The Path To Pumping - Pt.4 The First Month and Q&A

 

Time flies when you're having fun, right? A month has passed with me pumping and it's been an interesting, sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating time. 'Frustrating!?' I hear you exclaim. Yes, in parts but maybe not the parts that you're imagining. Let's begin.

I'll start with the news of my pump funding through the NHS...

...Hello darkness my old friend. 

That's probably a bit harsh but through me you get honesty, you get the good, the bad and the sad cats.

The good - Through arranging my DAFNE course (to be done remotely because it's 2021) the extremely helpful nurse (name forgotten, sorry) who took my registration promised to chase up a couple of things for me. Firstly, my appointment with the pump team. It's probably not going to be a team, I know exactly who it'll be but fingers crossed for an audience of cross-examiners. 

The bad, kind of - Secondly, self funding consumables. I need permission to BUY pump consumables from Roche. That permission must come via a letter signed off by my consultant. Cool, OK. It was to be done 22 days before this blog was published. I've politely chased it. Roche have politely chased it. Now, it seems the DAFNE nurse is going to chase it. This letter is harder to catch than Usain Bolt. He's not a runner any more, is he? Insert something or somebody fast in his place.

Frustrating? You're getting the idea, I hope.

But! I'm staying cool and calm about it all. I realise that I've dropped the news of my management of my T1D on my team's desk out of the blue, that I'm not the only patient with T1D who needs some attention. So, I'm not trying to be too demanding. Of course, once my generously donated consumables begin to run low then noise will happen. I'm hopeful of never getting to that stage and, as a Joe Bloggs Diabetic, I'll do what I think many would and I'll stare hopefully at my letterbox for weeks. So, that's where things stand with the funding. 

How about some truly good news? The pump has been a revelation. You may have already gathered that from my Twitter gushings. It's difficult to really convey just how much my life has changed from this change to pump therapy. If it's happened to you then you might get what I'm struggling to put into words. I could write several thousand words on situations and experiences which relate to me and pumping. You'd fall asleep or close the window before the end and I'm not about writing War and Peace blogs. So, relax. Let's try something new! I asked Twitter for some questions in relation to my pumping and I'm going to publish each one and answer those below.

David asked "You know we all want to know what goes on with sex if you wear a pump, right?"

Straight in there with the grown up stuff. I think you've got options, that's options and not positions, when it comes to sex and pumping. The easiest thing would be to suspend the pump and take it out of the cannula (keep the cannula in) and when you're done just plug it in again and unsuspend. There might be added benefits to doing that by not going hypo during your hubba hubba time, alongside not getting caught up in tubing and having a lump of plastic machinery flying around (stop giggling, at the back). A negative could be that you're getting no insulin and how long before you're hyper? My own pump buzzes and beeps every 60 seconds when suspended. If you find that you're being timed and it's distracting then hide the pump in another room or turn up the volume on your Barry White's Greatest Hits.

Adam asked "Any issues with pump placement during exercise? That and the sweat damaging the pump are two concerns I have. Also, how long would you say your teething problems were before you felt you had it under control?"

My pump appears to be very sturdy but you can get cases for more protection from moisture and general knocks and bumps. I think pumping and exercise is a question of finding where to put the pump to keep it secure and deciding whether to take it off all together for that period of time. My first two days of pumping were far more "rocky" than they are now. I'm so lucky to have lots of pumping friends, including some who have used the pump that I have. They've been amazing in taking my panicked calls over air bubbles, occlusions, insertions, etc. After a few set changes and basal tweaks, things seemed very smooth and predictable. 

Gillian asked "How much of a difference are you finding with being able to use different bolus patterns as compared to an single or split bolus?" 

I'm still learning but wow! game changing stuff. I've grown more confident in the pump to begin using different features and now it's just a question of getting boluses right for the difficult meals... I doubt that'll ever really happen but perhaps I can stop those overnight spikes from pizza dinners, at least.

Natalie Ann asked "Question about hypo awareness: has this changed for you? Look forward to the blog"

Thanks Natalie Ann. Sadly, no. At least not during the very moderate hypos which I've had in the last month (they're so brief that I'm showing 0% lows on my CGM). If my hypo awareness does return to the old levels then I'd be delighted. Just to get a little sweaty at 4mmol would be ace!

BrittanyJo asked "Hoping to get my son approved for one at his upcoming appointment this week. do you use cgm as well?"

Good luck with the approval for your son! I do use a CGM called GlucoMen Day. It isn't part of the pump and they don't "talk" to each other so, no Looping with this set up. However, it's an invaluable piece of technology for watching BG and reacting to problems. To set up with my pump without the aid of a CGM would've been much harder work.

And two private messages:

How are you sleeping with the pump?

Brilliantly in that I'm able to have a long lie in and not worry about my IOB from pens running out at 7am. Less concerns make for a calmer mind and better sleep. Physically, I sleep in shorts with pockets and it lives in there until I wake up.

How did you find pumping while wearing a suit at that wedding?

Pretty straightforward stuff. The suit jacket hid a very small area of tubing which I ran from a lower shirt button hole to the pump in my pocket.

How do you like the Q&A stuff? I'm always available to answer questions or to shoot the breeze with on Twitter @DiabeticDadUK or you can leave comments below. 

Oh, the Employee of the Month picture? The same as every other month; Me! Although my pump has put in a helluva shift. 

Thank you so much for reading this blog. I do appreciate your visit and your support. As you might know, I LOVE COFFEE! So I've teamed up with a thing called Buy Me A Coffee. If you enjoy my content and appreciate the time it takes to create such things then you can buy me a coffee! If you leave your Twitter @ name when you buy me a coffee, I will personally thank you. If you'd rather be anonymous then that's totally cool. Thanks for the caffeine!

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