HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

PUMPS GOOD...BAD...OR...UGLY...???

Support Forums
>
Diabetes
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 6/8/2007 6:17 AM (GMT 0)
My dr wants me to go on the medtronic insulin pump. Any info here, any good news or bad ? THANK YOU jeff
Posted 6/8/2007 5:22 PM (GMT 0)
I have been on a pump since January. I have the medtronics minimed paradigm 722. I absolutely love it. You would have a huge fight on your hands if you tried to get my pump off of me. My a1c saw a significant drop since going on the pump. I feel better. I have more freedom in the way I live my life. (I can eat when I want instead of when I need to feed my insulin.) My pump is the BEST thing that has happened to me in a long time. One word of advice though, check out all the pumps available and decide which one YOU like best. They all pump insulin and do it quite well. I love my minimed but I also know a lot of people who are equally happy with animas, cozmore and others. (Sorry, can't remember them all now.) Type in a search for insulin pumps and read up on them.
Posted 6/8/2007 7:06 PM (GMT 0)
THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!!!!!!!!
Posted 6/14/2007 5:11 PM (GMT 0)
I was on the pump for approx 2 years. At first it was great... I tested often and kept a real close eye on things A1C was good etc. Then the (NEW SHINNY OBJECT STATUS) wore off. I found myself cheating a lot. My thoughts were I don’t need to test I will just bolus for what i am eating. or just not bolus at being that I am still getting some insulin (some better than none) any way the main thing I did wrong was not test & rely on the pump to do everything which I will not do of course.
So I have gone back to injections as of a week and a half ago and my numbers are much better as I am scared to not test now that I have to do the injections myself and don’t have the magic box on my side. I also hated being tied to something 24/7, sleeping with the pump was not easy for me. I would get tangled up in the hose, roll over and lay on the infusion set just right and it would hurt like heck, while working in my wood shop in my spare time I would snag the infusion set though my shirt & pull it out, or if in my leg I would go to get some change out of my pocket and (ouch! that’s not change, that’s attached.)
Anyway that is my personal experience with the pump. A lot of people have great results with it, I unfortunately did not but I think people should here both sides.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU on whichever way you choose.
Doug
Posted 6/14/2007 5:44 PM (GMT 0)
I know several Type 1s who use a pump: I have a friend on a pump and the daughter of a colleague has one. It has changed both their lives for the better. Now they have one.

A friend of one of my sons has one and abuses it. I watch him drink two or three cans of straight up Coke .... when I shriek ' "A," what are you DOING!?!?' he tells me that he'll give himself some insulin when he gets around to it. Frankly, I think he's committing slow suicide.

I think what Doug added is incredibly valuable. It works for some people but not all ... just like anything else! I think if I were in your position I'd have to think long and hard. What's going to feel like freedom to you? Not having to do all the injections/testing or not having something constantly plugged into you?
Posted 6/14/2007 8:41 PM (GMT 0)
A pump is a tool in managing your diabetes.  If you ignore your diabetes, regardless of whether you wear a pump or not, you will pay the consequences.  You do not have to take as many injections with a pump.  You change your infusion site every 2 to 3 days as opposed to many injections a day.  However, you still must test and test often.  I test a MINIMUM of four times a day, usually eight.  You can get tighter control of diabetes with a pump, but YOU are still the one in control of whether or not you do that.  If you don't test and don't bolus properly a pump is a useless tool.  It's like buying a hammer and thinking it will build a house all by itself.  For me there is so much freedom from being attached 24/7.  Instead of dragging along all my injection and testing supplies, I just throw the testing supplies in my purse and go.  My insulin only requires a couple button pushes.  I toss and turn a lot in my sleep but I don't get tangled in my tubing.  (maybe you were using tubing that was too long)  I am quite comfortable, actually.  My infusion sites dont' hurt at all.  I don't feel them once they are in, even if I push on them.  I have a chld that is handicapped and in a wheelchair.  I often have to be able to manuever around in unusual positions, but only a few times have a caught my tubing.  It isn't comfortable but it isn't extremely painful and goes away after a few seconds.  Like anything else, it isn't for everybody, but I absolutely love it. 
Posted 6/15/2007 6:00 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you for your remarks. I am going to try the pump for 30 days to see how it workes, please cross your fingers when you think of me, and thank you again...GOD BLESS...jeff
Posted 6/15/2007 9:26 AM (GMT 0)
I personally think 30 days is not long enough to really know. I would give it at least 6 months before I gave up on it.
Posted 6/15/2007 3:36 PM (GMT 0)
about a year ago I had the opportunity to wear a continuous glucose monitor for 5 days. Not a pump, no, but it gave me at the very least, an idea of what being "hooked-up" was like. It gave me an appreciation for how being attached to something (insulin pump) can affect everyday life - I'm talking just the physical aspects at the moment. Where to clip the device, how to best tape and conceal the tubing, how to manouver clothing changes with the tubing, and more.... were some of the things I found myself thinking "ooohh, gotta remember that one" or "ah-hah!".

I'm sure my BGL control can be better achieved with a pump, no doubt but, there are other things I would also take into consideration when deciding to make that switch.
Posted 6/19/2007 4:56 PM (GMT 0)
AMM,

I am sorry if I sounded like I was saying that the pump is a bad thing that is not what I was trying to say at all. I (me, myself, Doug) had trouble with certain aspects of the pump. I know that it works great for some & I am jest one person that is better off on injections.

 I never really got the tubes caught on stuff; I would catch the edge of the infusion set, for instance reaching across my work bench.

I also agree with you in regards to testing the pump out for at least 6months before making any decisions.

Posted 6/20/2007 12:15 PM (GMT 0)
Everyone is different. I love my pump, but my best friend didn't like hers. She ended up having allergies to the adhesives used. She tried every different infusion set and every last one of them gave her hives. So, she is back to injections. A pump is a wonderful tool, but there are those who just prefer injections. However, I strongly recommend at least a six month trial. Thirty days is not nearly enough time to try to regulate it or get a real idea of how it is going to work for you.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply