Insulin pumps - why?

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mags3732

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Type 1
I am new to the site and have been reading about insulin pumps and their benefits.
Apart from not having to inject can someone explain what the benefits are?
You still have to "dial" your dose and this isn't easy, for example, eating restaurant food. Food bought from a supermarket contains the relevant carbs. contained in that food so I can easily work out my insulin requirements. Unfortunately (but not for my husband!) I cook and it is quite time-consuming looking in my book for carb. values. Hope I get some informative comments.
Thanks.
Maggie
 
Dont thik you need to dial anything, think its just a button.....

the benefits I can see are more accurate doses, doses over a set time, temporary background doses...........doesnt really explain much but having those options means you can deal with different foods, illness, excercise without any problems.

It looks like hard work to get started but once settled in control can be nearly normal I believe........

I dont pump, yet, but I know they do the job............
 
Wow! Thanks for your immediate response. I still don't get it though. The things you mention i.e.
it's a button - you still have to "tell" the machine your dose.
more accurate doses - how?
 
I've been pumping for a little over eight months. The things that attracted me to a pump are the basals that can be tailored to suit your needs. I love that. The bolusing is great as you can have different kinds of bolus which enable me to deal with different foods alot better. You don't dial up anything as you would on a pen all you use is a button or two to select the appropriate dose and the manner in which it is delivered. I love my pump and well, wouldn't have it any differently now.

Tom
 
Hi Maggie

The thing that insulin pumps can do, that MDI and other regimes can't, is offer varied basal rates throughout the day. This is perfect for me as on MDI I would wake up hypo every morning - but if I dropped my overnight basal injection, I would suffer very badly with dawn phenomenon and see my levels creep up and up over the course of the morning.

Having the pump means I can avoid both the hypo and the DP by using appropriate basal rates.

In terms of more accurate dosing, the most up to date pumps can deliver as little as 0.025 of a unit. So instead of having to round my insulin doses up or down by half a unit, I can take the exact amount I need.

I've been using an insulin pump since mid-September and I can't imagine life without it now. It isn't easy - it's very hard work, and you have to be committed to it - but the benefits far outweigh all of that.
 
mags3732 said:
The things you mention i.e. it's a button - you still have to "tell" the machine your dose.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to comment on this too. When you first get the pump, you programme into it what your insulin to carb ratios are throughout the day (you set the time periods, ie 1u:8g between 06:00 and 12:00, then say 1u:12g 12:00 - 18:00, so on so forth).

You also tell it your target blood glucose level (mine is set at 6.0 for the whole day, but you can set different levels for different times of the day) - so when you want to bolus for food, all you have to do is tell it how many carbs you are eating and what your BG level is, and it will work out the bolus dose plus or minus a correction.

It can also work out insulin on board - so for example, if your levels have risen up slightly and you want to give a correction - the pump will remind you how much insulin you have floating around your system and will suggest if you need a correction or not.

You can of course override all the pump suggestions - but it is good having something to do all the working out and calculations for you.
 
Thanks Shiv for your very detailed response. It does sound like hard work though.
I have always felt if you do more or less the same every day, eat more or less the same, diabetes can be managed quite well. Unfortunately I don't/can't do either of the above.
Thank you for taking the time to talk.
Kind regards
Maggie
Thanks to those who responded
 
As first it can seem like a high learning curve, but it doesn't need to as such as pumps will allow you to work with a basic menu similar to injecting, just you push a couple of buttons and as you get more confident you can add/use different features...

Pumps are brillient when you'll eating out and guessimating your carb intake, as select the dose you think you need, do a double check after an hour or so to see if you are on target or not, if not you can adjust your pump to sort out the over/under shoot, so you prevent a hypo/hyper with injections you can only correct if you've under shoot you can inject more, if you have other shoot you got to get more carbs down you, not easy if you've not long eat a large meal..

But for me the biggest advantage it has given me, not only the ability to flaten a rather rollar coster basal line which something two injection of background failed to do, but it can deliver the quick acting insulin at the actual dose I require, 1 unit of insulin can drop my BG by 7mmol/l big problem when a unit is the small dose possible with a syring or pen..
 
I cant add much to what everyone else has said - other than my son's hba1c was 9.6 on MDI and now it is 7 - because he needed tiny amounts of insulin and the injection method was just too crude and we never knew exactly much was getting in. We also find it invaluable for illness as you can increase or decrease basals on an hourly basis - also you can alter basals for sports or other activities - it is also much more discreet when eating out as it looks as if you are using an ipod or phone.🙂Bev
 
mags3732 said:
I have always felt if you do more or less the same every day, eat more or less the same, diabetes can be managed quite well.
Click to expand...

Yep. If I sat down and did NOTHING all day, ate the same things at the same time everyday, I'm sure my diabetes would be well under control and I wouldn't have a thing to worry about.

However - I wouldn't have a life!! Using the pump I can keep my BG levels in target as much as possible (a pump isn't a cure and won't give perfect levels - it is only as good as its user - and it gets easier with time). And I can do all the things everyone else can do.
 
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