Hi all, I've been on a pump vacation for about 2 months. I was having a lot of absorption issues as well as bruising and bleeding with infusion changes. I'm curious if anyone else has taken a pump vacation for the same reasons and if you have, did you successfully go back to the pump and get relief from the absorption problems?? Thanks for reading!
I'm seriously considering talking to my endo at our appointment in September and if I can go back to MDI for three months. I was having major issues with allergic reactions to cannula sites, and switching to the metal ones helped for a while but I strongly suspect I'm starting to react to them as well (and my reactions affected absorption with the cannulas, so don't see why metal would be any different).
The one hesitation I have is that I may be upgrading to the Vibe, which would then (I think) mean that I'd need to use the pump in order to use the CGM.
Are you still off the pump? Did you find any relief?
I have been on about 1.5 year vacation after being on the pump for 7 years. about 5.5 years into it I started getting terrible reactions and knots at the sites. It caused terrible reactions which resulted in bad absorption. One time it got so bad, I had to go to urgent care and they gave me antibiotics.
I switched to a different type of infusion set (The Sure T- that has a needle stay in), and switched from my love handles to my thighs. That worked for a little over a year and I started getting scar tissue and "NO delivery" messages from my pump! ugh!
I've been off the pump for a little over a year now. I miss the pump when it worked, but don't miss the terrible reactions, and the frustration. When the pump was actually working my sugars were easier to control. I would like to go back on the pump for my second pregnancy, but it is hard. I tried a trial run last week, and I got the same ol reaction! It is really frustrating. I might try going to a local allergist, my endo didnt really have any answers, neither does medtronic.
I had the MiniMed Medtronic, and I might look into the Tandem pump.
No Dex, Jen? I thought you were considering a Dex. The new model is supposed to have better accuracy.
I took last summer off my pump and loved it. I reconnected after I started teaching again in the fall. I think the mini vacation helped a lot. My sites seem better but not 100%. I'll try another pump vacation this summer and maybe try afreeza. The only thing I really hated was that i gained a lot of weight last summer. I'm wondering if it had to do with lantus? I'm finally getting most of the weight off.
i tried a pump vacation about a yr ago. it was a disaster for me b/c i could not keep my multitude of basal rates in mind whenever i would bolus for a meal. also, my I:C ratio was different at diff times of day. the entire experiment was very confusing and a real disappointment. and i was sooooo looking fwd to having some “free time”" off of my pump. (but, just for the record, when i was dx w/ D, there were no pumps or cgms. this new technology is wonderful and has made an enormous improvement in my life…and my A1c has improved tremendously)