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Hypo unawareness update

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.

sunny sanghera

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
has been a few months now and still have had no hypo awareness symptoms back yet after reducing my lantus considerably and giving less novorapid saw my diabetic nurse and she suggested I might need to have a pump now but just wondering will this fix the issue ? I wouldn't mind a change as I have been injecting for years now and it will give me a break to try something different
 
Hi sunny, good to hear from you 🙂 I'm sorry to hear your hypo awareness hasn't returned, despite all your efforts. I'd love a pump, but no go with my team at the mo :(
Hopefully a pumper will be along shortly to help you 🙂
 
Hi sunny, good to hear from you 🙂 I'm sorry to hear your hypo awareness hasn't returned, despite all your efforts. I'd love a pump, but no go with my team at the mo :(
Hopefully a pumper will be along shortly to help you 🙂
Thank you yep it' so frustrating when you try to I will take the pump though as I know how hard it is to get one my diabetic nurse suggested it without me mentioning pumps
 
Thanks for updating, Sunny.
Hopefully some pumpers will reply when they wake up and start posting.
You could add the key word "pump" or "pumping" to thread title to attract interest.
 
That was the reason I was offered a pump and grabbed the opportunity. Some people do get their Hypo awareness back by running a higher BG level and the BG levels are so much easier to manage as you are able to adjust your basal rates and your bolus to your own personal needs. It takes a while but I for one can recommend it. Mind you I have never got my hypo awareness back but I have been having hypos since day 4 of getting the condition over 50 years ago.

Good luck.

jusme
 
Wow, Your nurse sounds great if she suggested a pump, thats quite rare to not have to ask for one! I would take the opportunity to have one while you can. Especially if you are fed up of all the injecting. The trouble with long acting insulin is that for some people no matter how much you adjust the dose it will just never be right because of varying basal levels over night ( me for example, i need less basal between 2 and 6 in the morning or i go hypo) It is different for everyone. I still have night time hypo unawareness on my pump though. Even though i don't have many these days i'm still unaware. But by reducing the amount of hypos you have it can help with awareness and i have heard that it can help people regain their awareness, some of us are just unlucky and don't get it back. Thats where getting a cgm comes in and getting funding or self funding to alarm to tell you when you are hypo, but thats further down the track if you can't get awareness back. Definatley try pumping if you want to though. it can be a real game changer
 
Wow, Your nurse sounds great if she suggested a pump, thats quite rare to not have to ask for one! I would take the opportunity to have one while you can. Especially if you are fed up of all the injecting. The trouble with long acting insulin is that for some people no matter how much you adjust the dose it will just never be right because of varying basal levels over night ( me for example, i need less basal between 2 and 6 in the morning or i go hypo) It is different for everyone. I still have night time hypo unawareness on my pump though. Even though i don't have many these days i'm still unaware. But by reducing the amount of hypos you have it can help with awareness and i have heard that it can help people regain their awareness, some of us are just unlucky and don't get it back. Thats where getting a cgm comes in and getting funding or self funding to alarm to tell you when you are hypo, but thats further down the track if you can't get awareness back. Definatley try pumping if you want to though. it can be a real game changer
Yep I think I will take her up on the offer it can't make things any worse I guess and yes my nighttime hypos I still get sometimes but more in the day now I would love a cgm to only thing that worries me about the pump is getting infections through the tubing but everything has a risk factor when it comes to these things
 
The tubing isn't attached to the bit that's in you, permanently, Sunny - and neither is the cannula!

You start off with a full reservoir of insulin (the new ones are sterile, so not much chance of letting any pugs in, between unsealing it and sticking the attached needle into the vial of insulin to fill it. Then you fill it with insulin and get rid of any remaining air bubbles (same as filling a syringe) and detach it from the vial. Then you detach the needle and attach the tubing, also sterile until unpacked) and load the reservoir into the pump itself. You tell the pump to prime the tubing, so it fills the tube until insulin starts dripping out of the end.

Then you put the unsealed cannula into wherever you decide to stick it, remove the introducer needle that goes down the cannula tubing in order to get that into you and then attach the 'drippy' end of the tubing to the cannula. Then you tell the pump to prime the cannula, so the insulin fills the cannula tubing itself. The pump can't actually deliver any insulin into you, until you turn it on and tell it to.

And you replace the cannula every two or three days, in a different site depending on how reliable your skin proves to be, at absorbing it which you will discover in use.

Where is infection going to get in, if you've eliminated all the air, and not used contaminated insulin?
 
The tubing isn't attached to the bit that's in you, permanently, Sunny - and neither is the cannula!

