Injections to Pump transition

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Honey45

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Type 1
Hi I will be starting the pump soon very excited but nervous.

I’m nervous how I’m going to cope at work and trying to adjust to new life with a pump. Did anyone have any time off? If so do work support you with this? Would I take sickness or is there another form of leave I can take, I think it’s unfair to take my annual leave for something that involves my health.

Thanks
 
Hi @Honey45 I wasn’t working when I got my pump, but I found it only took a few days to get used to it. At first I was very aware of the cannula, but after a few days I didn’t even notice it. My next thing was changing the cannula. I was quite nervous the first time I did that, but if I’d been working I’d have done it in the evening.

My pump basal was pretty much spot on from the start so I only had to do a couple of tweaks. I don’t really think you’d need time off work. If you did it, it would only be a few days, ie two or three 🙂

What pump are you getting?
 
I took a full day when I started the pump, and it was ‘sick leave’. I also ensured that I did not need to drive to any meetings that whole week to ensure that I was safe and settled. The switch went smoothly and rates were initially set by DSN then I gradually adapted these to suit my needs. I had a check in a week after, a month after and then just usual appointments at 6 monthly intervals. I did not have a problem with this at work but if you did you could certainly point out that it will help in the long term.

Like you I was very nervous doing the switch and all the filling cartridges etc. It was easier than I thought, but still very uncertain about it. I quickly saw the benefits, which grew as I adapted my basal rates.

Let us know how you get on.
 
Happen to have week off at time of transition, but tbh it all went well so can't see that it would have effected work activity, especially now with tech like cgms available.

Try not to worry all will work out well & you'll be pleased that you made change, pumping is far far superior to injections IMHO.
 
I took time off for my appointments only.
I am lucky that I work from home so it was not overly impacted by the transition.

I was more impacted by lack of exercise. I get antsy if I do not exercise daily but it took about a week for me to gain enough confidence in my pump to head to the gym. This did not affect daily resume (e.g. walking to the shops for weekly grocers).

Whilst there is a lot to learn with a pump, it was not as big a jump as when I first started on insulin and I only had one day off work when first diagnosed.

As @SB2015 mentioned, I was anxious but it was not as challenging as I expected. And as @nonethewiser mentioned, pumping provides much more freedom than injecting.

In order to sort out basal patterns you need your body's insulin needs to be for a typical day. Otherwise, you will be setting up the pattern for a day of loafing on the sofa instead of running around work.
 
Honey45 said:
Hi I will be starting the pump soon very excited but nervous.

I’m nervous how I’m going to cope at work and trying to adjust to new life with a pump. Did anyone have any time off? If so do work support you with this? Would I take sickness or is there another form of leave I can take, I think it’s unfair to take my annual leave for something that involves my health.

Thanks
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You should be able to take unpaid leave or make up the hours for medical appointments when you get the pump, that’s how it works at my work I either make up the hours or book holiday for appointments.

I haven’t used a pump but I can’t imagine you’d need to take time off to get used to it, surely you need to be in your normal routine so that you’re adjusting the settings to work for normal routine?
 
Lucyr said:
You should be able to take unpaid leave or make up the hours for medical appointments when you get the pump, that’s how it works at my work I either make up the hours or book holiday for appointments.

I haven’t used a pump but I can’t imagine you’d need to take time off to get used to it, surely you need to be in your normal routine so that you’re adjusting the settings to work for normal routine?
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Hello, how many hours (approx.) would you say is training & consultation regarding a pump?
Where I work. They tend to let stuff like this, go. But it’s great to have a time scale for something like this as a “benchmark.” (Future reference as a courtesy to my boss.) 🙂
 
Satan’s little helper said:
Hello, how many hours (approx.) would you say is training & consultation regarding a pump?
Where I work. They tend to let stuff like this, go. But it’s great to have a time scale for something like this as a “benchmark.” (Future reference as a courtesy to my boss.) 🙂
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If you read my post above or my signature you’ll see both state I don’t use a pump.
 
Satan’s little helper said:
Sorry, my bad. So keen on a pump read your latest post then got unintentionally misled. Have a great (UK) night.
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One consultation before pump approval, on start day was at clinic for around 2 hours, read up on pumps well before starting so knew most of the basics.

Think it was about 4 days after starting that got basal rates right, but timescale provably depends on type of pump & personal experience overall.
 
nonethewiser said:
One consultation before pump approval, on start day was at clinic for around 2 hours, read up on pumps well before starting so knew most of the basics.

Think it was about 4 days after starting that got basal rates right, but timescale provably depends on type of pump & personal experience overall.
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Thank you. Your personal experienced feedback is once again appreciated. I like to keep my understanding boss in the “loop.” (Regarding courtesy.) I also appreciate any appointment timescale isn’t “written in stone.” (In my experience. There can be a wait.)
 
Getting basal rates approximately right is the biggest challenge.
Bearing in mind I got my first pump about 8 years ago, most people were unaware of their BG variations throughout the day. I had trialled a new fangled device called a CGM (this was years before Libre was first released) a few months previously so my daily variations were better understood and my first basal pattern was closer than others. Givin the prevalence of CGMs nowadays, I would expect more people would have an experience closer to mine.
I started my pump with saline for a week (whilst also injecting insulin) which meant I had done a couple of set changes before “going live” so it wasn’t such a big thing.
So, apart from my pump appointments (a couple of appointments of a couple of hours), I needed no time off work. And my work enabled me to make up the appointment times so there was no need for unpaid leave.
The thing is, if it goes wrong, it is easy to revert back to injecting whilst familiarising yourself with the pump. I kept my pens with me for a few weeks just in case.
 
I took the day off I got the pump as the appointment for the training \ set up was a few hours and it’s a trip of about an hour on the bus, just seemed easier personally.

Then I was better than I was on MDI, it was fine from the start better than when I have changed insulin. Smooth transition for me at least.
 
I was running my own business when starting, so would have been able to take as much time off as I needed, but in the end after the time for training/collection I didn’t really need to take any. Adapting to the pump didn’t really need whole days, it was just the usual diabetes faff that has to fit around my life anyway.

Hope your transition goes smoothly, and your work are supportive about any time off you need for training appointments etc.
 
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