A couple of weeks ago I started thinking about taking a break from the pump. The reasons for doing this have been adding up for a long time, but I just always told myself that I would never go off of the pump because it just made my life so much easier than it was when I was on MDI. That easier life began to change. Over time my sets started to leak after only 1-2 days, when I would have a hard workout the set would start to peel off, injecting a Quick Set infusion set began to hurt a little bit more every time that I inserted a new one, insurance changes made it more costly for me to pay for infusion sets (pay out of pocket) meaning that every time I lost a set or it leaked, it was about $10-15 I was losing (luckily the DOC is awesome and there are several people that helped me out during this time).
These were the main reasons for wanting to head off the pump for a little bit. It was also the fact that corrections with my pump are not working as well as when I use a syringe or a pen and take a correction bolus. The final reason is something that may not be true, but I definitely feel it has some thing to do with each other.
Since I have been on the pump, I have gained nearly 50 pounds. I’m not blaming it on the pump, but I don’t think it’s just a coincidence. When I was taking MDI’s, I counted carbs better because I only wanted to take one shot. On the pump, if I mis-calculated, no problem, I just hit a few more buttons. When I was on MDI’s I didn’t eat a second portion because then I had to dial up another shot, but on the pump, I went ahead and had that second plate, or random bag of chips or snack here and there, because all I had to do was hit a few buttons on the pump.
Just hitting a few buttons on the pump is also one of the reasons why I loved the insulin pump.
After many discussions with family and my doctor, and with the help of now having a Dexcom to better track my BG, I have decided to switch back to MDI. I will be using Apidra pens and Levemir pens. When I was using MDI back in the day, I used Lantus and not Levemir, but I’m giving it a shot.
So, here goes to being back on MDI.