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If you have used an insulin pump, have you ever stopped using a pump and switched back to multiple daily injections for more than one month at a time?
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Not for that length of time, only for two weeks when I had to deal with a broken pump some twelve years ago on holiday.
I stopped after a year and went back to MDI. That was almost two years ago now.
I think I’ve stopped once or twice for like two days, then realized that despite being frustrated with the pump, it was much better than MDI for me
No, and I also don’t use a typewriter, horse and buggy, or telegraph either!
My thoughts, exactly!
How about an abacus and a slide rule? Or semaphores? Or the Pony Express? They’re pretty quick, I hear. Gets results too.
Stopped using pump in January. Currently is InPen and Iport. Happy except for the cost. Not fair! Do not miss pump at all. InPen app gives me all data that pump does. A1c still 5.6.
NO! NO WAY! NO WAY JOSE! NOT, NET, NEVER …
MDI was a disaster for me, for 21 years. My life was a complete fog with multiple very low blood sugars, and highs, daily. I would not even consider it. I’ll take my insulin pump (Tandem X2, with Dexcom G6 CGM). Why go back to the stone ages?
My sentiments exactly! T1d in 62’ ( or 63’ can’t remember). Pump in 2000. Never looked back! Basal is saving me now since I am more forgetful!
Stopped years ago because of absorption difficulties due to long term diabetes. Used Afrezza for several years which was great! On Tandem pump for last two years when I went on Medicare.
Since I got an insulin pump I would never go back to taking shots. With the pump you don’t have to stop doing daily routines to inject insulin. There are so many options you can use from cgm to connecting to your provider through your iPhone.
The reason I was put on a pump was that long-acting insulin was very dangerous for me. It never released when it was suppose to following prescribed the and then, all of a sudden I’d be hypoglycemic, especially at night. If it wasn’t for the Minimed pump, I’d be found dead in bed.
Eva,
I remember having the same problems. Some days I would have low blood glucose all day long. On time, I was traveling, and kept eating, and eating, and eating and could not stop the low blood sugar reaction that I was having. I ended up in the emergency room of a hospital about 400 miles away from home.
It has not happened since I’ve been on an insulin pump since 1998.
I’ve used Levemir and have been very satisfied with it. There are no peaks whatsoever. It would be helpful if you stated the long-acting insulin you were using. (NPH behaved with me the way you describe. No, I would not go back to NPH.)
Most recently, I tried Tresiba – was a disaster zone. In fact, when it kicked in, I didn’t have to bolus to eat dinner. Before that, I tried Lantus and the paramedics were called cause I went supper low in the middle of the night.
I have learned to listen to my body, and it tells me that short acting insulin, continuously delivered, is what it needs. Can’t do with out it.
I was on a pump for 25 years. My insurance changed and I no longer could afford it.
Yes, had a pump for about a year but quit due to horrible reactions to where the tubing went in. That was many years ago so now I’m MDI, celiac, and eat low carb. I’m retired now and on Medicare. Funny how Medicare used to not pay for pumps, but now they pay and for any pump supplies – which includes the insulin. It’s cheaper to use a pump now than to use MDI. Oh well, I enjoy the freedom and no skin issues.
Going back to MDI is like going back to the dark ages even with a CGM! 34 years of injections before a pump…… NEVER going back to injections. However, maybe today’s Smartpens are better than what I had to use more than 20 years ago.
100%. My A1c spiraled out of control when I was forced back to MDI during a year and a half lapse in insurance. The horrible lows I get on MDI are terrifying too. They don’t exist when I pump.
When I switched from private medical insurance to Medicare I had a lot of problems getting coverage I had to reprove that I was a type 1 diabetic and it was basically two months I walked around with a bottle of insulin and a bunch of syringes and took what I needed to try and keep me under control
Lost a job with great insurance because of the pandemic and the only insurance I could afford didn’t cover the cost of supplies so I was off the pump and CGM for a year—nightmare.
Yes, temporarily. But, not by choice. No insurance for a year and a half made it impossible to afford.
Omni pod resulted in serious infections on my 4 yo granddaughter’s body. Required 3 surgeries on 5 areas
So sorry to hear that. 🙁
Scar tissue from 50+ years of injections results in poor absorption and higher A1c. Was fortunate enough to be able to go to Afrezza (inhaled insulin) A1c lower than on pump due to better absorption.
