Why I Decided to Go Back to MDI After 13 Years

When I was first diagnosed with diabetes back in 2004, I was on MDI for the first year and a half. In December of 2005 I began using a Medtronic insulin pump. I have been on one ever since. During those 13 years, I have taken plenty of pump breaks and used MDI for a few days, even weeks at a time. I would eventually just back to my trusty insulin pump.

After a lot of thought and consideration, I have decided to give up the insulin pump and go back to MDI full-time. There are several reasons for this, but before I get to that I just want to mention this. I think that MDI is looked at as a barbaric, old school method of management these days, especially with all of the amazing technology that we have, but since we all know that your diabetes may vary, it works for some people.

Overweight

One of my biggest issues is that I am overweight. Big time overweight. Because of this, I use a lot of insulin. Primarily because of the unhealthy food choices that I make, which has caused me to be overweight. In any given day, I may range from 180-220 units of insulin in just one day!

That’s 180 units of insulin going into one infusion site. There is absolutely no way that the infusion site can handle that much insulin in such a short period of time. This then leads to my sites leaking, not absorbing the insulin, and hard build ups in areas which then do not allow me to use them again as an infusion site for a long-time.

The primary solution here is to stop eating like an idiot and lose weight, but in the meantime, I have decided to go MDI.

One Bolus, Multiple Injections

With MDI, I can divide all of my shots to different areas throughout the day. For example, my Tresiba is taken in two shots, both at the same time, but I split the amount in two, one shot in the left arm, one shot in the right arm. That way, my body absorbs the insulin much better. Same goes with bolus shots. I am able to split them and inject insulin into different locations for the same meal. This helps my body absorb the insulin much better, not cause scar tissue to soak up the insulin, which all leads to better blood sugars.

With all that being said, my new game plan to manage my diabetes is going to be Tresiba, Novolog, and Dexcom (more on this tomorrow). I am also going to take a trial run of Fiasp, which is a much faster acting insulin. I sometimes don’t take my insulin until after I ate (lazy) or right before the meal, so this Fiasp reacts much quicker. I’ll have a full review of Fiasp after I can sample for a week.

Switching back to MDI is the number one reason why I stepped down as a MiniMed Ambassador. I could not continue to do that while not being on the pump. I feel like this is the best management for me and the best way for me to lower my A1C and spend more time in range!

Here’s to a new journey in life and I’m looking forward to sharing everything that I discover in this new journey with you.