You start off with a full reservoir of insulin (the new ones are sterile, so not much chance of letting any pugs in, between unsealing it and sticking the attached needle into the vial of insulin to fill it. Then you fill it with insulin and get rid of any remaining air bubbles (same as filling a syringe) and detach it from the vial. Then you detach the needle and attach the tubing, also sterile until unpacked) and load the reservoir into the pump itself. You tell the pump to prime the tubing, so it fills the tube until insulin starts dripping out of the end.

Then you put the unsealed cannula into wherever you decide to stick it, remove the introducer needle that goes down the cannula tubing in order to get that into you and then attach the 'drippy' end of the tubing to the cannula. Then you tell the pump to prime the cannula, so the insulin fills the cannula tubing itself. The pump can't actually deliver any insulin into you, until you turn it on and tell it to.

And you replace the cannula every two or three days, in a different site depending on how reliable your skin proves to be, at absorbing it which you will discover in use.

Where is infection going to get in, if you've eliminated all the air, and not used contaminated insulin?
I know but I just thought as it's tubing stuck inside you it was possible it sounds complicated lol but I guess you get use to it in time same as you do for injections
 
I know but I just thought as it's tubing stuck inside you it was possible it sounds complicated lol but I guess you get use to it in time same as you do for injections
best thing to do is have a look at you tube videos of people changing cannulas and cartridges, doesn't really matter what pump they all work in pretty much the same way, unless you want to see how the different pumps work, there are thousands of videos on there, then you can see for yourself what bit stays in you for 2-3 days and what bits are separate and how safe it is, like anything it can come with an infection risk, but wearing a cannula is normally pain free so if it felt irritaed or sore us pumpers would pull it out and start again with a new one and clean where it was with a bit of antiseptic. i have been pumping for 6 ish years and have never had an infection.
 
best thing to do is have a look at you tube videos of people changing cannulas and cartridges, doesn't really matter what pump they all work in pretty much the same way, unless you want to see how the different pumps work, there are thousands of videos on there, then you can see for yourself what bit stays in you for 2-3 days and what bits are separate and how safe it is, like anything it can come with an infection risk, but wearing a cannula is normally pain free so if it felt irritaed or sore us pumpers would pull it out and start again with a new one and clean where it was with a bit of antiseptic. i have been pumping for 6 ish years and have never had an infection.
Yes I will do that am fed up of injections as they have done me no good with regards to hypos so am hoping the pump will be easier way to keep the levels less low
 
Sorry to hear of your ongoing hypo awareness issues Sunny. I'm still in a similar position with little or no hypo awareness and am now going on a pump. I was like you in that I wasn't keen on being 'permanently' attached with tubing etc after so many years injecting but have realised for me it's hopefully going to be the best option. I've chosen which one I'm having (Medtronic 640G) and the DSN is also going to try and apply for CGM as well which would help. It should certainly help reduce hypos and hopefully it may also help with hypo awareness.
 
I'm in a similar position too - masses of hypos, very little hypo awareness - and the diabetes nurse at my surgery thinks a pump would be a good idea, but has left it to me to contact the DSN at the hospital to suggest it, so I'm not sure what's going to happen. I'm still on the waiting list to borrow a hospital CGM.

I would definitely take the opportunity to get a pump as you've been offered one, Sunny - if you don't get on with it you can always go back to injecting, so you've got nothing to lose, and it may really help.
 
Sorry to hear of your ongoing hypo awareness issues Sunny. I'm still in a similar position with little or no hypo awareness and am now going on a pump. I was like you in that I wasn't keen on being 'permanently' attached with tubing etc after so many years injecting but have realised for me it's hopefully going to be the best option. I've chosen which one I'm having (Medtronic 640G) and the DSN is also going to try and apply for CGM as well which would help. It should certainly help reduce hypos and hopefully it may also help with hypo awareness.
Yep very frustrating but I think the pump is worth having a go in this moment of time I wouldn't mind the tubing f it fixed the hypo unawareness issue at the very least to reduce the hypos which would help if I coukd get a cgm with it that would be great I might suggest that to my DSN
 
I'm in a similar position too - masses of hypos, very little hypo awareness - and the diabetes nurse at my surgery thinks a pump would be a good idea, but has left it to me to contact the DSN at the hospital to suggest it, so I'm not sure what's going to happen. I'm still on the waiting list to borrow a hospital CGM.

I would definitely take the opportunity to get a pump as you've been offered one, Sunny - if you don't get on with it you can always go back to injecting, so you've got nothing to lose, and it may really help.
I will take it I think although nothing is final yet the DSN just said would I be interested in a pump I said yes then she never said to much after that they are seeing if I get any awareness back slowly so if I don't in next 3 months then it's time for the pump I should get a pump for sure I have been hospital twice with severe hypos and still getting unawareness and hypos so I have a strong case for one and for a CGM
 
Sounds like the pump therapy would be beneficial for you, given the responses. Make sure you get one!
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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