- This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 6 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Hi all – just joined up – read one of the posts via another site and thought – at last a group that laugh at T1, that’s my sort of group, and so signed up.
I see there is a lot of posts about pumps, but I am denied a pump as my Hba’s have all been below 7 – down to 5.9 at one stage, but mainly around 6.2 – 6.4 and the HCP’s all say clearly I can manage with the old fashioned way. I realise that there is a lot of work with the pumps esp when starting up, but I suspect that when you get into it life becomes a bit simpler – esp with the advancement of the BG monitoring linking into the pump.
Anyway – back to reading some more of the nonsense posted here and see if I can add to it.
Simon
-
Hi Simon, welcome to Shoot Up! Pull up a chair and join in with the despond and misery.
I can already see readers girding their loins about you being refused a pump. This is just the sort of thing we all like to get eggy about.
My A1C was good – in the sixes on MDI – and I still got a pump. This was because I demonstrated that the decent average was caused by massive swings – lots of lows and lots of highs. Interestingly my A1C is now “worse” now I’m on a pump. Quality of life is far better, which – yet again – shows what a crap measure A1C is by itself.
BG monitoring – Continuous Glucose Monitoring – with a pump is difficult to get funded on the NHS. But some people – including my esteemed co-writer – have managed it. I daresay Alison will burble on about this in a minute when she sees this thread.
-
@s187942 Nonsense? How very dare you
Welcome to the club. I’d definitely take Tim’s approach re arguing for a pump – can you ask if you can borrow a CGM from your clinic for a week or two and hopefully use the data from that to show you’re experiencing significant swings in BG or particular problems a pump would solve?
Also, I found I was being a bit too stoic about the whole thing, just getting on with it and not whinging. I started keeping a list of how diabetes was impacting my life and work and how a pump would make a difference to that.
My top tips on fighting for funding are here – http://www.shootuporputup.co.uk/2009/07/show-me-the-money/ –
but there’s no magic answer I’m afraid. I’ve always suspected I got my funding by being such a pain in the arse that they eventually gave in for some peace and quiet -
Hi Simon,
Like you I always has HBA 1c’s of around 6.1 to 6.8 for the last 20 odd years but managed to get put onto an Omnipod pump this year. Like Tim, I roller -coasted with BG no’s over the years. I do a lot of sport and need to have more immediate control over insulin requirements which a pump gives, you won’t be able to use the hormonal stuff that a pump helps with but years of MDI does bugger up insulin absorption so going from over 50 jabs a week to 2.5 certainly is easier on the bod. Patient choice is worth bandying too, occasionally a magic phrase, often not! Good luck. -
Sorry, “I don’t always has” should read, “I always had”. Sugar is quite normal too, iPad doing it’s own thing!
-
Hi Tim and Alison – many thanks for getting back – I strongly suspect my good A1c results were in the past due to massive over doses of QA – eg for the evening dose the Consultant put me on 18 units of Humalog, I now rarely use more than 9 units.
The over dosing meant that whilst my BG was low – ish, I was eating to keep it up so put on a bit of weight – as you do when you get older and slow down.
I also strongly suspected that there was a link between the CHO I eat and the amount of QA I put in, but the HCP’s all said – oh no, you just do as the nice consultant says – so I spent many years just lying to them all and telling them I stuck to the rigid 8,16 and 18 doses of QA, but of course I didn’t really know or understand the true relationship until DAFNE – which has helped enormously with keeping the A1c down and losing weight.
I am a Police officer – and was discriminated against – when they could do such things, due to my T1. The DDA has changed many things and made many improvements, but I am thinking of going back into battle with them re T1 and firearms and I suspect a pump would make my argument a bit stronger.
Alison – thanks for the link, I read it with interest, I will bare it in mind when I next see my GP – who now also runs my Diabetes as I moved house and it is too far to go to the hospital I was under and with whom I had a great relationship – now the old guard had moved on.
I don’t really get the huge swings in BG, but I can be a pain in the butt and quality of life with the ability to closely monitor are a good place to start.
Cheers
-
Interestingly enough, I didn’t really realise how much injections impacted my life until I stopped using them and went on the pump. (I’m not saying that life was a horrific nightmare on MDI though) The pump just gives you such much more flexibility that the improvement in quality of life is significant.
The fact that the inflexibility of injections impacts your job makes it good argument in favour of a pump; it’s certainly something I brought up when I was trying to get a pump (“I can’t be a high flying lawyer while having massive BG swings all day” or something like that).
-
It is a shame you’re not a woman Simon, like Jane says, the hormonal argument is always a good one, along with planning pregnancy. But we can’t really do anything about you missing that all important second X chromosome, so you might have to major on the job argument.
Like Tim, I used the job argument too – hypos in meetings impact my clients and career prospects. I travel a lot for work and timezone changes are easier to handle on the pump etc.
Bear in mind the GP won’t be able to put you on a pump, the only thing they can do is refer you to a hospital, so might be worth doing your research into where the best pump clinics are near you and asking to be referred to that one. INPUT have a list of pro active pump clinics they know of, but its not an exhaustive list so if there’s not one near you, might be worth emailing them and asking if they know of any near you that are ok or any that should be avoided. http://www.input.me.uk/alt-insulin-pumps/pump-clinics/
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.