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Insulin Pump Therapy
When you first start insulin pump therapy, certain things will overwhelm your life. If you have been a diabetic for a long period of time, you're going to have to learn some new tricks and re-learn some old ones.
I have been a diabetic for over 28 years. Things I was told when I was a kid no longer applied to this day and age. Diets had changed, little things changed like testing blood sugar and some other things. I had to be placed in a diabetic education class for about 1 month. After that, I had to take a meal planning class to learn food exchanges, then a class to learn to count carbohydrates. Most of what I listened to was re-runs from what I already grew up with, but some of it was quite helpful for me and has made living with my diabetes so much easier.
Below is an example of what I had to go through in order for my doctor to place me on an insulin pump. And the period after starting insulin pump therapy.
Testing my blood sugar at least 6 times a day. Then sending your test results to your doctor each week. This is a must in order for your doctor to figure out what your basal will be. This starting basal will only be temporary. Most people will have to fine tune your basal rate weeks or months after starting pump therapy. I had to go through this process for about 6 months before my doctor ordered my insulin pump.
Most doctors will have you go through a diabetic education class. If you haven't taken a class within the past 3 years, this is a very good thing to go through. These classes will just go over the complications of diabetes, how to monitor your blood sugar, some meal planning and some do's and don'ts about controlling your diabetes.
Meal Planning and Carbohydrate Counting Class. In order to use your insulin pump correctly, and to know how much insulin you have to bolus before eating a meal. This is very important, because if you don't give yourself enough insulin to cover that meal, your blood sugar is going to go high, causing hyperglycemia or DKE. If you give yourself too much insulin during your bolus, your sugar will drop causing hypoglycemia. In either case, you will not have tight control over your blood sugars and in the long run, your experience with the insulin pump will not be a happy one.
Choosing your insulin pump. Choose carefully, you will have to live with your decision for a long time due to the fact that most of the insulin pumps cost about $3,600.00 (US) dollars or more. Your doctor will hopefully have the knowledge to help you with your decision making, or at least point you in the right direction. Also, you'll need to discuss the right infusion set for you. Your doctor should help you decide on this.
Insulin Pump Training will get you familiar with using your new insulin pump. You will learn how to set up your pump, setting your basal rates, understanding alarm and error codes. You're going to learn on how to prepare your infusion set. Filling your reservoir, inserting the infusion set into your body, programming your bolus and more. More than likely, you will begin using your pump that day, but will only use a saline solution for about one week. I personally didn't want to pump saline and wanted to begin pumping insulin right away, so I asked asked my doctor to just start me on insulin.
Once you have finished your insulin pump training, and you're pumping insulin, you're going to have to keep a close eye out on your blood sugars. Be sure to note these down with the time and date so your doctor can make changes in your basal or bolus rates. Be prepared to wake yourself in the wee hours of the morning to test your sugars too from time to time. You don't want to wake up before breakfast and find your sugars sky high.