Insulin Pumps

We are on the old money so it was 7.6.

I spoke to someone with the CGM and her HbA1c has gone from the mid 7s to the low 6s. She has it on all the time and says that once you get used to it you are reluctant to take it off. Does acknowledge the time difference but says it is the trend function that she really likes. Initially was only going to use it to fine tune the basals but now with the specialist's help is thrilled with the increasingly good HbA1cs. Consecutive days with all readings well within target. Failures with the pump and you are alerted to these much more quickly especially during the night.

My hypos are not a problem as I get "silent migraines" when BG gets to about 3.8 and sometimes as early as 4.2. They are the best sort of migraines and totally reliable as a hypo warning. Tesselation pattern in my L eye graduating to blind spots but no pain.

I also think it is a lot of money but I want to be in better health when I am older!

Helen

I started on Omnipod last week after >40 years of injections. Still learning about it and adjusting basal and bolus levels but initial feedback is very positive. I've seen a 30% decrease in insulin usage (TDD), so that will counter some of the additional costs, and having to dispose of any unused insulin every 3 days when the pod is changed. On that subject I expect to reduce the amount I fill the pod with, once I have a clearer idea of amount I'm using in 3 days.

The only problems I'd mention are:

• integral meter in PDM uses original Abbott Freestyle (not Lite) strips. As far as I can see it's no longer possible to buy a standalone meter that uses these strips, so any fallback (which was advised in my training) requires carrying another meter and strips
  
• no means of recording correction carbs due to hypo
  
• no means of adding text comments to any entries. As a result I'm still using dafneonline app to record bolus, BS and carb data with comments
  
• no access to data stored in PDM except through provided PC software and pdf format export