The Pumpers Thread!

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Hiya Sugarbum

Hospitals all did if differently. Our hospital split the list into three and personally rang each patient back in beginning of October when we knew about all this and advised each and every person.

I have one friend who son's VEO went wrong very recently and they have replaced it with a ........ drum roll........VEO. However this new VEO has a different software on it so they are not saying anything and are going with it and so far so good. They have a 522 as back up though. They reckon this new VEO is one of the new ones they will be shipping out to people.

Us stalwarts who have used Medtronic will back them to the hilt with their equipment. They are brilliant pumps. Lots of things have software gliches. The huge error they made though was how the dealt with it and I am so not surprised that people like you and I have other friends who are furious, are reacting as you are. I would do to. All I can say is sit tight, take the new VEO when it comes and just look forward. They are a great company who need to sort their customer relations out !!!
 
That sounds like one great shopping trip, Lou! Good for you! You certainly deserve it!

Sorry to hear about the dual wave/pasta thing. We have now been shown dual wave but have not used it yet. I gave my son pasta night before last and monitored him (without using dual wave) to see what happens so i could use dual wave next time but have some idea where the high comes - but he did not get a high! Two hours later he was 6.6 and remained in the 6's all through the night! Perhaps just a fluke? Not sure. Perhpas will try pizza next and see if that affects him.

With these experiments, does it matter if he eating other food too? or has supper? Let me explain - when he had pasta (I made spagetti carbanarar - Can't spell) with a yoghurt and an apple for desert. He then had one slice of toast for supper. Is this ok or should he just have had the pasta dish alone and also had no supper?

We are going to be celebrating his 13th birthday this weekend. He will officially be a teenager (not just a practising one!). Help!!!!!! :D
I will be the mother of two teenagers! Grey hairs here i come! :D

Wishing you all a good weekend! 🙂
 
Hi Lou, Firstly sorry about that dreadful letter, well not the letter just the amount of time it has taken to get to you, and the fact it wasnt even sent to you. I would have lost confidence in them a long time ago.

Second, you are a blast, must of set you ack a few quid that trip, 😱 so what, im always doing that too, treating myself cos i have diabetes dont you know, ha ha :D

Just experimenting with porridge and have no idea how it will work out! Not had it for ages and certainly not on the pump, had to guess the amount as still need a battery for my scales, must get one today! Know is low gi, so gave 50/50 multiwave over 1 hour 30 mins, started on 5.3, fingers crossed.
 
Hi all!

Adrienne, never a truer word spoken! What you have put is essentially why I chose medtonic in the first place and I spent a lot of time giving it the thought it needed. I am just appauled at their customer relations, and I mean seriously appauled.

OMG Mand, we might never hear from you again! Two teenagers? Lordy! Good luck! The carbonara sounds lovely, I dont normally have that one so I am not sure. I have often bolused in the middle of my dualwave, Im not sure if you are supposed to or not but when I have had either a snack or small pud that works quicker then I still bolus. But you know me, Im often a dual wave disaster area- might be best to collect a few other opinions first!

Well, I am joining a research study next week on tuesday in Holburn for 1 and a half hours. My DSN forwards me these things on a regular basis to do - and its a few extra pennies! I just had a nice chat the lady organising it, it is for an american company looking at a prototype pump on the computer and just giving opinions on it. The clinch is this pump is apparently bases around a computer program that you enter stats into and it works out your basal rates and different profiles for you. Could be interesting? I like this kind of thing, so I will let you know how it goes!

The lady says I am one of 11 veo users she has booked who have exchanged for the 522 or the 722! God, dont put me in a room full of Veo users- I might have an aneurysm! Can you imagine?! 🙂 As it turns out, I think we are scheduled individually- phew!

Hope you all have a good day, I am off to work later so better get cleaning- it looks like a crime scene!

Have a good day all xx
 
Holy smoke- I did a set change this morning and I am now 15.9mmols and going to work in 5 mins!

Not great! Ive still got my other one in, I might switch if no improvement in a few hours...got my back up novo with me too.

Oh the drama.....😉

Catch you later xx
 
Afternoon all!

I've just been chatting to a pumper this lunch time. That was a great experience. She really reccommends that I go on to it. She uses a minimed thing. Does the name Paradigm mean anything to you who are in the know? She said that it made life at uni easier than it would have been and that adapting to uni life with the pump was not too difficult. Looks like my luck has been in over the past few weeks as she's on the same couse as my girlfriend who pointed her out to me. I finally chatted to her today and it was really good to get it from the horse's mouth so to speak. This girl has been on a pump for two years now and it has helped her so much she said. It has helped to bring her HbA1c down to below seven percent for the first time in many years. I had bloods taken for that a few days ago...fingers crossed that student lifestyle hasn't totally shafted the hard work. I can't wait to go to this pump clinic. It's getting closer and closer. The one problem I can see arising is the start date. I would start on a pump in January; the only difficulty is that my university end of semester exams are in January. Well, I reckon that the university would understand.

