Unfortunately, this pen is frequently, and currently, out of stock due to global shortages, but I have been using these for a few decades now and they are amazing. Digital pens also use insulin cartridges that are less expensive than manual pens.
When available, figure 3-4 week delivery to the US.
I switched to a pump when I was taking 8 injections a day.
I was not taking corrections because I was already injecting so many times. Then Ultralente insulin was discontinued and I needed to move to Lantus. This meant another 2 injections because lantus can’t be mixed.
I got better control with a pump because I can micro-dose.
When I switched to dex-tandem it changed a lot. Most of the corrections are done for me. My nights are truly perfect.
I still correct manually because I think I know better than my pump does, so I think of it as my backup instead of the other way around.
I would prefer wearing a pod or patch pump, but right now pods only have one type of infusion set and they don’t work well for me.
I’m with you. I had very high insulin resistance during and after a recent bout with Covid-19. I was able to keep from spiking too high because of the many small correction boluses I did. With MDI, I would’ve been a pin cushion.
Finally it seems that things are getting back to normal. Last night was very good. In the screen shot there is one dip to 65mg/dl, but that was when I was left side sleeping faux low.
@Luis3, nice trace!
Over the last 25 years I’ve probably spent half that time on pumps and half on MDI and really have no strong preference. I switch between them depending on life at the time. My A1c is high fives to low sixes either way. If I’m spending a month at the beach I’ll go MDI. If I’m fighting an illness I’ll go with the smart pump. After almost two years of happily being mostly MDI I recently reapplied my Tandem X2 as I wanted to try the remote bolus feature - which is great! Anyhow, I suspect if you’ve got great numbers now you’d also have great numbers on a pump. I don’t mean to sound wasteful of resources but why not try it and see? There is nothing like personal experience to answer your question.
I’m really liking being able to bolus from my phone.
Credit the commercial companies that provided this significant quality of life improvement but don’t forget the #WeAreNotWaiting DIY movement that put this item on the map many years ago.
This is a great approach! I’m MDI and have been on the MDI/Pump fence for the better part of a decade but never quite managed the switch … yet. Really appreciate your comment here.
Wait, @JVG Your chemo treatment caused T1D?
I never knew that cancer treatments could cause T1D or The D in general!
Chris
Cancer and type 1 are both immune diseases.
When you activate or stimulate or suppress it odd things can happen.
It’s been noted ant attached to several drugs that they may cause an unwanted immune response.
Chris,
Yes.
The first one was Yervoy in 2014 and the second one was Opdivo in 2015/2016. Both are known to lead to a risk of any of the following: colitis, psoriasis, arthritis, thyroiditis, hepatitis, and possibly some that I am forgetting. My oncologist informed me of these risks. Typically if someone gets a side effect, the person would get one. Well I developed all in this list except hepatitis Plus DKA coinciding with type 1 diabetes diagnosis. I could have died with the delay in insulin as doctors appeared to be in denial. When it first happened, my oncologist said it wasn’t from Opdivo. Then he went to a conference and doctors reported numerous cases including mine. Lucky me, but still so glad to be here and doing well.
Jane
A pump is more like a scientific calculator that needed to be approved by multiple government’s field tests than a commercial computer.
The one failure mode that I wouldn’t worry about with a Tandem pump is it giving me 10 units of insulin in a short period of time without me asking for it or me knowing it. The only code capable of that much delivery is the fill routine, behind multiple levels of checks, and it beeps.
App programmers today have a somewhat distorted idea of software reliabily . That’s undestandable. They produce unproven-safe code - large GUI-oriented “dirty” apps in a churning environment with other apps and actors very quickly. They don’t code every line and their apps get are ususally deployed without any objective outside testing, proof of code integrity or safe operation.
Thei apps don’t need to go through extensive field testing before they are permitted to be sold part of specific equipment models that also need to be tsted and approved… .
The failure modes of pump systems that concern me are NON-delivery, NOT pumping, NOT giving me insulin that I asked for, or moire likely that insulin NOT reaching capillaries but going into a fat pocket or through a long path and deneutralizing over the heated delay because of my body’s non-ideal absorption,
Either way, I don’t rely on the pump or Tandem software to tell me my condition. I use a non-Dexcom app that gets data from the G6, not indirectly from the pump. It has multiple level and rate of change alarms that let me know without looking, long before I go out of range, to do something.
By the time my CGM reading dropped to 70mg/dL my “wake-the- dead” alarm would have already sounded.
There are a lot of key strokes necessary to accidentally deliver a bolus. It’s never happened to me.
It more likely that you initiated that while you were half asleep.
Which I have done but somehow I delivered it correctly but w no memory.
Your tandem pump can be locked if you need that extra security.
You enter a lock code every time you want to access your pump. Thsts on top of the 123 combination.
It’s a royal pain though putting that in all the time.
I sleep with my pump under my pillow so that I’m the only one who hears it, and I know where it is. It gets away from me sometimes tho.
