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Hi, this is aimed at pumpers – how long does an insulin pump last before you need to replace it, I’m presuming there’s a life span and you don’t just wait until it gives up!
Also, do you have any words of advice that you wish you’d known before starting with the pump?
Thanks!
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a) Around about four years or so; unless you jump into a swimming pool with it on or something equally stupid.
b i) It’s harder work setting it up than I thought it would be.
ii) It’s worthwhile reading up about your pump before starting – so you hit the training running
ii) Uhm, I can’t think of any others. -
b) Just because you’ve got it set up right now, doesn’t mean it stays right for a long period of time… It seems (or maybe its just me) I have to adjust settings on a far more regular basis than I did on MDI (about every 3 months or so, I need to tweak to a greater or lesser extent) – so its still hard work to run once you’ve got it set up. (But worth it, honestly, it really is!)
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Thanks Tim and Annette. It’s interesting you have to adjust the settings quite a lot. I wonder if this is a common thing? Only realised recently that it was a normal thing for people on MDI to have to tweak things, for ages thought it was just me. Wouldn’t diabetes be a lot easier if once you found the doses that work it would stay like that for life!
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For life would be great. To be honest I’d settle for Annette’s ‘few months’. I had chaos early March, then specatcularly stable for a fortnight and for the last week or so I don’t know where I am from one day to the next
It was almost easier when I just wasn’t looking.
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@Mike – I know what you mean; we’ve all had the diabetes random roulette wheel of fun!
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So, basically with the pump you still get the random highs but it’s quicker and easier to treat? I’m going crazy at the moment with my levels, no matter what I do my blood sugar won’t behave. Think I’ve angered the diabetes gods
If I pray hard enough will I get a pump?? -
Yup – still get the random highs and lows. Except they’re slightly less random and you can tweak all your settings to avoid them much more easily.
For example, I had a hypo at about 5.30pm last night – so I put a temporary basal on so my background was 20% of what it is normally, I then only had a Mini Roll (nom nom nom!) to bring me back up. I’ve also been waking up with high BG (around about 10/11 ish) so I’ve upped my basal from 4am to 8am by (I think) 0.25 of a unit per hour. I’m now waking up at 5/6ish.
By itself a pump is just a dumb piece of plastic; but when you use one properly it’s a much better tool for fine tuning and reacting to your levels than MDI
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Only got 2 1/2 weeks now till appointment at new hospital so REALLY hoping they’ll think I’m a good candidate. What swung it for people who already have one? No doubht kidding myself that they’ll make a decision either way straight away, but we live in hope!
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Yes, still get the random highs and lows, but I find the highs are much lower. And as @tim says, they’re a lot easier to pinpoint possible reasons and correct if possible. (but I never adjust my basals to get me out of a hypo. It takes too long to have an effect for me – 2 hours.)
What swung it for me was only being able to get to a viable HbA1C by spending most of 2 weeks out every 4 hypo. Not good. -
@Mike – having exactly the same thing, you think you’ve got control then everything goes haywire! Having double the amount of novorapid the past few days which is keeping me stable today instead of huge swings (though nothing below 9 today). Also increased lantus, annoyingly took the advice to decrease by 2 units a week or so ago to stop the 4am hypos. Gah!
@Annette, when you say 2 weeks out of every 4 hypo, do you mean a hypo every day or ;
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@Claire – it ;
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Interesting, thanks @Annette . Doing the same thing, ;
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@clairev I hear you on that one. Being the only “old skool” MDI’er in Switzerland, I think they pitied me all weekend! MDI Rocks! Lantus irritates though..
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I agree with all of the above, but I think what helped me was that even with fine tuning of Lantus and Actrapid my monthly cycle would upset any routine. I also emphasied that with the pump I would be able to exercise ie go off with the children without having to care about hypo’s. eg I could be (normal) Play on the fact that you want a family and that you have heard ie quote Poole NHS have found that better control is aquired via the pump whilst pregnant/after care. If you hypo you put on weight but with fine tuning from the pump it is possible to loose weight! Yes I do have to alter my basal rate because like it or lump it we are all getting older each/2-3 months and that effects out insulin intake. However, once a general pattern is created you may only need to tweek it or in the case of myself adjust by increasing an extra 20% for hormones or decreasing by 90% if walking the dog. Those bloody awful gorging on chocolate days (yes I do get fed up at times because of hypo days WHY?? ) are long gone now as I can decrease the basal on temp. The pump will allow the long term implications to be fewer because we don’t have to wait for 2-3 days for the Lantus we have the control to eat/or not and adjust when needed which is why I believe all children should have the pump.
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Fantastic, sounding more and more like the pump will be suited to me – sitting here now with a hypo, after days of pumping myself full of extra insulin due to hormones and unable to get sugars down until today. Agree that all children should get the pump (and that all adults should at least have the choice). Thanks everyone for your advice, can now arm myself with lots of reasons on my hospital visit!
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I’ve sorted out hormone problems in a rather drastic way.. as for daily ups and downs, still learning how to tweak effectively, but agree with @annette that the pump doesn’t help with adjusting for hypos – but still can’t get my head round with bolusing for food eaten while hypo – it just doesn’t seem right! .. but I don’t change the basal as it takes too long to adjust..
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