Skip a meal, delay a meal, do extra exercise. No more worries about bad hypos from different kinds of insulin peaking at the same time. No more need to plan the day around meals and exercise and worry about going off the schedule. Spontaneity is so key. Try it for 60 days. You won’t go back.
Hi Elaine -
Just saw your post and wanted to offer this - our 3 year old, Will, is on the OmniPod. In his PDM case, on the right hand zippered side, I keep extra batteries, the vial of Humalog we’re using for the month, a syringe, a paper clip (for resetting the PDM) and extra cartridges for his AccuChek lancet. In the space underneath the zipper, I keep a printout of the pump settings (if you drop the PDM, you may need to reset it - this has come in handy a couple of times over the last year), and alcohol & medisol wipes. I keep the glucagon, snacks for lows and backup pods in another bigger case that I keep in the diaper bag (ok, we’re finally potty training but I’m still carrying around the backpack…).
Regarding your question, the worst that can happen to any diabetic is to not be prepared. Take care of yourself and make sure that you follow your BG daily. Our son is little so I test him every two hours. Someday, I hope to back off of that but for now, that’s the best I can do.
Hope this is helpful.
What insulins didn’t I use? I was on Humalog, NPH, Lente, Regular and Lantus – all mixed at different times of the day. I had so many bottles it was impossible to keep track of what I was running low on. For me, the big reason to switch to the pump was elimination of the sudden lows.
Been there done that …have a spare set available ! And it becomes a NO BIG DEAL …I have never missed a plane connection because of this …that would be my worse scenario…pumping for almost 8 years.
Speaking as a nurse, who happens to be a diabetic for 48 yrs and has had a pump for 5, I think the problems that gentleman was experiencing had nothing to do with his pump. If he was getting O2, I doubt if his blood sugar was even low. The only problem I have had with the pump and diabetes have been the quick drops in sugar. Just keep some snacks handy! I think you will be amazed at the freedom the pump will give you. Good luck!
The “worst”? the line gets clogs as insulin (depending on the brand) tends to crystallize over time, or that you inject a bolus and you forget to re-connect the tube to your insertion point. These are the only two issues I came across dealing with stupid pump mistakes. The rest can all be found without using a pump.
The one word of advice is that I find it a little easier to eat when and what I want more easily. For some that could seem as a new freedom living with diabetes but for me, it is also too easy to over indulge with junk food. I train a lot for cycling, so I have a pretty strict self restriction on the amount of junk I take in. But be aware, if you are weak for carbs, pumps can make it easier…
In general, for me, the pump is THE best way to manage diabetes.
In general, you don’t have more risks of going hypo with a pump then you do with shots. Frequent tests and careful use of bolus is the key. Test and bolus, don’t just bolus!
Good luck in your new “adventure” on a pump.
I have the 522 (same pump, smaller insulin reservoir). I like it other than the “leash” you are on 24/7. I take it off sometimes depending on the activities…
My insurance doesn’t cover the omnipod, I would like to move to that one day as I am very active, but will wait for better insurance coverage and for omnipod to work out the bugs and make it a little smaller.
You deserve a long-time pumper award!
Well said. The pump doesn’t make diabetes management easy or simple. It does make it more convenient and provides better data. For example, you can check memory for previous boluses and confirm the doses; can’t do that with a syringe unless you are super-vigilant with writing everything down.
im not sure about that
i just know that if you keep your snacks and enter your BG more often
its alright
i,too,know someone whos in pump
shes old enough to know what to do and what not
but shes (as i think) is totally careless
she says she always sleeps in her bed,wakes up and finds that shes in the hospital!
but that is totally her fault,because she doesnt care,she misses ameal,then her bed will miss HER!
im really considering apump,and i think you shoud go for it!even though i dont know what code blue means!
and as said before
and thats all
better yet, get a 90 day RX; you’ll always have some on hand. you can refill 2 weeks prior to next RX date.
Pumped 8 and a half years now. No hospital trips (except for having appendix, tonsils, etc., removed).
The worst things that have happened have mostly been user error.
–In college, I’d let the reservoir go completely empty and would not have insulin on me to refill it so sometimes I’d go high from not getting my basal insulin in a decent turnaround time.
–On older pumps, I might have bolused twice without realizing it, but pumps now keep a great history record or even remind you if you failed to complete a bolus you’d begun programming.
–I rip out a good share of my infusion sets (ripped one out today actually when going to the bathroom cuz I forgot where I was wearing it and took my pants off quickly), so keeping an extra or two in your purse at all times is a must.
–Running out of supplies and forgetting to reorder can be a bad thing, too. Hardware malfunctions are generally replaced overnight, so those never concern me much. You need to keep a bag or two of syringes on hand just in case, of course.
