[Gary_W]

Evening all,

I am now officially plumbed in to an Animas 2020. It's a loaner (a different loaner to the one I've had on a desktop for a few weeks) but I'm told my 'actual' 2020 that will be my own is being ordered over the next few days so I should have that next week.

I'm using the Inset II 6mm canula. I must admit I was a little nervous when I fired it in, but I didn't feel a thing. Long may that continue!

I have the IR dongle thing to connect it to a PC but don't have the software yet. That should be in the post over the next few days. This little loaner doesn't have much in the food database, so that bit isn't really usable yet. And I need the software to squirt all the pump and Lifescan meter data to.

I've been on since around 11.30 this morning, so I'm 11 hours in so far. I've still got a bit of Lantus sloshing around. This may explain the two hypos so far... One very mild drift right before dinner (which was fine) and a 2.5 tonight around 3 hours after dinner. Obviously too early to know what caused what, so I'll find out tomorrow and thereafter what needs tweaking.

It felt really, really odd not having to inject before dinner tonight. And at lunchtime, I bought a sandwich from the supermarket on the way back. I'd tested before going in and was slightly over range so once I'd read the carbs from the packet I dialed it in whilst carrying on shopping. It felt rather weird to 'inject' whilst walking up the fruit aisle... almost like I was wearing no clothes under my coat and I was the only one that knew. If you'll forgive the terrible mental picture

Sleeping with it is going to be the next bit of weirdness, so we shall see how that goes. I am very grateful to have the chance to use one of these things. It'll take a lot of work to get it spot on, but I welcome the challenge. At least I know it has the capability of improving my life a great deal

Gary

[Jan B]

CONGRATULATIONS GARY!!!



I look forward to hearing more of your newbie pumper comments!! My pump feels like part of my body -- I feel like I'm missing a piece of me without it!

[HelenM]

Do watch for hypos tonight Gary. Last week when I started I was in hospital with a nurse to wake me up at 3am . I think all but one of us had a low during that first night. Perhaps the Lantus stays on more for a while since the second day saw me using a third less insulin than normal. I've found sleeping fine.

[notme]

Congratulations Gary and welcome to the collective. HelenM is correct that you may find yourself going hypo for the next few days and your blood sugar may be lower than usual. Then again, things may just go perfectly!

I had little problem with my new pump and have loved it from the day I got it. I hope it goes that way for you also.

[SGT Shoutmore]

Good on ya Gary!

Yes, your next to to three 3 days will probably see some hypos. You'll recall I saw some that spooked me. The residual lantus on board should be out by now, so you won't be battling that.

You'll no doubt be making some adjustments to your insulin over the next few days, remember, small increments!
It won't take nearly as long as you think to get "dialed in" to some basal patterns that work well for you. You're already well prepared for that and you've done your homework, you are more than ready for this!

Gary, you are going to LOVE the difference! Believe me! It is unreal how different it is and those differences are fantastic.

Sleeping with the pump, it took me 3 days before I forgot it was "there" when I was sleeping. Since I turn a lot whilst sleeping, I found that I clip my pump to my boxers just to the right of my midline somewhat in front of my right leg at the wasteline, there, when I roll over, it is not biting me on the sides. Or, if it is cold, I wear a tee shirt with a breast pocket and stick the pump in the pocket and forget about it, Gary, after 3 days, it became so routine, I don' even notice it.

I am on my 3rd week pumping now, I'll never go back to MDI, to heck with THAT mess! I love how I can hide my pump and bolus ANYWHERE without any notice from anyone. No more syringes, although I do keep a few in my belly pack for "just in case the pump craps out on me".

Wearing it is soon a non-issue, you really do forget it is there until you:

1. test pre meal and post meal
2. Hear the alarms that you set to tell you to test
3. Hear a low reservoir alarm
4. Hear a battery alarm
5. Hear an occlusion alarm (Not hear this one yet)
6. See on your calendar that it is time to change a set

Otherwise, it is much like a wallet, you just carry it everywhere as per outine, except the pump goes the rest of the places where you wouldn't take a wallet.

So, cheerfully say goodbye to Lantus as I did to Levemir, so long unpredictable long acting insulin! Hello Apidra! My new found pal.

Something else to consider, I personally HATE eating 3 big meals a day, I am far too busy, brekkie is one of thse things I never liked to HAVE to eat, but the occasion where I feel like eating it, I skip brekkie and lunch often in favor of light snacks and eat a big dinner. The pump has let me do that where my preference is to eat sparingly and when I need it instead of feeding my insulin habit on MDI. It's not a cure, but I'll be darned if it hasn't allowed me to live a more "normal" life, and set chanages are not an inconvienance as I choose the hour of the day to do it, not some strict MDI schedule. I test more, but unlike on MDI where I was always stressed to see the results, the results with the pump have been stellar, testing now makes me look forward to it, I even smile, because I KNOW it is going to be GOOD.

So, here you are! You've gone LIVE! Outstanding! You'll be amazed at what you don't HAVE to do versus the small things you must do with the pump. It is SWEET! You'll see.

[freo]

I just got onto an Animas 2020 this week as well!

[Stuboy]

nice one Gary, but i do have to ask, living in the UK.... how did you get a pump!? (i want one)

[SueM]

Originally Posted by Stuboy

nice one Gary, but i do have to ask, living in the UK.... how did you get a pump!? (i want one)

Depends Stu on your consultant some people have to scream and shout for ever and a day to get one others just walk in and say I want a pump please provide.
These are the guidelines
Diabetes - insulin pump therapy: (Final appraisal determination)
Good luck

[davef]

Congratulations Gary, I know you have been looking forward to getting going, best of luck I'm sure it will all work out well for you.

