deny a pump.