It is an amazing thing! The obvious best part is the huge reduction in needles! But this is a trade off with having to wear it all the time. 95% of the time this isnt a problem but sometimes it does my head it when i cant hide it and have an odd square thing under my outfit - particularly on a night out.
My control is much much better, i used to live constantly swinging between hypo (1.2s!!) and in the mid 20s. It even got to the point where i could sit quite happily up until about 18 before i felt ill. Now i feel definate hyper symptoms (nausea and hot flushes being the main ones) at about 12 so its come down hugely. My HbA1c on my pump apptment day was 8.7 - the highest its ever been even though id kept meticulous diaries worked my "bum" off to do everything right. After 3 months it was 7.8, and i think seeing as that included all the trial and error im doing that its pretty damn good!
Ive been really lucky and havent had any problems, the only blip was one dodgey cannula (or more likely my dodgy insertion technique) that i had to take out after an hour because it hurt and it bled for ages. Other than that nothing to report!
It is a big change - i wasnt quite prepared for the emotional effect it would have on me, particularly in the few days running up to it i got quite upset and insecure about my diabetes as a whole. Support from my mum and boyfriend made the difference, both of them came to the appointment with me and Brad even had a go inserting the needle in himself first because i was scared!
. Im sure not everyone would need their hand held but it helped me
😉
I still feel like ive got loads of scope to get my control much better, ive been playing with excercise recently with some disasterous effects but i think the more adjustments you come across the more the pump becomes part of you and you gain confidence. I try to look at it as something ill work with for the rest of my life, rather than a quick fix.
Records are the way to go when presenting your case. If you can prove you have tried everything to get in control and its not working they cant really refuse you. Ive only been diabetic since Oct 2006 but i was so miserable (DKA 3 times, Recurrent kidney infections which have pretty much gone now and generally feeling sick all day, every day) and up to 8-10 injections a day that i fitted the NICE criteria. Some people think you have to be very young or have had poor control for a long time to get funding, but i think proving you've done all you can and learnt all you can, still without success is more important.
Ive rambled for quite a bit so ill stop - i could probably talk about it for pages and pages!
PS> You can feel free to keep your nose stuck in!! I spoke to loads of people about going on the pump when i was first deciding. It made a huge difference to the experience for me so im more than happy to repay the favour
🙂
Any more questions just asked!
PPS. No hypo today - YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!
xxx