Tom
 
Tom Hreben said:
Afternoon all!

I've just been chatting to a pumper this lunch time. That was a great experience. She really reccommends that I go on to it. She uses a minimed thing. Does the name Paradigm mean anything to you who are in the know? She said that it made life at uni easier than it would have been and that adapting to uni life with the pump was not too difficult. Looks like my luck has been in over the past few weeks as she's on the same couse as my girlfriend who pointed her out to me. I finally chatted to her today and it was really good to get it from the horse's mouth so to speak. This girl has been on a pump for two years now and it has helped her so much she said. It has helped to bring her HbA1c down to below seven percent for the first time in many years. I had bloods taken for that a few days ago...fingers crossed that student lifestyle hasn't totally shafted the hard work. I can't wait to go to this pump clinic. It's getting closer and closer. The one problem I can see arising is the start date. I would start on a pump in January; the only difficulty is that my university end of semester exams are in January. Well, I reckon that the university would understand.

Tom
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Hiya Tom

Great you have met a pumper. Minimed is Metronic. Paradigm is the make of pump. So when we talk about 522 and 722 and VEO's these are all really called the Paradigm 522 or the Paradigm VEO.

Have a look :

http://www.medtronic-diabetes.co.uk/

Hope that helps.
 
Hi guys

Oh Lou, love to see you bouncing around the thread! Holy smoke! Jiminy Cricket! Etc.

Sigh.

All pretty well here except that for four nights we have been battling SUCH weird lows with E...It has taken us a while to get over thinking 'it's the dual wave', 'it's the breaded chicken coming in later' and just haul off and decide: HIS NEED FOR INSULIN HAS DROPPED DRAMATICALLY between about 8pm- 1am. I mean, to the point where here is the story last night (hold onto your hats):

8mmols going into dinner. This is after two small corrections which he himself jumped on because dual wave mis-fired from lunch. So possible stacking issue, but... So, ate at 6.30ish. Low (for the second night in row) only just two hours after (so, this decides it for us that bolus is problem). TWO hypo treatments later and he is finally rising to 6mmols. We also put him on a 40% temp basal for two hours, wary of continuing lows from last two evenings/nights.

Bedtime for him: 10.15pm. He is 6.5mmols, still on temp basal, which will end at 11pm. We're both thinking sheesh, that not far to have come up in an hour and a half with two treatments and a temp basal, but we assume temp will have more impact in next hour.

We decide to test him at 12 or 1, depending on how early we make it to bed. But we want to test him when we can see what's happening with the temp, to know what to do with the rest of the night.

As it turns out, we are shattered and can't face getting up so close to going to bed. So decide to test at 11.40pm, to see if we can get enough info for the night. The temp has only been off for 40 mins, so the impact should be sort of at maximum.

My husband calls me in. I can hear something in his voice: E is 1.2mmols 😱😱😱. He didn't believe the first reading (expecting 12mmols!) and had double-checked it.

E is able to be woken and sits up obediently. We cajole the whole carton of juice down him and set the basal to 0% for an hour.

I test in 7 minutes: up to 4.4mmols. I stay up then (sigh, so much for sleep!) and test at 1am. He is up to 6.4 only. The effect of no basal should be ongoing for a while, but still: I set the temp for 75% all night.

He woke on 12mmols.

Argh! We know from the previous night's test that the problem is not between 3am and 7am. It's the evening. In fact, from the previous night it looks like things begin to behave more normally all around from 1am. How weird is that?!

The really, really awful and terrifying this is: we weren't going to test him then. We were going to wait. There was absolutely NO reason to test. No outstanding bolus, nothing for him to do but CLIMB in numbers. So we thought. OH MY GOD.

Anyway. We both just tried not to totally flip. E had not stirred either, from the hypo. That time of night he sleeps so very, very deeply. In early morning he's more likely to wake. But not at 11.30pm.

SO. Unbelievably, tonight E is out with friends at a disco. ACK! We are setting a very low temp basal from 6pm, have changed the dinner ratio, and don't give two hoots if he goes high and has to battle down through the night. Thats just fine.

***

Anyway, TALK ABOUT UNPREDICTABLE. I mean, seriously! We had clicked that evenings were dragging the bottom, and were having difficulty rising from 11pm to 1am in particular (two long times of hypo/low) BUT nothing like this...

