[kid_fears99]

I have a few questions on the pump - I'm trying to figure out if it's for me.

1) Do you have to be hospitalized to go on the pump? Is it recommended?
2) How long does it take to really figure out the pump - I've read about different levels at different times of the day, depending on exercising, etc. - sounds a little confusing.
3) Is anyone on the Omnipod? If not, how hard is it to get used to being attached to something with the cord? Does it change what you wear?
4) What do you do when you go to the beach?
5) If you have a pump with a cord, where do you keep your pump? Is there anyway to disguise it or does it have to be worn on the outside of the clothes.

Sorry I have so many questions - any input on any of them would be great!

[spike]

Originally Posted by kid_fears99

I have a few questions on the pump - I'm trying to figure out if it's for me.

1) Do you have to be hospitalized to go on the pump? Is it recommended?
2) How long does it take to really figure out the pump - I've read about different levels at different times of the day, depending on exercising, etc. - sounds a little confusing.
3) Is anyone on the Omnipod? If not, how hard is it to get used to being attached to something with the cord? Does it change what you wear?
4) What do you do when you go to the beach?
5) If you have a pump with a cord, where do you keep your pump? Is there anyway to disguise it or does it have to be worn on the outside of the clothes.

Sorry I have so many questions - any input on any of them would be great!

1. No
2. Few weeks to a couple of months
3.
4.Have fun in the sun! I just wear my pump like I'd wear it anywhere else.
5.My pump is clipped to either a belt or my waistband when I'm not wearing a belt. Some people think it's a pager. I was about to enter a swimming pool when a stranger "warned" me not to get my pager wet.

[Funnygrl]

Originally Posted by kid_fears99

I have a few questions on the pump - I'm trying to figure out if it's for me.

1) Do you have to be hospitalized to go on the pump? Is it recommended?

It used to be common for people to be hospitalized. It's very rare now.

2) How long does it take to really figure out the pump - I've read about different levels at different times of the day, depending on exercising, etc. - sounds a little confusing.

This depends a lot on how much you know about pumping and how you are adjusting your insulin now. Some people can do it in a week. Others take months.

3) Is anyone on the Omnipod? If not, how hard is it to get used to being attached to something with the cord? Does it change what you wear?

Took me 24 hours to get used to the tubing and such. Just had to think about each activity I was doing the first time, then I had it.

[quote4) What do you do when you go to the beach?[/quote]

Haven't done it yet, but there is a thread on that somewhere.

5) If you have a pump with a cord, where do you keep your pump? Is there anyway to disguise it or does it have to be worn on the outside of the clothes.

It's in my pocket at the moment. I have also used the clip clipped to my waist. I've already been asked "what's with your phone?" I've heard of people putting it in their bra and such, but I have no idea how this would work out. Your best bet is not to bother trying to disguise it.

[poodlebone]

Originally Posted by kid_fears99

I have a few questions on the pump - I'm trying to figure out if it's for me.

1) Do you have to be hospitalized to go on the pump? Is it recommended?
2) How long does it take to really figure out the pump - I've read about different levels at different times of the day, depending on exercising, etc. - sounds a little confusing.
3) Is anyone on the Omnipod? If not, how hard is it to get used to being attached to something with the cord? Does it change what you wear?
4) What do you do when you go to the beach?
5) If you have a pump with a cord, where do you keep your pump? Is there anyway to disguise it or does it have to be worn on the outside of the clothes.

Sorry I have so many questions - any input on any of them would be great!

1. I was trained by my CDE, no hospitalization required.
2. My training session (after reading the manual and doing an online tutorial) took a few hours, maybe 2.5 or so. After that there were very frequent tweakings of the settings trying to figure everything out. I'm still doing that, almost a year later! But, it's not really confusing or hard.
3 + 5. I have no issues with the tubing. My pump has a small clip attached to it that adds very little bulk, and I keep it clipped to my bra most of the time (in the middle). Sadly, as I've lost so much weight since I began pumping, even my boobs have shrunk. Quite a bit. So now the pump is more noticable there especially if I'm not wearing a loose shirt. I have just stuck it in my pants pocket and I'm thinking of trying the belt clip I got as well.
4. I'm not much of a beach person, but I'd just take it off, put it in a Frio case and leave it in the shade.

[Tim_Roy]

Originally Posted by kid_fears99

1) Do you have to be hospitalized to go on the pump? Is it recommended?

Not any more. Back when I started on pumps (1981) probably yes.

2) How long does it take to really figure out the pump - I've read about different levels at different times of the day, depending on exercising, etc. - sounds a little confusing.

No longer than it takes to figure out injections. I just switched from an older Minimed 507 (roughly ten years ago) to a new Animas 1250.

3) Is anyone on the Omnipod? If not, how hard is it to get used to being attached to something with the cord? Does it change what you wear?

