Thanks MM1, I will consider this and also look at devices for people who can no longer hear their sensors.
1 Like
I have life long tinnitus, which normally does not affect my hearing, but the pump alarms happen to be at the same frequency, so I donāt hear them as much. Of course that horrible dexcom alarm is impossible to miss.
This is why I chose to go with Tandem mobi. I stick it right to my skin and it has both audible and vibration alarms.
Of course it feels similar to a phone in my pocket, but when I sleep, I donāt have my phone in my pocket, so I know what is what.
I know you donāt wear a pump, but I bet if you put your phone under your pillow, you would feel the vibration and probably hear the alarm, depending on how well you can hear of course.
I want to get a sugar pixel, but when others know my sugar, it makes people nervous. I donāt worry about a glucose in the 60s but it freaks out everyone else.
1 Like
Actually I keep thinking about getting a mobi. My control is so good with multiple injections, that I havenāt been too interested in a pump. I do wonder if life would be easier with one as I age. I think that there is a diabetic counselor at the hospital who could help me I guess. I just havenāt looked into it. My GP would be clueless.
I keep my g7 receiver under the edge of my pillow, so at this point it is unusual for me not to hear it.
Yes, having a sugar pixel alert does seem to be a bit out there. My husband and my son, when he is here, are very interested in my readings. I always tell them where my glucose level is when they ask, but now they would just know. Could be interesting I guess.
I know you can take a mobi for a test drive. Not sure about the process though. The thing is to set up your pump properly with the correction factor and basal rates and all. I think you can just divide your basal insulin by12 and start there to get hourly rate.
I struggled a lot with my transition to pumping but there was no cgm back then. The key is fasting for most of the day to determine your basal needs, the algorithm corrects it if itās not perfect. Then you can take corrections and boluses the way you already do.
I take a lot of corrections because my activity level changes so much during the day, and I skip meals etc.
I switch to injections if Iām going to be swimming a lot on vacation and Iāve gotten to a point where I can switch back and forth easily, but be careful because your pump wonāt know what long acting insulin you have on board, and you could drop low.
When you transition from injections to pump, you are supposed to go a day where you only use fast insulin before you put it on.
But I donāt because Iāve done it so many times.
Why do you like using a pump over multiple injections? Using pens many times a day just doesnāt phase me. Right now I am a little off because I had steroids pumped into my knees last Wed and my glucose levels are still crazy. Most of the time my life with diabetes is pretty easy, but the past week has been crazy.
I like my pump because it takes over when I canāt. It will shut off insulin when I go low. You canāt turn off your basal injection that you took hours ago. It also regulates all the time to keep me in range. Of course itās not as low as I want it to be. It can also give me a bolus which seems unlikely at night or when ever but sometimes I donāt calculate the carbs or if I had more fat than I thought, it can correct it before I go out of range.
The tandem pumps target a higher level than you can achieve on injections. I have stabilized at 5.8 or 5.9 % a1c. Iām good with that. I donāt think that getting it lower has much more benefit. I mean 5.8 is still above the normal range.
I was able to get myself to 4.9 for a time, but I was having to fool the algorithm and I was having more lows than I like.
Iām still working and I travel a lot. Having a pump lets me feel secure that I wonāt wake up dead one day.
Also my work takes me into clean rooms where I canāt inject insulin so knowing my pump will correct and take care of it while Iām working was a real benefit.
It does a pretty good job keeping me stable and in range about 95% on average.
I didnāt mind injections until I was taking so many because I would want to keep a tight control, and you can take adjustments on a pump way easier and more often, or let the pump make the adjustments.
Of course like I mentioned, my injection sites tended to bleed and I ruined enough shirts.
Now with mobi, I stick it to my skin and I donāt take it out or have it in my pocket and I really like the freedom of that.
When I take a pump vacation, I am always wanting it back, itās a feeling of security that may or may not be real.
There are pros and cons to every method.
1 Like
My A1cās are usually in the 4.6 to 5.2 range, and I would like to keep them near there. I do have lows, but they rarely bother me. I would be fine in the low 5ās, but I donāt really want to go much higher, because I am afraid of having to deal with neuropathy.
If I wasnāt home most of the time, I am a sure I would be looking much harder at a pump.
You canāt get down that low on a pump because it targets higher.
Somehow I have never had neuropathy eve from all those years of a1c of 7.5. That seemed good back then before cgm. I know you had some medication issues that caused it. My doctor told me that there is almost no way I can get neuropathy with my a1c under 6%.
When I started getting dupuytrens in my feet I was sure it was neuropathy, but my doc said there is no way it could be. and she was correct. It was dupuytrens so there you go. I donāt blame you for wanting to avoid neuropathy, Iāve read it can be horrible
1 Like
My neuropathy was caused by a satin, the warning was on the bottle,but hasnāt been too bad, but I would hate having a worse case of neuropathy. So many people suffer terribly from it.
1 Like
