3 month pump trial...

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curlygirl

curlygirl

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I have recently been offered a 3 month pump trial and, whilst I am appreciative of this opportunity, I am also apprehensive and would appreciate any advice/answers if people have the time.

Any comments or thoughts on pumps pros/cons are welcome, as well as more specifically with regard to the following:-

Until recently I had discounted the idea of a pump, in part at least because of the 'always being attached' feeling. From what I have read this does seem to be something people get used to fairly quickly, but from a practical point of view - where do you put it? I have seen waist bands etc, but wondered what people who have experience advise?

Obviously pumps are tested for safety etc, but does it feel weird to put your 'trust' in something mechanical (for want of a better word) as much as is necessary with a pump?

I have read some people saying that they suffer scarring from wearing a pump. Is this common, or is it likely to be because the set was left in longer than recommended etc

Lastly, I feel very anxious about hypos at present - do people find that pumps help with feeling less anxious/more confident regarding hypos at all?

I am half excited at the idea of being able to try a pump and half terrified. Thanks very much for taking the time to read this.
 
Hi, I have been on one for 6 years now. Its down to the individual on attitude to the pump, 90% would fight tooth and nail to keep it. I'm not the biggest fan and would love to be without it, but the truth is it works. Saying that you have to work with it. As for scaring, I had this at first, so I changed cannula to a different kind (you can do this as many times as you like) but you do have to be strict with the changing times.
I sometimes have pump breaks, but I always have to go back on to get my levels under control. As for hypo's I would say because you have better control, you have less. Putting your trust in a mechanical device, well its safer than flying, and that's safer than driving, so you will be fine.

Give it a go, but i would read pumping insulin, it helps so much, especially when your new to it.
 
I know you might be apprehensive BUT take there hand off ! Nothings perfect but they are good. There are various clips & pouches for them. Being a bloke it just goes in my pocket. So I want to go out on my Motorbike ? Leathers without pockets ? Pump comes with strong spring clip "sorted" . I don't have set meals etc with work & when food is in front of me I eat (non of this insulin x hours before & then having to eat) Let us know how you go 😎 Its like a weight off you shoulders !
 
Well I have absorption problems, which is actually I suppose scarring within the skin, not on the outside.

BUT and this is very important - for those susceptible to this - for me it had already occurred by having jabs.

And at least I only make one physical hole in myself every two days (have to change every 2 days where the recommended is change every three - and that suits most people) whereas staying on MDI I was regularly stabbing myself 10 times every two days.

It's not the same adhesive as is in eg Elastoplast, though you can be allergic but there are barrier products you can easily get which 99 times out of 100, work fantastically well for those who need em.

Try it! You will still have your pens to fall back on any time you want. Or if the electronics malfunction or you drop it and it is trampled by a herd of stampeding rhino. (That would have to happen really, they are built to withstand normal accident prone individuals, like me!) (Oh - and children!)

But be warned - even those of us in favour to begin with usually love it for the first couple of weeks then start hating it for a while as we start to make the necessary tweaks - that hating it lasts another couple of weeks, and by then you're hooked, more confident, and are able to make tweaks and changes quite comfortably.

Mine's due for replacement any time soon - and I'm excited !!
 
Mine's due for replacement any time soon - and I'm excited !![/QUOTE]

Oh dear, you need to get out more lol
 
I thought someone might say that! LOL

Megga - I hate and LOATHE filling cannulas - reminds me far too much of blunt hedgestake needles that I had to boil up with the glass and metal syringe kindly supplied by the NHS .........

And I love Novorapid anyway - so the replacement Insight pump will be IDEAL for little ol' moi !
 
The little pocket on the right of your jeans is just the right size for a pump. :D
I just wish I could get away with wearing jeans at work too…
 
Oh I forgot wearing it, yes in a pocket or on a waistband, in a thingy that hangs from the middle or side of my bra, all depends what I'm wearing .... on a lanyard round my neck, in bed it roams free and I just place it on the mattress at the side of me, it turns over with me apparently, or I turn it, no idea, as I'm asleep!

I found it a bit cold and hard and solid at first - so I got a 'skin' for it. neoprene stuff I think it is, anyway it's soft and always feels warm even when it's cold.
 
Yes.Bedtime took a little getting used to, it was like sleeping with lego!
Now I let it roll round with me. Never bothers me 😉
 
When I change my cartridge i make my next one, put it on the side, that way the "champagne" bubbles merge into one.
I do like the idea of the pre-filled ones though.
 
Hi curlygirl, I've experimented wearing mine clipped on all sorts of clothing and places but each time have come back to my SpiBelt around the waist option as most comfortable & convenient for me. I have a Vibe which doesn't have a remote control (Roche ones do) so it's more important to wear it somewhere that's more easily accessible since you take your doses/make adjustments directly on the pump itself - do you know which make of pump you'll be trying? I didn't like it clipped on jeans as for us gals, going to the loo & pulling jeans down means dealing with tubing getting caught (men are sooooo lucky in this respect!), and I found it felt noticeably heavy to wear in trouser pockets, like it's pulling them down slightly, especially if they're loose ones or thin material! Maybe just me?

