Recently on Twitter it is like world war D has disrupted our little family of PWD and this war was started over the pump vs MDI debate.
PUMP VS MDI
In 2004 I was diagnosed with diabetes, I started on mixed insulin's through a syringe then I was moved on to MDI. For 8 years I struggled to grasp control of my diabetes using this method. I had continuous high sugars and my A1c was maxing 13%. I worked really hard, I tried to change when I took my Lantus which had no effect at all, I changed the doses of my Lantus which ranged from 27-35units. I found that as I started to change my novorapid ratio's I could lower my Lantus. I eventually decreased it to 28units but it still wasn't working, I was waking up hypo every night without fail which then led me to reduce it to 27 which created havoc as the hypo's were still the problem but I was extremely high all the time. I was taking a minimum of 10 injections a day and I would still be as high as 16+.
I saw my DSN every 2 weeks to keep on top of my control and work out a new solution. I eventually heard about insulin pumps, I made sure I researched them, I spoke to people with insulin pumps and I decided it was something I needed to try because everything else failed. I didn't see it as a wonderful solution, I saw it as another option to help me. It was daunting and not a lighthearted decision to have something attached to my body at all times. I had to battle against my consultant to allow me to apply for funding which he wasn't happy about so I wrote him a letter stating my points and that it wasn't something I had thought about over night and told him all the positives. Eventually he agreed to let my DSN make the decision. She had clearly seen my hard work and agreed to apply for funding.
The outcome... well it changed my life, within weeks I could tell the difference, in my moods, the way I felt and how my body was coping much better with reasonable sugars.
So back to why I decided to write this. There have been comments on twitter that pumps are superior to MDI or that everyone with a pump thinks it solves everything. We should not be judging people on how they decided to control their diabetes. We all have the same condition, if MDI works for one person that is completely fine by me but it didn't work for me. If a pump works for another person then people on MDI should be happy that a long battle with MDI is over for that person.
The DOC is breaking at the seams and everybody seems to be very sensitive over the issue of MDI or Pumps. I decided to join the DOC because I needed a support network that would encourage me to keep control and somewhere I could ask for advice and even give my opinion and advice to others too. I didn't expect to be battling against each other on which method we choose to control our diabetes with. We have enough battling with the media portraying diabetes wrongly.
We may never agree on somebodies opinions or how they deal with a situation but in the real world when do you ever agree with everything somebody says? If I didn't agree with somebody, my solution to this would never be to not be friends with this person but yet in the world of twitter this is what we do...I would have no friends left if this was my mind set.
So this is only my opinion on the matter I hope that people agree but if not I just hope you respect my opinion and hope that as a member of the doc we can settle down, back into our family ways.
Until next time...
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