[Rebecca]

One Very common issue with Type 2 diabetes mellitus aka NIDDM, is insulin resistance.
With oral hypoglycemics, one will have to increase the amount of medication to keep sugars under control. Some have not only increase the amount of the oral hypoglycemics, but also add different ones to the original ones, eventually leading to insulin use.
Regarding the pump. It looks like this person is from Suffolk which is in the United Kingdom (UK). Where pumps are very rare to get not only prescribed but paid for. With the research I have done for type 1's in the UK, there is only about 500 such people in the UK with pumps. Never is a type 2 on a pump.
Oh. and Orals will NOT work for a type 1. unless metformin in conjunction with insulin, either injected or pumped (it is a medication thats target cells are hepatocytes, which makes the liver not do glycogenisis as often as it would in normality. Your liver pumps out glucose, as it is the storage facility for extra glucose in addition to fat deposits throughout the body).
Diarrhea and vomiting are very common side effects of metformin (glucophage), in either IR or ER. Most (99%) orals do have some side effects, just like the side effect of insulin is hypoglycemia (and some are allergic to the preservitive that is use to make insulin shelf fridge stable for several months to a couple of years.. some use a very minute amout of phenol as the preservitive).
Nurses. There are Nursing staff that DO know as much as some physicians and some that know more than some physicians. Nurse practioners or even Physician assistants here in the states, are wonderful in my own opinion. They do know medicine. Nurse practioners, are required to go through the normal 4 years of nursing and get their bachlors of nursing (BSN), and then are required to work as a nurse for 10 or so years, before applying for their masters degree (MSN's are nurse practioners), and then they need to do clinical residency to learn their specialty. PA's or Physician Assistants, go through the normal 4 years of uni in undergrad (just like medicine), and then they go through a very intense 2 years of PA education at a grad school that has a physician assistant programme, instead of 4 year Medical school or Osteopathic medical school. Then they also have to do clinical residency, just like a MD or DO would have to do.
My life would be so much worse if it was not for the nurse practioners and physician assitants, as I am a physician. I am not being biased, but saying the fact.
Things might be different in other countries other than the states (USA), but still they are needed, and do what they need to do to help us.
In some type 2's medications can be used off and on, but most require some kind of medication at all times.
And blood glucose testing. Well that is the prefered method of testing, as urine glucose only shows what your sugars were several hours prior, and blood glucose, well that is what you are currently at.
And there is now medical documentations, that Type 2's on orals, really don't need to check their sugar levels, unless they feel "off", which I totally disagree with. I will continue to suggest to my type 2 patients (I am a paediatric endocrinologist fellow, and therefore, I treat people 18 and under, and I have 11 type 2 diabetic patients) to test 2-3 times a day, and more so with intense exercize to make sure that they do not go extreamly low. And yes, I do have a couple of patients on both the orals and insulin with their type 2 diabetes. (I have close to 250 patients).
Best thing would to do is get a second or third opinion.
Good Luck to you, and your husband, Panda692