So now we know. Not just a tweak down. A plunge. If 40% doesn't do it, then we're looking at almost no insulin for a few hours.

Does this sound even feasible?!

All we can think is that the busy days at school are catching up with him at night, now that half term is over? But why now and not before half term too?

***

Oh well. Live and learn. Incredible how much you get used to.

***

Great buys Lou! I went to (mumble mumble) T K Maxx for two hours this morning: 2 pairs of shoes each for men in the family (to try, not to keep all!), trousers for OH, leggings, a jacket and a skirt for me (though I tried on enough jumpers to carpet the house -- to no avail!). Good stuff!

xxoo
 
Tom Hreben said:
Afternoon all!

I've just been chatting to a pumper this lunch time. That was a great experience. She really reccommends that I go on to it. She uses a minimed thing. Does the name Paradigm mean anything to you who are in the know? She said that it made life at uni easier than it would have been and that adapting to uni life with the pump was not too difficult. Looks like my luck has been in over the past few weeks as she's on the same couse as my girlfriend who pointed her out to me. I finally chatted to her today and it was really good to get it from the horse's mouth so to speak. This girl has been on a pump for two years now and it has helped her so much she said. It has helped to bring her HbA1c down to below seven percent for the first time in many years. I had bloods taken for that a few days ago...fingers crossed that student lifestyle hasn't totally shafted the hard work. I can't wait to go to this pump clinic. It's getting closer and closer. The one problem I can see arising is the start date. I would start on a pump in January; the only difficulty is that my university end of semester exams are in January. Well, I reckon that the university would understand.

Tom
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Hi Tom

Good news for you! Hope it works out.

If it's any help: I know it's not the same, but my son started on his pump the week of his school exams...so was up at least once a night the entire ten days of his exams. He really didn't seem to suffer...but more to the point, the school were hugely understanding and wanted to know if he felt any of this was affecting his performance.

I'm sure you could put something in place with the uni. As someone who works in one, and with student concessions etc...You would probably only just need to get medical proof (eg a letter) saying that this is what happened. Are your marks counted on your course as a first year? In my uni, they aren't.

Anyway, in my uni a concession letter would be called upon for either a) missing an exam or similar or b) under-performance. In the case of b), what will generally be done is look at your later marks and see if these ones are out of line with your typical performance. If they are found to be so, allowances are usually made, so that the event is not in danger of affecting your overall degree class. Does this make sense/help?

Good luck!
 
patricia Hi, sorry to hear how your evening went last night, not pleasant.

Re no basal, I am now on 0 basal between 4-6pm as keep having hypos at around 6 -7 in the evenings, despite temp basal etc etc. So I would say yes is feasable, personally I think this is the time my body decides to recoup all its glucose stores so it can chuck it out later as i need much more basal from 9pm onwards.

Even tonight I tested at 3.9 just before tea at 5.30 and today i lowered my ratio for lunch as had hypo after breakfast too. Porridge disaster, but thats another story!
 
Oh no Patricia - thats really scary!😱

I think its perfectly alright to have a 0% basal - I think its Adrienne who does for J. And as our friend on the other forum would say 'be guided by the numbers' - they are trying to tell you something!🙂

As you know we are using sensors - and I have to say I dont think I could live without them now! The other night - for some reason i still dont understand - Alex kept going low - but he never quite got there as the pump alarmed each time- 4 times in all - we caught them all at about 3.8ish because we have set his low to 4.5 (sensors are about 20 minutes behind). I know that if we didnt have the sensors he probably would have gone down to the 1's because we werent anticipating any lows this night. Considering we have been battling high's for weeks now - this came out of the blue and couldnt have been connected to food at all as he had had a 'normal' meal that wouldnt have caused a spike. Also, note that the veo suspends insulin for 2 hours if the lowest setting of bg is reached - this is a godsend.

I would highly recommend sensors to everyone!🙂Bev
 
Yes, I really want sensors, esp in light of recent events...but our local team are slow, and we are not sure we want to be carting all round the country trying to get it sorted through our shared care...

Ergh. Think we will be 0% in long run. Feeling antsy. Think of us tonight! E dropping through afternoon. Put him 50% temp half hour before dinner. At one hour after dinner (1.5 hours into temp) he was only 6.8.

Swear word. Disco tonight. Dropped him to 30% and told him to take 2 glucose and sent him off. Eek.

It may be awkward to test. He's 13 and goes to a boys school. There will be girls there. Damn diabetes. Really. Why can't he just go and have fun and/or deal with all the trials and tribs of being a teenager in this world -- bad enough. Damn damn damn.

Sigh.
 