Insulin pumps are incredibly safe devices. It's virtually impossible to accidentally give yourself a dose, never heard of anyone doing this. And if they go wrong, it's that they no longer deliver at all (you'd know, you'd get an alarm) or rewind cartridge stops working or casing cracks or button gets worn out & doesn't work or......it's never a dangerous malfunction like it miscalculating a dose or misdelivering insulin - that just doesn't happen. I used to keep the 'lock' on all the time to begin with, then realised the extremely unlikely combo of buttons which would have to be pressed & held down for an accidental dose delivery & thought nah - it just isn't ever gonna happen. Took the lock off a few weeks in & never gone back.

You do get used to having it attached to you 24/7. Sometimes I hate it. Mostly I'm unaware.

I was put forward for a pump due to excessive number and severity of hypos, and because I lived in fear of them. I still get hypos but much fewer and less severe. I feel so so much more in control now. It is a lot of hard work to get it all set up & working for you and you need to do lots of blood testing, but for me e.g. I can now go for a walk or do a yoga class without fear of massive hypos and carrying around bottles of lucozade all the time.

They're not for everyone, but you'll never know unless you try. And keep coming back to the message boards to ask for advice once you get going!
 
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Thanks megga, Hobie, trophywench and chandler for your replies and the information you've shared - i appreciate it.
Thanks ingrid for the support and the information given - the pump will be a Roche one as that is the one the hospital deal with. (I'm hoping it will be an Insight as they are filtering through at the moment, but i'll have to wait and see!)
Thanks again
curlygirl
 
Hope your pump trial goes well!

My daughter would obviously not have to wear a pump, but has got used to it and thinks it's preferable to several injections a day, and actually complains more about having to wear glasses than the pump - because people can see her glasses but the pump is well hidden under clothes! She wears hers under her clothes in a little shoulder bag which was probably designed for a phone! At night she puts it inside a cuddly toy and it just follows her round the bed. One time when we went swimming she somehow managed to pull the cannula off while getting dressed, luckily home is only a 5 minute drive away but she felt lost without the pump attached for those few minutes!

I think everyone else has covered all the good points, but I would like to add that the pump gives her so much more freedom to eat what she wants when she wants, because you don't have to stick needles in each time you could do 20 boluses a day quite easily if you wanted to. Which makes it a lot easier to deal with things such as food tasting at school, kids bringing sweets in to share in their birthdays etc. oh and of course kids parties, which are basically just sugar overload - at the school Christmas party my daughter ate nothing but a pile of biscuits and cakes, and thanks to a useful trick the DSN taught us that wouldn't be possible with syringes, her BG a couple of hours later was 7.0 :D

I know all the kids stuff doesn't apply to you but hopefully you can see that whatever situation you find yourself in, you can be much more flexible with a pump. Oh and regards safety, I've read that the Roche pumps contain two CPUs which are constantly checking each other, and if either one fails the pump will shut down completely so there's no chance of it going mad and dumping all its insulin into you at once!

Good luck 🙂
 
You're welcome - and I'd just like to add that pulling cannulas out is not a regular occurrence! They do stick pretty well usually. We had a spate of them coming out a bit too easily, but eventually concluded that we weren't being careful enough to make sure that they were stuck down properly when we put them in 😱 It hasn't happened for ages now!
 
Good luck with your pump trial CurlyGirl!

Hope it goes really well for you and that you begin to see why so many people like them so much during that time. Don't be surprised if you still have quite a few reservations and perhaps aren't completely convinced in those few short weeks - it took me probably a year to really feel like I had got to grips with things.

If they are of interest I wrote a couple of blog posts here:
http://www.everydayupsanddowns.co.uk/2014/06/the-i-can-of-insulin-pumps-diabetes.html
http://www.everydayupsanddowns.co.uk/2012/05/face-off-mdi-vs-pump.html

that go into a bit more detail.

Good luck with it!
 
Thanks everydayupsanddowns. I will look at those for sure. It's really great when people like you take the time to write down their thoughts and experiences to the benefit of others. I read your info on the expert meter prior to getting one of those which i found very interesting.
Curlygirl
 
Thanks! Much appreciated 🙂
 
Just over a year with mine and I wouldn't be without it! The downside of being attached to it constantly is far outweighed by the great control it gives and therefore feeling so much better and having more energy.

Where to wear it? I put mine in my bra where the strap joins to the cup and this keeps it securely in place. I bought some IpSox to put in in. There little cotton pouches which are washable and come in many colours and patters as well as black and ecru.

I do sometimes put the pump in the back pocket of my jeans but find the meter doesn't always connect to it there unless I hold it close to the pocket - and this can look a bit strange but most people who know me know I have a pump so aren't surprised at such behaviour.

Hope this helps.:D
 
Thankyou Maryanne29 for your reply. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and experience.
Curlygirl
 
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