Are insulin pumps worth it?

Here is a picture of my tandem t:slim G4 in my hand.  I had been thinking about it since I started to see my endo.  She was all for it.  First I got the Dexcom CGM because she, my endo, thought it'd be best. I agreed because at night I am unable to tell when my blood sugar drops.  This is nothing new.  I've always been this way.  Since there are times my husband has to go out of town for business, we felt this was the safest thing for me to do.


But then we discovered I was allergic to the adhesive that attaches the Dexcom sensor pod to the body.  It was a bitch to find a way to make me able to wear it.  My endo, expected me to be wearing it all the time.  Couldn't do that until we found a way to beat the allergy problem.  After A LOT of internet searching, I discovered something called IV 3000 and Uni-Solve Adhesive Remover. 

So what I do is cut a hole for the sensor, then put the IV 3000 on my skin FIRST, then I put the sensor on top of that.  When it's time to remove the sensor, I pull off the sensor/IV 3000 and wipe off the adhesive.  I don't have a problem with the IV 3000 adhesive, but no sense in taking chances.  Now Dexcom isn't for putting the IV 3000 down first.  But this works for me and if I'm to wear it, I have to do it.

Now we move forward about six months.  I'm having my bedtime Lantus shot, needle and syringe, not a pen because I refused to switch.  I would have still been on N and R, but my endo didn't like "old" insulin and I also knew you couldn't use R in a pump.  Anywho, I was about to inject myself when I started to cry.  Not because it hurt, but because I was just sick and tired of injecting myself with insulin. 

Last year, 2015 was my 50th year of living with Juvenile Onset, the term I like to use, or type 1 diabetes.  I've never had whatever a burn out is.  Never felt sorry for myself.  Never felt depressed because I am a diabetic.  Just all of a sudden I started to cry over injecting myself.  That was a shocker for me let me tell you.  Now it wasn't a long drawn out cry, just a couple of tears, but enough to let me know something was wrong.

My endo decided to up my 3 month appointment, so I had to start researching pumps.  I had it down to two of them.  She only liked the G4, so that was the one I got.

I was SO excited to get my insulin pump in November, 2015.   I thought I'd be allergic to the adhesives used with infusion-sets.  Those are the things that connect to the pump and you put on the body that give you the insulin.  But I'm not, or it's just because I'm not wearing them longer than 3 days so I'm not reacting

Now with the PROBLEMS.  First of all.  I've read that most people don't like how long it takes to change the G4, that's what I call my pump, cartridge and prime the pump.  Well since this is my first pump I couldn't tell you if this is a long time or not.  And if it is a long time, who the hell cares?



PROBLEM #1.  For whatever reason, I cannot keep the infusion sets on for the length of time you're suppose to.  They are supposed to stay on for 2-3 days at a time.  Not with me.  There have been times when I've had to change the damn thing 4 times within 3 days.  As a matter-of-fact, I had to change it on Saturday and I had to do it twice because I had a bad site. 

This isn't fair to me.  I didn't expect to have this many problems so soon.  I had read that people had bad sites, but not as many as I seem to be having.  Most of the time I'll wait an entire day before changing the site, that's bad, hoping I'm wrong.  I didn't do that on Saturday because I'm sick.  I knew it was bad right off because of how much it hurt when the basal amount of insulin went in shortly after I put the new infusion set on.  Then I gave myself a bolus for my breakfast that was a little above my basal amount and that hurt even more.  I knew right then it was a bad site and removed the set.

PROBLEM #2.  From what I've read, people say that after they've begun using an insulin pump their insulin requirement drop.  Mine haven't done that.  Nope.  No change.  Not at all.  And Humalog insulin, even with insurance isn't inexpensive.  My insulin requirement have pretty much stayed the same.


PROBLEM #3. I've heard that your blood sugars and A1C are suppose to be better.  Well I'm not having as many over 350 or under 35, so I that's good.  But then when I've been over 350, it's generally because I've had something that I underestimated the amount of insulin I should have had or I've been sick and just didn't pay attention.

Add to this, when you go out to eat, those carbohydrate guides really suck at giving you the amount of carbohydrates in the foods.  And if you eat at a place that the guides don't have, well you have to guesstimate.

I mean it's nice not having to inject my insulin before my meals.  Other than that, I am not seeing any other benefit to my pump. 

I've got a few other infusion sets to try.  If those don't work... I just don't know what to say.  I don't have a lot of area on my abdomen.  I did try my leg again and it did work.  I'm going to try my arm so we'll see how that works.

I've been told that I expect too much from my my CGM.  Well when I read in the damn manual that it is suppose to be within 12%-18% of you meter and my reading can be anywhere from right on to 100% different, that's a BIG problem to me.  Then when I call Dexcom to complain, they tell me 20% difference is perfectly fine.  They can't tell me why the book says 12-18%.