Hi Annie, welcome to the forum!
It makes me so sad hearing the hoops that some people have to jump through to get pumps. Yes they are expensive but over a lifetime the problems they prevent/improve must save more money than the cost of the pump?
When my daughter was diagnosed, a trial was startng to compare pumps with MDI in newly diagnosed children, so the hospital were actively pushing for us to go on the trial (50% chance of getting pump if we agreed). We had to decide within 10 days of diagnosis, which is tough as we didn't have chance to get over the shock of the diagnosis and we knew nothing about insulin pumps then. We were started on fixed doses of Lantus and Novorapid, and BGs hardly ever fell into single figures (although it was very early days, dose would have eventually been adjusted better and they would have taught us carb counting but didn't want to overload us with too much info all at once). We got the pump 8 days after diagnosis and BG instantly fell into the normal range most of the time so my initial misgivings were blown away just like that!
So then we did have to learn all about carbs, but rather than one of these 5-day courses which adults seem to have to go on, we were just given a copy of the Carbs and Cals book, had half an hour with a dietician to make sure that we understood exactly what foods do and don't contain carbs, and then were left to get on with it and hope that we didn't make any disastrous mistakes! First couple of pump refills and set changes were supervised by pump rep and DSN, then we were on our own with that too, although we could always contact DSN if we got stuck.
It was total brain overload at first, for a few days if you'd asked what day it was I would probably have said "sausages" or some other ridiculous answer! And it is hard work to get pump set up properly and it seems to need almost constant adjustment, but we stuck with it and got through the hard first stages and have never looked back. Last HbA1c was 51 / 6.8% which i'm well pleased with. If anyone tries to take it off my daughter when she turns 18 they will have a fight on their hands!
My daughters basal rate on school days varies from 0.15 units/hour mid morning to 0.72 overnight, you can vary it by the hour if you like, you can't adjust Lantus like that! (The mind boggles how small 0.15 unit is, especially spread out over an hour!). We have a second basal rate set up for holidays which is higher because she is usually less active. Also I would have thought that pumps would be brilliant for people with digestive problems as you can do extended boluses, i.e. instead of whacking the insulin dose all in at once, you can have it delivered gradually over whatever period of time you specify, anywhere between 15 mins and 12 hours on ours!
Please please do push for a pump, the whole point of them is that you can tailor them exactly to your needs whatever your needs are, and unless your intelligence level is that of a slug then I can't see how they can say that anyone isn't suitable! If we can do it then anyone can!
Good luck 🙂
We do have members here with gastroparesis, so hopefully they will be able to share their experiences with you.