I'm not on the Omnipod. I can't really say much about it, other than you might want to look at whether your insurance would even cover the Omnipod before you get too worked up over it. Some people I've heard from who looked into it felt that it made a big bump in their shirt (the site) and that they'd rather have a pager-or-phone-looking device on their side than an odd bump in their clothing. The people who were ON the Omnipod didn't seem to feel that way.

Pumps are easy enough to get used to wearing. It doesn't change what I wear, though I likely wouldn't wear belts with jeans if I didn't have a pump. I don't HAVE to wear a belt, but it grips the pump a bit better, and my hips are just plain USED TO having a belt on. It feels odd without one.

If I'm going to sleep naked, sometimes I'll just clip the pump on my medic alert necklace (helps if it comes with a dog-tag type chain, they almost never break) so that I can get up and go to the bathroom without "walking off without my pump."

4) What do you do when you go to the beach?

I take it off. Each Silhouette infusion kit comes with a cover for both ends of the kit. One for the site, and one for the tubing. No need to worry about either getting dirty. My new pump is waterproof, so in theory I could go swimming with it on. That'd be breaking 25 years of pumping habits for me, so I'd constantly be a bit nervous. And the exercise of swimming makes me not really need so much of the insulin anyways.

5) If you have a pump with a cord, where do you keep your pump? Is there anyway to disguise it or does it have to be worn on the outside of the clothes.

There's belts/bra holsters and things that go on your legs you can shop around for. I wouldn't be bothered. It is very non-descript, particularly in a leather case or with a cover. Nobody will have any idea that it's unusual. Once in a while someone asks what the tubing is, and I tell them. Who cares?

You'll find that the 23" tubings are much less noticeable than the longer ones. The longer ones can be a little bit "safer" as if you're my height the pump could fall on the floor and not always yank out the tubing. Not that I ever let that happen, mind you. I go with the 23" ones. It is easier to tuck the tubing in my pocket, and doesn't waste so much insulin at the end of a set.


Sorry I have so many questions - any input on any of them would be great![/quote]

[Tim_Roy]

Originally Posted by kid_fears99

2) How long does it take to really figure out the pump - I've read about different levels at different times of the day, depending on exercising, etc. - sounds a little confusing.

You'll find that once you get used to it, it's like breathing. Second nature.

There's a bit of learning curve in the beginning, both for you and your Endo/NP/CDE. You have to learn about pumping, they get to learn about how you deal with things, and how your body reacts to the treatment.

It's likely that they'd put you on a dosage that your weight would suggest, though likely they'd dose a bit lower than that at first. Then they'd have you email or fax them the results, carbs and boluses so they could tell you what to adjust. In the beginning, you'll likely be running a bit high (they generally try and play it safe). As they get the dosages more right, you'll find things get more normalized. It may take a few weeks, but eventually you'll likely find you're under the best control you've ever experienced.

And you'll enjoy the added flexibility it gives you.

[am1977]

Originally Posted by kid_fears99

I have a few questions on the pump - I'm trying to figure out if it's for me.

1) Do you have to be hospitalized to go on the pump? Is it recommended?
2) How long does it take to really figure out the pump - I've read about different levels at different times of the day, depending on exercising, etc. - sounds a little confusing.
3) Is anyone on the Omnipod? If not, how hard is it to get used to being attached to something with the cord? Does it change what you wear?
4) What do you do when you go to the beach?
5) If you have a pump with a cord, where do you keep your pump? Is there anyway to disguise it or does it have to be worn on the outside of the clothes.

Sorry I have so many questions - any input on any of them would be great!

The pump is different for everyone, so it's likely you'll get some varied answers here.

Here are mine
1. No hospitalization was required. The pump trainer came to me and spent a couple of hours going over everything and setting me up.

2.It didn't take me that long to figure things out... I was really cautious at first and took my time programming my pump, etc., but I think I was really up and running after a few days, a week at most. It's really pretty simple and self-explanatory if you read the manual, watch the videos the pump companies put out, and listen to your trainer.

3. I'm actually interested in tht Omnipod...sounds like an interesting concept. But there are things that kind of bother me about it. One thing being that it's inserted on an angle ( I believe) and I hated the sets that were inserted that way on my current pump... Another issue is having to disgard the pod after 3 days-just seems somewhat wasteful. Lastly, the pod is small and it uses adhesive to attach to your body, but my concern would be that it would bulge out. I don't that would be a good look. But, saying all that, I think it is still worth checking out.

My current pump (MM Paradigm 511) has the tubing and I really don't like it. I hate how it looks when it's hanging loose and then there's the problem of it getting hooked on things and being yanked out. That, of course, has happened to me. Also, it's fine when I'm casual and just want to wear it on my waist band, but when I dress up or where something where I don't want it to show, I have a hard time concealing it. I've tried different things and I still haven't found something that works so that's something else to consider.

