first couple of days on the pump questions

[breeze]

Hello! My husband starts with the insulin in his pump next Wednesday morning (he has the pump in to play with this week). I was just wondering what we should expect from the first few days?
The nurse did mention staying off work for a couple of days. Has anyone found this necessary? He has a meeting in london the following day which is a 2-3 hour drive each way and 4-5 hours in a meeting. Is this a good idea?
She also mentioned doing night time tests. How long does this go on for?
Any info on what to expect and what to watch out for would be fab!
Thank you!

 

[HOBIE]

Hi Breeze, I did not stop off work & realy you should be doing your normal things. With a pump the nurse should set it up with a not so accurate setting for the first week or so. He should test all the time & if its a Veo pump a couple of button pushing & sorted. I know he will love it in a few weeks 😎 The more info he puts into his pumpthe nurse can adjust the basals that suit him. GOOD LUCK 🙂

 

[breeze]

Thanks hobie, thats very reassuring. When you say test all the time? How often do you mean? Every hour? More?
Thank you!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi Breeze

The first few weeks can be, erm... Entertaining!

Most people are advised to basically start from scratch on a pump, so even if your husband 'knows' his insulin:carbohydrate ratios, correction factors and so on, the DSN is likely to just take an average TDD (total daily dose) and work out some 'starter' numbers from there. This is partly because insulin absorption from a pump site is different to injections and many people end up needing less insulin.

So the early weeks can often be spent chasing highs or dodging lows until you get a very basic set up in place. Then ongoing basal testing and tweaking for some months more to improve things - depending on the individual!

The testing regime does need to be much heavier on a pump, particularly in the early days, but pretty much full time from now on too. Not having a separate 'background' insulin means you are theoretically more exposed to dangerously high levels if there is any problem with insulin delivery, so it is worth testing around 4-8 times a day as a mater of routine. Sometimes more.

 

[HOBIE]

When you first go on it its before meals & 2hrs after, first thing in morn & before peep pees. A few days into it you might be asked to do night time tests but you can do them at the weekend or sometime when not so busy. Its the best ! 🙂

 

[trophywench]

I don't think I'd want to drive that far, the day after I started on a pump.

You have to remember, that not only do you have your new pump settings which you have no idea if they are gonna be exactly right or not, but also your body is still getting rid of your old basal insulin so if it happens to last 36 hours in you - now is the time you are actually going to know that, probably because you do hypo exactly when you weren't expecting it.

And if something goes awry, and the pump starts to alarm, how will the other people in the meeting feel about that?

I'd say you need to test every 2 hours give or take for the first 24 hours, meeting or no meeting - and driving - I'd say every hour at that stage of pumping, meself.

You do have to do night time testing, but probably not at least for the first 3 days whilst you are getting rid of the old basal.

You do all basal testing in 6 hour time blocks though, so assuming you go to bed about 11pm ish and get up about 7am, one night you eg set the alarm for 2 am and 5 am, the next night for say 1am and 4 am or whatever you need to do to get a whole night. Then you'd do an evening test so you'd get your midnight check when you did that one.