It always amazes and puzzles me how adamant some pump users are against MDI. My insulin requirements seems to bounce all over the place. I’ve been titrating myself with MDI now for 20 years with no trouble. Of course a CGM is essential for this to be effective. I haven’t ever had a truly serious low, and essentially never go below 50 with a CGM. With insulin pens and a willingness to inject through my shirt — never any problem except for blood drops on my undershirt — injections are a trivial inconvenience even in public spaces (often the folks I’m with don’t even know I’ve injected). I also enjoy having to have only one device (CGM) under my skin at any time. But perhaps the main reason I stick with MDI is because of my fear of earthquakes and not having access to insulin for a significant period. This is a consideration I’ve heard almost nothing about from anyone else (I live a few blocks from the Hayward Fault which is overdue for a 7.0). I always have a weeks supply of both types of insulin with me at all times, as well as test strips and a modest sugar supply (jelly bellies). If I were to use a pump, I’d still have to carry that kit with me to avoid being exposed with a low pump reservoir, so why bother? It is also a lot cheaper, although my insurance would cover a pump. While I can imagine a pump might have improved my basal coverage over night previously, at my age now I find I’m getting up several times a night anyway, so I can easily correct either up or down as needed then as well. Fortunately I fall back to sleep almost instantly.
About 2 years ago, after ~25 years on a pump, I wanted to take a “vacation” from it. With Tresiba and a Humalog pen, I’ve kept my A1c at the same level, with less insulin. I feel slightly more free not being tethered to a machine 24/7. (One thing is not having to stress over where my pump is while sleeping, and more so getting up in the night to use the bathroom.) it’s really simple things like that.
Oh. And I lost 60lbs to boot. The weight loss was deliberate.
Once I started pumping in February 1997, I haven’t looked back. My brother used a pump for a year, but stopped after that because his insurance refused to cover the supplies for it, so his daughter hasn’t even tried to get one , yet. She is just now using a CGM, since graduating from pediatric to adult endocrinologist, so we now all use a G6.
“Other” for me since there have been a few times in the last couple of months that my Tslim pump was not accurately delivering my bolus doses. I had been given samples of Tresiba and Fiasp and gave myself a day off pumping. I’m not sure if it was the pump or the infusion set but hoping it doesn’t happen anymore because I have better control of my blood sugar when using the pump compared to MDI’s.
If you were using Fiasp in your pump, you could have occlusion issues with that. Fiasp doesn’t work in Tslim pump infusion sets – causes occlusions in the tubing.
I only insulin I use in my pump is Novolog, the doses of Fiasp and Tresiba given on the day I had problems with the pump were injections.
I stopped using the M named pump and CGM because of the crazy stupid alarms every day and all night long. I was on MDI for a six months. It wasn’t worth buying the pump supplies. I found it was so nice getting a good nights sleep without getting an alarm to calibrate every 15 minutes. I had to wait to get the new T named pump and CGM which was worth the wait and is awesome.
I’ve been diabetic for over 50 years and I started using a Medtronic pump in 2000. After 20 years on the pump, I had absorption problems in my abdomen so I stopped using the pump for a calendar year. I had no problems on MDI, using Levemir for the basal and Humalog or Fiasp for the bolus. I restarted the pump and was dismayed to find that my absorption problems had not abated. I’ve now switched to an Omnipod DASH, but I’m not impressed with its function and am seriously considering reverting to MDI. The principal reason I favor the pump is to be able to switch to a reduced basal when I walk long distances. On MDI, of course, my basal is fixed I have difficulty consuming carbs to avoid a hypo. (The carbs I ingest aren’t absorbed while I’m walking.) Either I find a way to get the Omnipod DASH to work consistently or I abstain from walking long distances. I’ll need a few more months to decide.
T1D over 50 years. Started using a pump in 1993 and would hate to go back to MDI.
I’ve switched to pens and a Libre sensor from my Medtronic pump during long, high and cold backpacking and mountaineering treks. Altitude >10,000 ‘ and sub 0 temps are best with multiple injections for me.
Never as long as a month, but for a week or weekend here and there, yes.
When I got pregnant in 1986 my OB/GYN would not treat diabetics on a pump so I had to go off temporarily. ☹️
I have stopped using a pump for more than a month, but this was NOT of my choosing.
