I hate the Diabetic Fairy's night time activities!

[Marc]

As some of you may know I have been waging war on the diabetic fairy's night time friend Miss Dawn Phenomenon and so have been reducing my basal insulin lantus and testing at three in the morning. Now I am a night owl being a DJ but once I am in bed I don't like the 3am alarms to blood test but any way I have got down to 22 units of lantus and have had a right rollercoster of a day and feel really unwell. Started at 15.2mmol then went finally got down to normal levels but rose and have had to have been correcting all day.

I have spoken to my DSN on the phone and she has talked about changing my basal insulin and I'm hoping not to a split dose because I'm running out of injections sites. So could really do with hearing the magic words insulin pump but doubt I will oh well sorry for all my warped humour just had a bad day....

Marc

 

[Northerner]

Marc, I do hope you are successful with the pump! If not, have you tried levemir?

 

[Caroline]

Hi Marc, I hope things get sorted for you. Several forum users have said things have improved with some work and tweaking once they got a pump, so I hope you get one.

Don't appologise for the warpped sense of humour, sometimes it is the only way to cope and deal with things.

 

[Copepod]

I'm a bit puzzled what you mean by "running out of injection sites" - injections only have to be a few cm apart.
What problems are you having with injection sites?

 

[Marc]

Basically there are some parts of my stomach I know I have to steer clear off and my legs are the same, because I end up with some of the insulin shooting out. I have been diabetic for 23 years since 1989 and went through phases of only using my arms back in early 90s then only legs. I only got the courage to use my stomach since I was 29. But anyway prolly me being over sensitive.

Marc

 

[Ellie Jones]

Marc

Have you actually asked your clinic about having a pump?

If you wait for them to mention a pump, if they are like my clinic they aren't going to be in any hurry to say 'try this' in my case if I hadn't asked I still be waiting.

I know that you said you don't want to split due to available injections sites, but splittling might give you a couple of advantages on injections side of things.. It could lead to less injections in the long run as it help avoiding correction injections.. But another thing that gives an injection site a bashing is the amount being injected, the larger the pool of insulin sitting underneath the skin can destablise it's adsorption rate making it erratic plus the tissue has to deal with the impact/dispruption.. Splitting the jab good give a better stablised adsorption plus do less damage to the surrounding tissue..

The site heals a lot quicker, so over a period of time it doesn't get knock out of service due to too much bashing from injections!

I've been lucky on the injection site, never had a problem, I started off having to inject into the thighs due to being pregnant, I've never injected into my arms purely because when I've tried I just can't do it.. Outside of pregnancy I've always injected in my stomach, even now I'm on the pump I only use my stomach and nowhere else.. But I've never had any problems with injections sites..

 

[Marc]

I've never asked partly because I have had such a good HBA1C 6.4 at last count but don't think it would be that good this time. I'm gonna mention it to Julie DSS as I'm going to see her to get my bloods form for monday today. I have asked one of the doctors but he said there wouldn't be the funding. Also wanna see if the new edition of Discovery JDRF magazine is out as I'm in it. You may recoginse the picture if you get it 😎

Marc

 

[novorapidboi26]

Everyone's needs are different, but I would say a split background is a good strategy to try with DP......

How are the old buttocks for injecting.......

If you really cant beat the DP with insulin types/timings then the pump would be a serious consideration, even with good HbA1c like yourself....

 

[Ellie Jones]

Next time a doctor tells you that there wouldn't be the funding... You should ask him to be tell the truth and not lie... As funding isn't dependant on the PCT''s or departmental coffers... Funding is purely based on clinical need if the consultant deems that you have a clinical need for insulin pump therapy then the PCT has the legal obligation to provide funding for the pump... No way out of it without breaking the law! Oh and it's not upto the PCT or clinic to decide on what aspects of the criteria an individual has to fit and you don't have to fit all the criteria for funding..

You got at least 3 arguments for pumping,

DP's if you suffer from a large increase in short space of time, splitting your injections isn't going to help really.. If you talking about a 5mmol/l increase over a couple of hours, then splitting is going to help a lot faster or more than that spilting is near to useless.. As even adding on a quick acting correction can cause problems a couple of hours later with too much insulin swimming around..

You've got injections site issues so need to perserve sites to avoid long term probles...

HbA1c' is pretty easy to dash as a useless bit of control information as it can seriously mask true day to day control.. And should be taken in conjuction with your SD information (Standard Deviation (sp)) a HbA1c of 6.5% with a SD of 4.6 mmol/l means you rollar coaster from hypo to high... if your SD is 1.6mmol/l then you got a pretty good tight range of control with min low and highs..

Oh chuck in the 'quailty of life' issue as well...

As you can see I spent 3 years battling my clinic or a pump so spent a lot of time building my case for one.. But well worth the battle

 

[Akasha]

Hey.
Know this is a long shot, and not sure which consultant you are under. (I know that you are at RHH, as i am)
I recentley transfered to Dr D (Female doc) She is all for the pump.
She does however have a long waiting list as being the best doc in hospital. (i only managed to get onto her as planning pregnancy, Not sure how you will cope with that one 😛 )

Speak to J (DSN) about having the CGM fitted, to see where you are peaking and dropping. If that proves that your bloods are erratic inbetween you checking, its another tick on the box of NICE criteria.