4. At the beach, I just hook it on to the waist band of my bathing suit and disconnect when I go in the water.

5.I usually wear my pump on the outside of my clothes, on the waist band...which is fine for the most part. But, like I said before, I do have a hard time concealing it when I dress up. Some female pumpers choose to tuck it in their bra, but then when you need to bolus it's kind of hard to get to if you don't have a remote. There are different accessories available that might help with this issue that the pump companies produce, but I haven't tried any of them yet. Hopefully, someone else here has more insight into that.

Anyway, I hope this helps and good luck with whatever you decide

[Tim_Roy]

Oh, here's a virtual pump you can play with.

Here's the Animas 1250 Virtual Pump.

Now some of what it can do isn't exactly supported in this virtual pump, for instance, you can turn on the advanced bolus features, but until you actually hook up to your pump via IR interface (from your laptop or PC) you won't have the carb counts from your favorite foods loaded on it (that feature won't do much on the virtual pump).

Go into set up, and turn on Advanced Bolus. Try entering my settings. Remember, the advanced set up stuff you'd only have to do once, and when you/your doctor make changes. Otherwise it's fairly idiot-proof.

Try putting in the settings from my pump. Audio bolus is turned off, Adv Bolus is on, Reminders are on. Max basal 1 unit, max bolus is 12 u. Max daily is 50U.

Set the auto-off if you tend to have reactions when you sleep in.

Insulin to carb for me is 1U to 15g carbs.

ISF is 57 (one unit for every 57 mg/dl it is away from my "normal range."). My Target range is 110 mg/dl +/- 20. Feel free to change that if you'd have it set differently. Mine ends up being 9-130 as "normal." YMMV, of course.

I have IOB-2 turned on, the duration is three hours. What that does is impact how much it subtracts from your correction boluses for Insulin On Board. In other words, boluses you gave in a certain time range (in my case, three hours, YMMV).

Once you get that all entered (that'll get you used to interface pretty well), try giving a bolus. Go to the menu, pick Bolus. From there, pick CarbSmart if you're having a meal, or ezBG if you're testing after a meal to apply a correction dose. Enter the number of carbs and/or your blood sugar. It'll give you a total and show you how it calculated it. Then you enter that dose (or more or less if you don't agree) and tell it to give it to you.

[Tim_Roy]

Here's one for the Cozmo/Cozmore system.

Cozmore online simulation.

Last I looked, I didn't see an online simulation from Minimed or Disetronic. That's kind of a bummer, and one reason I didn't choose a pump from either company. Both companies really need to hire a Java programmer so that prospective customers can try before they buy.

[kid_fears99]

Tim- thanks so much for the links! The simluations are awesome. How cool to have a machine that carb counts for you! No wonder pumpers have such great control.

[Tim_Roy]

Heh, I was wrong, the virtual pump WILL let you pick from the food list if you turn advanced boluses on. When you enter CarbSmart, just hit enter at ZERO carbs and it will forward you to the pick list.

You probably won't have downloaded baby foods, heh.

I eat the "bachelor diet." Almost everything I eat is either from a can, eaten between two slices of bread, thawed out/warmed in the microwave or boiled on my stove.

I can read off the labels of course, but it's easier to have them set up in my "Favorites." I pick the stuff I'd usually eat at the fast food joints. Abbreviate names so you can make sense out of what is what.

If you're always going to be eating two of something, put the carb count for a pair of them into it. Then in the unlikely event you only make one, you can put .5 as the amount. It gets annoying when I have to "build" a pair of baloney sandwiches every day for lunch on my pump (four slices of bread, four pieces of balogna). I should have put "Baloney Sandwich" in. Duh.

The factional and multiple amount allows you to account for higher or lower carb versions of the same kind of food. I get these little Clementine tangerines that I know have about 9 carbs. Animas thinks Clementines have 15 carbs. So I put in .6 as the amount rather than 1.

[poodlebone]

Minimed also has an online tutorial, but I can't remember how much of a simulator it has. It's been a year since I looked at it.

https://pumpschool.minimed.com/index.tpl

[psilocybin]

u can also check out cozmores at www.cozmore.com has an interactive demo available.

also check out www.insulin-pupers.org for alot of good info

[poodlebone]

Originally Posted by psilocybin

u can also check out cozmores at www.cozmore.com has an interactive demo available.

also check out www.insulin-pupers.org for alot of good info

That should be http://www.insulin-pumpers.org/

I like the IP list a lot and have found many good tips & tricks there.

[psilocybin]

Originally Posted by poodlebone

That should be http://www.insulin-pumpers.org/

I like the IP list a lot and have found many good tips & tricks there.

my bad...sorry wasnt quite at my "A" game last night.. i like that insulin pumpers site though. tons of useful info