Maybe pump

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JennySL

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Type 1
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I have had type 1 for 30 years. When I last saw the specialist nurse she said she would put me forward for a pump with the MDT. So it’s not 100% yet.
I’m not sure if the pump would make life easier or not.
I’d like you comments please.
 
Pumps don’t suit everyone but I found that switching from MDI to a pump made my life a lot easier. it takes some work to set it up to suit you and needs tweaking.

In particular:
  • I was able to create a basal profile that matched what I need hour by hour. This helped to reduce night hypos (more sleep) and also reduced my morning rise(feet in the floor)
  • There are a variety of options for bolus delivery. When eating fatty foods I found with the slower release of glucose I needed to split my bolus, but in MDI I often forgot to do the second half of the bolus. On a pump you can ask the pump to give some bolus upfront and then deliver the rest over a period of time that you set.
  • I became a lot more confident about exercising as I was able to turn down my basal by a percentage and so long as I did this about an hour before, I reduced the blips in B during exercise.
  • For my basal I set up a variety of profiles for exercise, normal days, illness, and feeling very ill. this was great when I was poorly as I had less to think about most of the time. There were still extremes that needed more intervention
You mention MDT and I am not sure what that is. If it is the option of a closed loop system with your pump and a sensor, that is another game changer.
 
Thank you for writing this for me. Yes it’s a closed loop. The MDT is the multi disciplinary team who decide. I’m worried that they will say I’m not ‘out of control’ enough to warrant the expense.
 
@JennySL when you have approval for your pump and CGM, take your time to review the pump options available and select the one you feel would best meet your lifestyle eg tube or tubeless. Do you already have the CGM? If not once you have closed loop be careful as you can easily find yourself micro-managing your blood sugars, although once you are comfortable with how you are using the pump (as highlighted / summarised by @SB2015) and have your profiles defined this should be less of an issue.
 
I have been pumping for about 8 years.
Although I have a CGM, it is not connected to my pump so I do not have the closed loop capability.

Given how long I have been pumping, you can tell that I prefer it to injecting. However, day to day, I am not sure it is "easier". It was definitely a steep learning curve when I got my first pump and I find myself tweaking things most days. This could be because there are more things to tweak (and I am a tweaker) such as different basal patterns, different bolus options and basal suspensions but it could be because it is so much easier to make small adjustments, especially as my pump is controlled via a phone app and can give myself small correction boluses.

Each clinic has different pumps on offer so I would recommend waiting until you know what is offer at your clinic before doing too much investigation.
I partially agree with @martindt1606 regarding considering what you need. However, I would not get hung up on tubed vs tubeless. I have had both and see pros and cons of both.
 
Thank you all for replying. It’s very very helpful. I think it would be an omipod id get but need to see a consultant before they ok it.
 
I was about 20 years into my pancreas impersonation career when I switched to a pump.

The first year was quite a big learning curve, and after all those years of MDI, I had to adjust and adapt to new ways of doing things, new options, new possibilities, and new potential pitfalls or problems.

So immediately not necessarily 'easier', but certainly better results, and a greater feeling of precision, spontaneity, and subtlety of insulin doses.

Fast forward to sensor augmented pump therapy (low glucose suspend, and now hybrid closed loop) and I've never had better results with less thinking and brain space required.

Hope the transition goes well for you @JennySL and do let us know what happens - you are likely to have a bunch of questions if you get approval, and we have a range of friendly and experienced pump users here whose brains you can pick. 🙂
 
Thank you so much. So helpful. I think this response is so thoughtful.
No one is saying ‘it’s easier’ (nothing could be I suppose) but it’s better control. Which has to be better.
 
JennySL said:
No one is saying ‘it’s easier’
Click to expand...
(I'm writing as someone who's never had a pump.) I think easier in some ways would be a better claim. Particularly HCL is likely to give you decent control overnight because that's a basal thing, and HCL is particularly good at that. If that's currently a problem for you then you can look forward to a significant improvement in quality of life.
 
JennySL said:
Thank you so much. So helpful. I think this response is so thoughtful.
No one is saying ‘it’s easier’ (nothing could be I suppose) but it’s better control. Which has to be better.
Click to expand...
Let us know what options you are offered and there will be people on here who can answer questions as between us we cover them all.

I switched to the closed loop four years ago, and that has had a massive impact on me. I think a lot less about diabetes, sleep a lot more (biggest bonus) knowing that the loop will have sorted any wobbles from the day. I am glad that I did this in stages, working with a manual pump first, as there are times when I have to switch back to that, and knowing the manual system helps me to understand and tweak what is going on automatically with the loop.

Pumps should now be offered to people with T1 which want one, and the closed loop is becoming more accessible too on the NHS. Let us know how you get on.
 
Hi I have been on MDI for 26 years, I was always sure that MDI was the right thing for me. However over the last few years I have noticed a few things which would be better for me with a pump. I started looking at a lot of YouTube videos of other diabetics to see why they wanted a pump, and which pumps they liked and why.

I reached a point where I realised that I need the features a pump gives me access to to be able to reach the time in range figures I want to; such as being able to change my basal levels throughout the day, and have the pump be able to watch over me while I sleep, and on a more amusing point I hate being out and about in winter with many layers on and having to get down to skin to do an injection (brrrrrr) where as a pump you can "dial up" your bolus and not have to take off any layers :D

I have just been approved for a pump, and I was given a start date today of a months time. It has taken me nearly 2 years to get to this point
 
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