[gettingby]

Wonderful news Gary !!!!!!!!
I'm glad you were able to get started.

[fgummett]

Congratulations to Gary... and Freo

Originally Posted by freo

I just got onto an Animas 2020 this week as well!

Can you tell us more of your experience with the pump?

Welcome to the collective.

Resistance is futile!

[kgm0612]

Congratulations & Welcome to the "Pumper's Club".
Good Luck and keep us posted.

Karen

[Gary_W]

Thanks for all the replies folks.

Helen - I did feel this was a possible and prepared for it; I still went to bed a little high last night (8 and a bit UK (150 ish US)) to give myself a bit of a cushion and then set my alarm for 3.30am to see how it was going. At that time of night, I was down to a 4.1 (74). I had some juice and set the alarm at hourly intervals from then on. I kept fairly stable the rest of the night and was a very respectable 5.4 (97) when I finally got up. It could be a little tiny bit of Lantus left, but that kind of drop tells me that I should take back the basal for the early hours; it's already the lowest of the day and I'll drop it back a bit further before tonight.

Dennis - I managed to sleep OK with it; it was the alarm waking me up (see above) that caused a broken nights sleep as opposed to the pump. It's fairly short tubing so my initial thoughts of putting it under the pillow have gone out of the window for the moment as it won't reach... I like not having to tuck too much in to my clothes so (if sleeping works out as is) then I'll carry on with this length. Thanks for the tip about putting it on the front of the boxers. I had it on the side last night as I tend to roll one way rather than the other, but as I never sleep on my front it makes sense to stick it out front. Were I blessed with sense I'd have figured this out, but as my brain is away on leave I'm glad of the tip

Stuboy - What SueM says is completely right; the postcode lottery is certainly alive and well with all aspects of healthcare and it will depend largely upon your local team. I'm a long way from an expert on the subject as I have managed to get my local team to support me, so what worked here may not work for you... With that in mind, my thoughts are as follows:

Find out if your clinic has any pump patients. From my experience and that of others here, it seems that not every clinic has a consultant / nurse team that are trained up on pumping. If your local hospital falls into this category, you may wish to consider changing hospitals as the whole idea will be a non-starter.

If your clinc DOES do pumping, you need to just ask for one! You'll need to give good reasons why you NEED a pump, so be prepared to answer any questions that may arise before you even make the phone call. At my clinic, I then got invited to meet the 'pump nurse'. She listened to my case and got a handle on the problems I was experiencing with MDI. She agreed that pumping would benefit me greatly due to the various problems. The next stage was for me to see the consultant. This was a little tricky, as I had to change from my existing consultant to the pump trained consultant. An excercise in paperwork, but if you are at a clinic but 'under' the wrong guy it can hold things up.

When I got the appointment, I took along meter downloads and a complete written 'business case' explaining fully the problems I was encountering and how a pump would have the potential to sort out issues that I could not address with MDI. I was in a room with the consultant, his registrar, the pump nurse and the dietician. All were asking questions, but I was fortunate that it was a really friendly meeting; this team of four people love the concept of pumping and are keen to treat in this manner if appropriate. I know other people struggle with this bit due to things being far more adversarial, but I was fortunate. I had prepared well and was able to show the benefits / show that MDI was not working and also able to show that the reasons it wasn't working were NOT lack of education / will power etc.

The old version of the NICE guidelines relating to pumps is, unfortunately, still in force as someone has appealed the new draft. The old NICE guidelines make it very tricky to get a pump IF THEY ARE STUCK TO. It is up to the pump consultant as to whether or not you qualify; if he says 'yes', you get a pump. If he says 'no', you don't (or not immediately of course, this is where people start to fight the good fight).

The new guidelines make obtaining a pump in the UK a little easier. The thing is at the moment if a consultant says 'No' then the guidelines don't back many people; you've either got to confess to having hypos that need 3rd party assistance OR have an HBA1c of 8.5+ and be unable to improve on this using MDI. Due to losing your driving licence, no-one would cheerfully admit to the former. As to the latter, I'm probably going to upset one or two people here, but here goes. I personally think that most people can improve on 8.5 with MDI if they know what they are doing and are willing to do it. Yes, there are exceptions to my sweeping statement, but the numbers are against you if you know how to look after yourself. Of course, you can feel horrendous for other reasons whilst having a decent HBA1c and this was my position. The new guidance is rather more focussed upon how diabetes affects your quality of life. I was able to prove this beyond a shadow of doubt, and as I am fortunate to be in an area that is pro-pumping my case was approved. I was hooked up within 3 weeks of that consultant appointment (which is remarkably quick as I understand it).


If you decide you want to do it (and it is a big decision) then go along and ask. Any response between having a pump pushed at you and point blank refusal is possible, and until you know the nature of that response you can't move on to the next stage. John Davis runs a support group that helps people in the UK to get pumps; you can find John's contact details on this page Insulin Pumpers UK He can help you to get a pump, and if it is something you are serious about persuing he is well worth talking to.

Gary

[Mich]

Congrats on your new "Pocket Pancreas" Gary (and Freo too.)

May it stay out from under you while you sleep. You have to train it.

Mich

[Coppernob]

Congratulations Gary and welcome to Pumphood.

I was just wondering how you were doing when I logged on but I knew that you'd keep us all posted.

As for sleeping with it, you know I didn't think about that when I first went on the pump until bedtime that night - I suddenly realized that this was not something you detach at night. It was a bit of a facer but I soon found it was no big deal. My nightwear and I adapted quickly - I also discovered the joy of wearing PJs - another positive of the pump as far as I am concerned!