Calling all pump users

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Emzi

Emzi

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi

I keep on being asked by my diabetes team if i will consider the pump and i keep saying no as i just dont think it will suit me, my last hba1c was 11 although i have been working to lower this and i know it will take time to do.

The reason for this thread is i just cant seem to get my head around the pump so thought i would ask people that use it.

my knowledge of the pump is like a small pager device that is attached to you with a small tube? is that right? does it take your bm? does it give you a dose automatically?

Also if its always attached to you how do you go about your normal lifestyles...going to the gym? going out round town? being in a swimming costume? could you pull or catch it?

I know i should ask my diabetes team these questions but they dont seem to answer me apart from trying to 'sell' it to me and i think hearing how someone uses it on a day to day basis will help me figure out if its something i should consider or not.

Thanks for any help guys - i know its a personal question and i appreciate any imput. 🙂
 
Calling all pumpers

If there segesting you get one , snatch there hands off!!! is all i can say. If you read the stories on here of people who are desprate to get on one.,You can see its worth looking in to . My daughter has only just gone on to a pump ,so we dont know yet if its going to work for her and its not for every one.. but it is the nearest thing to a working pancras that they have invented.Hope you get some good information.
 
Also look on the board for pump users (am I allowed to call you pumpers?). There will be laods of information.

Hope it works out for you. It is normal to worry about something new, but from hearing others stories, I'm sure you will soon master it and wonder how you ever managed withut one!
 
Emma, with an HbA1c of 11 you need to be biting their hands of for this pump. I can guarantee you with the right tools and the right help you will get that number down faster with a pump than on injections, I don't know of anyone who has ever gone up on a pump without a very very good reason.


The control is so much tighter as it very much 'of the moment'. You do not use long acting insulin at all. You will only be using novorapid which is inside the pump, you put it there, but that is another message and its easy.

Yes the pump is pager size and not too heavy, babies wear them. It is attached to a tube which on the other end is a cannula which you change every 2 to 3 days. There are no other injections. Pumps do NOT take your blood sugar level reading,they purely deliver insulin but in a number of different ways. It is a steep learning curve but you will feel better within yourself, I would say, immediately.

Children wear pump belts but so can adults, for example check out www.spibelt.com which keeps it night and tight around your waist or hips and you can easily go to the gym or jog etc.

There is only one waterproof pump on the market. With the others you take them off to go swimming. Most people find that they don't need insulin whilst swimming and would take pump off anyway.

If you wear a bra then lots of women wear their pump attached to the middle bit underneath (epecially good if larger in this department), our DSN has one and I have never seen it and she wears it there. The canula can then be inserted into your upper arm or stomach. Some people have it strapped around their arm. Lots of people just put it in their pocket or on the inside of your waistband and it is not seen.

Ask any questions you can think of. I can only answer from what I see and know, it is my daughter who has a pump and hundreds of other children I know.

The team won't be able to answer these questions as they don't wear pumps, but they do know it would be better for you.

Hope that helps a bit. 🙂
 
Caroline - pumpers is ok 🙂
 
Oh sorry should have explained that bit.

There are three ways the pump delivers insulin and it is all novorapid from the same reservoir inside the pump :

Basal
Food bolus
Correction bolus

Basal : This is the background. You can programme the pump to give certain amounts of novorapid insulin per hour according to what your needs are. It is this that you hear about us tweaking. For example my daughter has 9 different rates in a 24 hour period. Between midnight and 2 am she has 0.35 of a unit trickling in per hour. It changes at 2 am because her needs change and she then has 0.45 per hour trickling in. At 4 am it changes and then again at 5 am it changes when it becomes 0.65 of a unit per hour. It then doesn't change again until 9.30 am when it actually becomes zero until 11.30 am when it becomes 0.05 of a unit per hour until 1 pm etc etc the the rest of the 24 hour period.

This is all programmed in. You can pay around with it and set temporary basal rates. If Jessica has been doing PE at school then for 1 hour afterwards we programme a temporary basal rate of 50%. This means that for an hour she gets half of what the real rate is.

Food bolus : For every carb eaten you input the finger reading, the amount of carbs into the pump. The pump will calculate how much insulin you need to cover that amount of carbs and will give it to you once you have agreed. You will have already programmed in your carb to insulin ratio, again these are different throughout the day. For example from midnight to 11.30 am Jessica's ratio is 1 unit for ever 7 carbs, from 11.30 until 4.30 pm it is 1 unit for every 9 carbs eaten and from 4.30 until midnight it is 1 unit for every 13 carbs eaten. You can be that precise.

Correction bolus : There are rules to follow but it gets complicated unless you have a pump in front of you. This however is a bolus if you are too high. You have rates ie 1 unit will bring you down by 4 mmol. Jessica has three different rates set throughout the 24 hour period.

I hope this has helped and not just complicated things for you. 🙂
 
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