On one occasion I was in a coma and the ward staff, apparently, were unsure of how to use pump technology, so they had me put onto their ‘sliding scale’, which involves a continuous insulin infusion, someone checking blood glucose levels, and determining whether the level of titration needed to be increased or decreased.
On a separate occasion, I had been admitted to a different hospital for an operation to surgically remove a toe. I developed osteomyelitis and sepsis whilst an inpatient, but my pump failed during my stay.
I did ask for one of the diabetes team to visit me so that we could discuss options, but the so-called Diabetes Specialist Nurse had never seen my type of insulin pump before (it’s a Medtronic Paradigm, so I don’t know why she had never seen one of those pumps before). The nurse advised me to check my battery, to reset my insulin pump, to try changing my basal profiles, etc. … as if I hadn’t got the common sense to have tried all sorts of solutions.
Anyway, I had a prolonged hospital stay and had to put up with their sliding scale, until such time that I could get to see my own Diabetes Support Team and get them to order me a replacement pump.
I wish you good health in the future. Sorry to hear that you had to go through that. Best wishes.
@Lawrence S.
Thank you for your comment, sir.
I’ve developed a number of diabetes-related complications over the last 40+ years and am now at the stage that I have a hospital bed at home (arranged by my endocrinologist) and spend more time in it than I’d care to. Still, it’s there for a purpose, and I sometimes find myself ‘locked in’ with the cot sides in place. (I can’t find a way to unlock the cot sides when I’m in the bed so have to count on someone hearing my calls for attention. 😉 )
The first pump I had, after 4 years, malfunctioned and gave me 4.8 UNITS PER HOUR INSTEAD OF. 8 !!!! from midnight on!!!
I was in a coma for about 12 hours. Dr told my daughters my bgs was 11 when brought me in. THEY SUSPECTED I HAD DONE IT!!!
My doctor knew I hadn’t, but he suspended my use of ANY pump til I recovered from the coma. I needed speech and physical therapy for a while.
That was 5 pumps ago in about 20 years . I DO NOT choose to switch back to insulin shots!!!😣
It wasn’t by choice. I was getting a lot of CT scans a couple of years ago. A tech
I have been on pumps since 1988. In 2013 I enrolled in a clinical trial for a new long acting insulin- I think it became Tresiba, (they don’t have the name when your in the trial) My A1c’s stayed about the same, it was a year long study and then I went back on the pump as it is easier for me with a very busy and varied lifestyle.
I have never stopped using a pump and I never will if possible. My control is so much better than using MDI was—especially my Tandem X2 pump.
I have been on a pump since 1983. Only used a syringe a few times when one of my 6 different pumps stopped working.
Only briefly when a technical problem prevented pump use.
I was off for about a month due to some very serious health issues. I am still relatively new to pumping. (About 18 months). I did single injections for about 25 of my 63 t1d years, 2 injections for another 30 years and them mdi for about 8 yesra and now the pump. I always did pretty well anyway, but like the pump cause it’s convenient …but my control hasn’t changed that much. To me, shots were a big nothing except for carrying extra stuff. Pens were a big improvement. At least with pens, I didn’t have issues like bubbles in the line, or the set coming off. Oh well. Things do keep improving!
Whenever my body stops responding to insulin from the pump (Omnipod), I switch to injections. That tells me if the pump has malfunctioned or it’s just my body being resistant. This a better test than just changing the pump. It was very frustrating until I started doing this & now I have a better understanding. Often, if I react to an injection, I can go back the the pump & get a result. For me the reaction seems to be tied to activity. If I’m up doing active things, I react. If I’m sitting, working at the computer for instance, my body will often not react. Also, when this happens, walking at a fast pace on the treadmill for 3 minutes helps. Yep, only three minutes.
The longest I’ve ever had to stop using a pump in the ten years since I started is maybe two weeks. That was just last Christmas. I had placed an order for new supplies about a week and a half before Christmas using FSA money, but due to both the holidays and the end of the year, everything was on backorder. I had to travel out of state using syringes. Thankfully, my supplies finally arrived shortly after the first of the year.
The first pump I used was a medtronic pump and my pump stopped working and called my doctor and I had to go to using multiple injections during the pump gone and I went from 1 shot in three days to 6 shots in 24 hours and had very large fluctuations of my blood sugars during that time.