There’s many rungs on the ladder towards the pumpClimbing each rung
I’ve viewed the progression to Amy getting a pump as a ladder, one that we appear to be well and truly on. For the record I don’t really like climbing ladders but I’ll make an exception for this one.
The first rung on the ladder is just learning about the basics about pumping, so you can decide on whether you want one.
The second rung is making that decision and requesting a pump.
The third rung is getting back a response from the hospital that you’ve not been totally denied the opportunity. (You never quite get the ‘yeah okay, that’s fine, funding is in place, just pick a pump’ response so anything other than a ‘I’m not sure you’re eligible’ should be seen as a good sign.)
The fourth rung, at our hospital, is to be invited to and attend a carbohydrate counting training session.
Our fifth rung will be to get some demos from either the special pump nurses or by reps from the pump companies.
I’m not sure how many more rungs there’ll be but we’ll worry about that later.
Where to start the research?
I’ve felt a little bewildered on where to start with fact-finding about pumps, even though there’s only 3 key runners available to me.
It should be simple when you consider that it took only an hour or two to decide I wanted the buy the house I’m currently living in and considering the cost of a house against that of a (free to us) insulin pump it’s hard to figure out why we wouldn’t just take the first suggestion from the hospital.
I mean this diabetes malarkey is hard enough to contend with at the best of times so why not just let someone else choose the pump?
But somehow there’s no “oh it’s lovely” or “that’ll do” with the pumps and once chosen we’re tied into it for four years, so we’ve got to make the right choice.
Or do we? Does it really matter? Aren’t they all the same!?
I didn’t know the answers and worse I didn’t know the questions, hence my bewilderment.
Research, research, research
For the past few weeks I’ve been lightly researching the pros and cons of each of the pumps which are available to us, which are by Animas, Medtronic, Roche/Accuchek. The Omnipod is available to us but our clinic will only partially fund it as it’s a lot more expensive, so I’ve discounted that one as partially funding it isn’t an option my bank manager will agree to.
I’m not sure exactly which models are available for us to choose but for now I’m presuming it’ll be the Animas Vibe, the Medtronic Paradigm Veo and it’s definitely the Roche Accu-chek Combo. The Medtronic model may not be the Veo but I’ll do my research on that to start with.
I’ll probably do another post on the information about each pump once I’ve learned more about them all.
A fifth pump, the CellNovo looked like everything this geeky father could wish for his daughter but after contacting them it seems it’s not a likely option for the foreseeable future. Darn it!
The hospital’s view on pumps
The hospital are openly (currently) keener on two pumps, the Roche Accu-Chek Combo and the Medtronic Paradigm Veo.
They don’t hide this, they tell you up front and the reason is very simple: the more they know the pump the more chance there is of offering telephone support from memory and the quicker any problem is resolved.
After a quick discussion though it was clear that whilst this is their preference it is not a restriction and they are more than happy for us to go with another pump, such as the Animas Vibe or Omnipod.
They do have an Omnipod user at the clinic but only one.
If we go for a Vibe we’ll be the first, but this isn’t something that bothers me, we can support the unit ourselves, it’s the basal/bolus rates that we need help with.
#DOC to the rescue for pump advice
Suddenly it dawned on me that there’s loads of pumpers out there already, many of whom I’m either following on Twitter or in many cases I’m following their parents, on Twitter that is, I’m not a stalker!
So to the DOC I turned and started gaining an insight into what questions I need to be asking or researching the answers to.
It seemed clear from the outset that seeing a pump or two would really help matters.
Time for our first real pump demo
I’m excited about tonight as after work Jane, Amy and I are meeting up with a couple of #DOC people who live locally, both of whom I’ve never met.
After one of them – @Ninjabetic1 – recently got a AccuChek Combo pump we chatted and I asked if a demo would be possible, after all only seeing a pump actually started to change Amy’s feelings towards them.
“Of course” she said, unsurprisingly.
After a while we realised that another local #DOC person had a Medtronic Paradigm and was very local. She also was more than happy to give us a demo.
So I’m excited to be seeing a couple of pumps but especially at meeting a couple of people I’ve conversed with over Twitter for quite some time.
The best bit is that we all get to eat cake, well how else can they demo the pump’s bolus feature? (It’s all in the name of science.)
Rung Four: 9:30am tomorrow
Tomorrow Amy and I step up to rung four: we’re off to the hospital for our pre-pump carbohydrate counting training session.
After talking with the diabetes specialist nurse it seems this will be a session very similar to the first with a mixture between people just about to start carb counting for the first time and two families (us included) who are going on a pump soon.
Rung Five: 1pm tomorrow
Things are really moving on quickly and after the training session tomorrow morning the other pre-pump family and us are returning to the clinic for an informal pump demo by the hospital’s Roche pump specialist.
Personally I hope that I know everything they’re going to tell us as it will prove that I’ve done my research right. But even if this is the case it will be nice to get the hospital’s angle on the pump.
I might even get to find out whether the Mexican-wave-bolus is an urban myth or not.
All demos done
We’re ending a very busy diabetes related week with a visit to JDRF’s Discovery Day in Bristol on Saturday. An event where the parents get to listen to talks whilst the kids get to visit the @Bristol science centre in the same building.
We weren’t due to go to Bristol, we’d booked for Dorset, but as soon as I realised a couple of other #DOC people were attending I wanted to go there instead to meet them.
Now, there’s so many #DOC people going that I’m more excited about meeting them than going to the JDRF day; I can’t even remember what the day is about anymore. Oops.
A bonus of this day out is that one of #DOC has an Animas Vibe and has kindly offered to give us a demo.
So within three days we’ll have had demos of every pump that we’re currently thinking about.
Then the real research can begin.