9 Steps to Getting an Insulin Pump!

Good afternoon! This week's post is about the process of getting an insulin pump!

First of all, let's make sure that we know what an insulin pump is! A pump is a handy little machine that does all of your insulin calculations and injections for you. 

You use a needle to inject a cannula that stays in your body. 

You also receive a PDM (personal diabetes manager) that you use to connect to the injection site. 

You use the PDM to enter information about your blood sugar level and the food you are about to eat, and it calculates how much insulin to give you. 

Insulin flows through the cannula and into your bloodstream, so no more MDI (multiple daily injections) for you!

If you want a more detailed description, click here to read my post about insulin pumps!

Moving on, there is a long list of steps that you must take to get an insulin pump. This post is an outline of those steps and how they might make you feel, based on my experiences with them.

Step 1: Decide that You Want a Pump

This step is pretty self-explanatory.

Step 2: Celebrate your 1 year Diaversary ... unless you expedite the process!

Pumps are extraordinary things, but they are also extraordinarily expensive. But there is a solution! Once you celebrate your 1 year diaversary, you are eligible to receive government funding that will pay for it.  

It is possible to make the process go faster, but it will require the cooperation of your diabetes team. 

Step 3: Have 3 A1C Results Under 10 mmol/L (180 mg/dl)

In order to qualify for the government funding, you must have 3 A1C results under 10 mmol/L. I'm not exactly sure why, but this is what I had to do. 

Step 4: Take a Whole Lot of Insulin!

There is a minimum amount of insulin that you must be taking in order for the pump to be able to work. I don't know what the exact number is, that is something that you would have to ask your endocrinologist about.

Step 5: Schedule a Pump Information Session

A pump information session is a meeting with your endocrinologist or a nurse at the hospital where you learn about the different types of pumps that exist, their major differences, and how a pump works.  

You fill out a lot of paperwork, talk about insurance, and a bunch of other boring stuff.

This is also the meeting where you decide what type of pump you want. Tubeless, or tubed? Blue or pink? Omnipod or Medtronic? 

If you are trying to decide what kind of pump you want, I suggest reading my post about insulin pumps here. It explains what a pump is, the major companies and their pros and cons. 

Step 6: Wait

Once you have chosen your pump, you have to wait. 

Lets say that you chose to get an Omnipod. Omnipod has to recieve the order form that you filled out at the information session, and then mail you a package with all of the pump supplies.

This can take up to a month. And I'm telling you right now, the waiting is not easy! But you get through it.

Step 7: Schedule a Pump Training Session

The pump training session is another meeting at the hospital where you set up your PDM (personal diabetes manager), learn how to use the pump, practice administering boluses, and a whole bunch of other stuff. 

You leave the session wearing a sensor that has not insulin, but saline, in it. Saline is a salt/water solution. This is the sensor that you will practice with for the next week.

Step 8: Trial Week

Trial week is basically where you practice using your pump while continuing with MDI at the same  time. 

You continue taking insulin through pens for the food you eat, and practice giving your PDM instructions for giving insulin.

 The PDM thinks that it is giving you insulin, but really it is giving you saline, so it is not dangerous. 

Step 9: You are Ready to Leave MDI in the Past!

Once trial week is over, you go back to the hospital and get permission to start using insulin in your sensors! 

That's it! Once you go through these 9 steps, you are officially a pumper.

That will be me in a couple of days, and I am SO HAPPY to finally be finished with needles. 

That is me wearing my trial Omnipod, and I couldn't be more satisfied with it. Till next week Type 1 Warriors!!

Thanks for reading this post of That Stupid Pancreas!

If you have any questions/comments/concerns, please don't hesitate to email me about it here

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Today's question of the day is...

Are you a pumper or an injector? Why? 

I am about to be a pumper because I am tired of poking myself 4-5 times a day!!!

*Based off of my personal experience, I got  government funding for my pump. But that was only in my experience, and that may not always be the case with different situations.