I don’t know - they’re all logistical issues. I cannot imagine pump therapy in and of itself causing any medical problems - perhaps adverse reactions to the adhesive from specific infusion sets. One time I got a staph infection from leaving a set in for 5 days. Otherwise, nothing bad.
do you remember the different shaped bottles? i think nph was square, ultralente was octagonal and round was reserved for regular…
just my memory, and it may be faulty in areas… do you remember the shapes? i thought it was ultra… i’ll dig around
Actually, the boxes of Lilly insulin did have shapes in the lower righthand corner for identification purposes. I thought I remembered a square somewhere on my old boxes of NPH back in the day. I looked it up on google images and saw that Ultralente had a triangle, NPH a square, etc.
But lev may be talking about the insucozi shaped vial covers that are supposed to help people pick up the correct bottle.
I’ve been on a pump for 10 years. I love it. I’ve never needed medical intervention ever. The worst thing which can happen is a malfunction on the pump either the catheter is bent and no insulin is going in, or something malfunctions in the pump itself. Its happened to me a handful of times, but Minimed overnights a pump to me when the pump malfunctions.
The pump makes life easier, but you still need to test, esp. after changing infusion sets, to make sure its working properly
I will never give up my pump. Its made my life much easier. I don’t have to eat on a schedule anymore.
Cara
Mom to 3 (Lily - 10, Caroline - 7, Samuel - 4)
type 1 for 12 years
pumper for 10
I am not on the pump but i have heard some negative feedback about it, mainly concerning other people thinking it was something else. A friend of mine who was on it during high school said she had several people think it was some kind of new MP3 player and go reach out to grab it to look at it off her pants… or a teacher assume it was a cellphone and end up telling her she needs to remove it, and when she said no would end up in the office (atleast during the first month of school)
The only other negative story i know was a girl at my university had a low BS but her pump malfunctioned and continued to give her insulin and she ended up passing out and in the ICU with her skull cut open to relieve the swelling. She may have been a new pump user, im not aware of those details… but it makes it sound scary enough to me
1 Like
Arielle…I wondered the same thing. I had used MDI’s, as many as needed, since my diagnoses. I just went on the Omnipod last week and what I am enjoying the most is the ease of dosing when in public, the ability to dose smaller increments and the delayed dosing option. I feel that there are many ways I could tweak that to better my control once I become more adept.
I always was more bothered by checking my #'s than dosing my insulin, so thought I’d wait until the integrated systems were available. The CDE made a good point that we will have the pumping down and just have to learn the CGM end of it at that time.
I had to come to peace with the idea of having an attachment or growth, but having gotten over that, it does seem much more convenient.
The “risks” of pumping are absolutley no different than using MDI, with a couple of exceptions… in my limited experience at least.
DKA whether from being disconnected/non-delivery of the insulin gave me far, far more dangerous DKA’s than I had ever had in the decades previously combined!!! In short the pump severely increased exponentially the number of DKA’s I had for proceedural and technical delivery errors. I was definately not a fan of pumps at all because of it…
I offer that as a serious problem to be careful-watchful about.
There are a couple of mechanical problems w/ using any pump, eg Getting the tubing pulled out/caught on something because of where the pump and infusion set were placed. It can get snagged on a door handle, etc., etc. A little practice should take care of that one.
The other was simply the expectations, the hope, the mandatory belief that the pump will be some kind of magic wand, and “fix” things does not mean it will do so. Folks try them, for short time and long time periods and many do walk away after those experiences!
Stuart
Anne asked what the drawbacks , risks were to using a pump. Its a very reasonable question.
She was asking what were some of the negatives, risks involved, not, if you were in love with your pump. You confused my actual statement as being an encouragement to “walk away”. That was not what I said, read with more dispassion this time. Being forced to walk away from a pump is IMHV the worst case scenerio that I can conceive. But it is a genuine risk, if the pump does not work out for someone. (ie If the best technology available does not work out as intended, where do you go from there???)
The ~best interest~ is to give many different sides of any issue, discuss, debate and let Anne, or anyone else decide their path. If we give ONLY the rosey, cheery side of any issue, the marketing if you will… regardless of what the particular issue is… how can anybody make an informed and intelligent decision with only ~one sided~ information presented?
As for your DKA sillyness that’s absurd. Shouldn’t get it ok sure, but it absolutely does happen, Completely correct that I did not moniter in the middle of the night, etceteria. Regardless of when there was no valid cause to be monitering until the alarm went off and ~declared~ the problem existed and required damage control. By then there was DKA danger.
I won’t bother to broch the “effects of disconnection” from a pump for longer than say an hour. If you doubt my expereince is valid, feel free to detach yourself for that or longer and prove my point. Keep a insulin pen handy you’re gonna need it brother…
Said with no malice…
Stuart