Day One

My Thoughts and Comments Regarding Pump Therapy

• Physically, wearing the pump has been pretty much trouble-free.  It is so small and light that you rarely notice it's with you.  I find the infusion sites are completely pain free.  The plastic tubing can be a pain to hide sometimes.  I usually tuck it into my pants or boxers. 

• I've come to realize I need to take a more active role in my diabetes management.  Before the pump, I would not take supplemental insulin if my BG was over 200 because I didn't want inject the needle.  Now, I can just hit a few buttons and get a very precise bolus.  This allows me to control my glucose much better, not only because I'm willing to take an extra little bolus, but because I test more knowing I can make these small corrections. 

• My only negative experience thus far with the pump was waking up one morning and testing my glucose to find a surprising 400.  I tested moderate for keytones.  I realized that the tape around the cannula had become caught on my bed sheet during the night and pulled out.  The tape had started to peel off the day before and that's what caused the problem.  I took a 12 unit bolus and came down fine.  What I learned is that I need to change the cannula every 2-3 days and not try to get a few extra days out of the infusion set and site.  The 12 unit bolus came two hours before my job interview that I had scheduled that morning.  Diabetes was the last thing that I wanted to worry about during my interviews.  Fortunately everything worked out fine, but I learned exactly how fast my sugar can rise without my basal insulin being delivered and what I can do to prevent it in the future.

• It has been about six months since I began using my insulin pump. Since the last time I have posted a comment I have had only positive experiences with my pump; with the exception of one more time the cannula came out while I was sleeping.  I believe it happened right before I woke up.  When I awoke and noticed the cannula had come out of my abdomen,  I quickly got up to check my blood sugar which was around 218.  I don't think the cannula was out for too long because the low-200 reading had been the norm for my morning blood sugars.  I changed the infusion set and took the usual morning bolus to bring myself down to normal.  So far things have been working out well.  The next test I need to do is my nighttime basal rate.  I've been too lazy to wake up every two hours during the night to check it.  The pump is so easy to use and dependable that I have found myself becoming more lazy and giving my diabetes less attention than I probably could benefit from.  I think part of this is because I still get better control than I previously had maintained with much less work.  I guess this is a good and a bad thing.  The pump can move your care closer to perfection but can also allow you to become complacent because of its consistency.