I was on insulin pump 20 years. T1 52 years. 3 years ago, I lost my ability to absorb insulin with pump. Endo suggested MDI . It has been 3 years and I love this program with Dexcom. Do take many corrections bolus but so easy. Never imagined bing without pump, but love not being attached to gadget anymore. I know when injecting that my body is getting insulin! Feel freedom that I had forgotten. May go back on pump someday, but totally happy. for now. The InPen gives me great info and records IOB and suggests doses, etc. We are lucky to have these great choices to make! Good luck.
Great to hear!! If I ever switch to non-pump, InPen would be my first choice.
It really is a matter of what works best for you. If you are happy with MDI and doing well on it just stay with it. MDI is alot cheaper.
I was on mdi for the first year and a half and it was a nightmare for me-my blood sugar was very unstable I was having terrible lows etc.
Eventually I switched to the pump and it was much better for me. It is a lot of work though, it allows me to treat bad lows that I could not treat on MDI because of the long acting basil. On the pump I can just shut off the insulin for lows and that helps me treat it. I can also increase or lower my basal rate anytime. I really need to be able to do that because my blood sugar goes all over the place, rapidly a lot of the time.
I also have a lot of problems with irritation from the insets and stuff like that. But I live with it because it’s much better for me to manage the blood sugar. I also cannot wear dresses anymore because I wear it on the belt around my waist and there’s no way to do that and not have it look really bizarre, I can only wear it around my waist I’ve tried putting it in pants pockets and it just falls out so it’s not safe. I can’t stick it in my bra the way some women do because it’s going to be uncomfortable and obvious etc. my pump has tubing so I have to always be aware of that because it gets caught on things.
the bad part about the pump is it’s much easier to go into DKA if you are type one and I go into it very easily and at not very high blood sugar. It is still much much better than MDI for me.
You need to have a back up long-acting in case your pump fails as well. I just went through that again where the pump lost all of the records and they sent me the wrong pumps, yes multiples, lol, one of them failed again, finally I got one that works lol- but it did take a few days and it was upsetting and frustrating. Fortunately the original one was still delivering insulin so I was able to keep using that and they finally got me one that works.
On MDI I injected myself with the wrong insulin at least once, that is really a danger. I found with the pens there was still after many years no good way of really keeping a record of whether you did your basal or not- I had to split my basal and the often could not remember if I had injected it or not. It’s actually much easier to overdose yourself on MDI especially if you use the fast acting instead of the basal- you could really get yourself into trouble if you’re insulin sensitive. On my pump I can set a maximum bolus which is four units for me so it would be very hard for me to overdose myself bolusing for food. I would have to do 2 4 unit boluses without realizing it.
My pump keeps all the records so I don’t have to write anything down anymore. I can look at it anytime and see what’s going on. Like what my lastbolus was and when and I can set a duration for how long iob is active which is 4 hours generally for me.
It’s annoying and it has alarms on it but still much better for me- it’s the only thing that really works.
If you use Dexcom and you have a Tslim, you could set it up to have your blood sugar on your pump and or or you can have it control some of the basal insulin delivery. I don’t do that because Dexcom is sometimes very innacurate for me. I really need the Dexcom as well, basically I would have no quality of life without it and maybe die from a low. But I use it with my receiver and my phone, not my pump.
I would like to try to use an Omni pod at some point just to see what it’s like not to have the tubing. I don’t know how well it would work for me though because with Tandem you can do very small doses which I need often, you can do a lot of good stuff with it. That would have to be an additional pump that I would only use when I wanna swim or wear a dress or whatever I don’t know if I really will ever be able to do that cause I’m not in in a position to be able to afford two pumps now and I don’t think my insurance will cover it.
Going to the beach is the worst and I hardly ever do it now because it’s such a hassle because I’m worried- it’s hot, you have to take your pump off and hide it somewhere to swim etc. and it’s just very stressful and unpleasant. So when I go it is mostly for walks and wading etc.
@meee This is sad to hear but I think overstates MDI hazards relative to pump concerns. There are tradeoffs and troubles either way I think.
I monitor my cgm regularly and have an app that archives my injections - I enter that just as I would send instructions to a pump. I guess I could “overdose” bolusing by error, but I’d see it happening on my cgm and most of us, whatever system we use, are mostly in a routine, so it would be pretty clear if something was amiss, no matter what the delivery system.
I really appreciate your feedback/comments on this site, and agree: it really is a matter of what works best for you.
I think the vials are a better option for you.
The vials have a totally different shape between lantus and humalog. It would be very difficult to mix them up.
When I was doing MDI, I took my short acting with a pen and my long acting with a syringe so that it was a totally different process. I can’t remember if I started doing that because I made an error once or just did it that way.
Anyway never had an issue with the different types of vials. It’s a really good indicator and I’m sure that’s why they are made like that.
I did twice. What I did was to keep the Lantus in the bathroom medicine cabinet and the Humalog in the fridge. I know they don’t recommend keeping opened insulin in the fridge, but it never caused me any issues.
I am only on Humalog MDI now but when I was both on Short-Acting and Long-Acting insulin, I had one color digital pen for the Long Acting and another color pen for the short-acting insulin. The digital pens not only keep track of the last 200 injections, and dose in 0.1u increments but use cartridges that are cheaper than the pens. Unfortunately, they are currently not available due to component shortages.