Patricia said:
Hi guys

Oh Lou, love to see you bouncing around the thread! Holy smoke! Jiminy Cricket! Etc.
Click to expand...

Now then, now then, you dont seriously think I am going to let this pass when you used both the phrases "hold on to your hats" and "dont give two hoots"! :D C'mon woman!

Realy sorry to hear of these nightmare lows...I hope so much that E has a good night at the disco. I remember being 13 going to my first discos (in the village church!) really exciting at the time! I hope its care-free for you all. Poor you Patricia, you and OH must be knackered too. Its not always lack of sleep but things heavy on your mind too isnt it, that are so tiresome. I think a gap in the basal sounds sensible but I never have one so i dont know. Really pleased you have done over TKMax- I love a good rumage!

Would love to hear how the disco went- hope it wasnt filled of nightmare sweet drinks etc?

I am just back from work (it was like a live version of Jeremy Kyle today- strewth!). My basal came down mid-afternoon (I went high after set change). I would test more but I dont like to use up the strips. Anyway its all fine now. Feel as if I have had some good numbers this week? I am pleased. I am trying so hard to get this under wraps. I get my first consultant appointment since pump in a few weeks- she is really really nice and I am looking forward to it, but naturally I want to 'show off' abit a better hba1c result, if I could just improve it a bit.

I am really please Tom that you have met up with a pumper. I tell you, what a god-send that is and probably very rare. I would have loved to have sat down with a pumper when I was considering it, I wonder why there isnt some sort of scheme to do this? I would volunteer some time to pop in and chat to people once in a while. Im really pleased you did this tom- well done.

Well, thats enough from me. I need to track down a man (about a dog?) about a caravan in weymouth in winter. Classy! No shame!

Working over the weekend. My guilty pleasure will be X Factor and the sofa this weekend!

Love to everyone xx
 
Afternoon pumpers, hope all is well.

Slept for 14 hours last night missed x factor and everything, anyways bg 6.9 at breakfast , set my basal to day off rate so very pleased with that!:D
 
Missed the x factor, oh no, you miss a ghostbusting treat!!!!!!

Great news re the sleep and basal. Jessica slept for 11 hours, I left her until she woke up at 10.15 am ! She is on 0% by then anyway for two hours. Cooked her brunch and she's doing fine although still getting over her cold.
 
HI i,m on another section talking about Antibodies to insulin, but think this might be a better area to ask if any one on a pump is using any thing other than NOVARAPID or HYMALOG ? IN THERE PUMP?
 
quinny said:
HI i,m on another section talking about Antibodies to insulin, but think this might be a better area to ask if any one on a pump is using any thing other than NOVARAPID or HYMALOG ? IN THERE PUMP?
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Hi Quinny, I read this and then have gone over and read the thread you started about insulin resistance which is really interesting. I am going to reply over there!
xx
 
quinny said:
HI i,m on another section talking about Antibodies to insulin, but think this might be a better area to ask if any one on a pump is using any thing other than NOVARAPID or HYMALOG ? IN THERE PUMP?
Click to expand...

no sorry, i use humalog
 
Adrienne said:
Missed the x factor, oh no, you miss a ghostbusting treat!!!!!!

Great news re the sleep and basal. Jessica slept for 11 hours, I left her until she woke up at 10.15 am ! She is on 0% by then anyway for two hours. Cooked her brunch and she's doing fine although still getting over her cold.
Click to expand...

Ive seen the repeat! Hope J feeling much better today.
 
Hi all!

Lucie out! OMG! Sigh. It's all about television, isn't it?!

News this end is yes disco didn't manage to avoid early hypos for 20 minutes -- during which time 7 glucose were consumed! -- but then all cleared and all well. Three girls now in the picture, as the flurry of texting exceeds all my previous experience with the form...This is what happens I guess when you disco the boys and girls schools together. Ahem. Anyway, very positive and uplifting for E I think. This is no surprise to me or anyone else in his family: he is handsome, talented, funny and caring...but your mother can never tell you anything you want to hear in this realm, can she?!

We have lowered the dinner ratio from 1:10 to 1:13 in one fell swoop, and the results have been pretty miraculous. We have yet to touch the basal, though this may follow. So far anyway, we avoided a crash less than two hours after the meal, which was the pattern for 4 days. Bit slow, we are...

Nighttime levels are a bit messed up, but we are not at the bottom of that yet. Dropping somewhere...Not drastically, but enough to get right.

E on trip to Ypres today, gone since 7am with a spare *everything*, thank god. Just received text saying he's bringing back lots of chocolate! On 60% temp virtually all day from what I can gather. Hope that's done it. We'll know when he returns at 10pm.

Phew. Rush!

Love to all. Will catch up later...
 
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