Never say Never

Read Coral’s Bio - here!

I spent 2 years fighting with the pump. I swore I would never try it again. It was great for about… oh… 5 MINUTES, and my A1C did not improve while I was on it. Granted there could have been other factors associated to my strong dislike of this devise…

• The fact that I was in college at the time… and let’s face it, having a machine dangling from your body 24/7 is just not cute.
• The 15 pounds I gained because I figured now I have an endless supply of insulin via external pancreas, so I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want… WRONG!
• Leaving sites in for more than the recommended 5 days… I hated trying to find an area of my body that had healed enough for me to manually insert an IV-size… bring on the site infections!
• The comments – “Is that a pager? You have a pager? I had one of those in middle school?” 
• To avoid the pager comments, I would put my pump in my bra… but then it looked like I was always feeling myself up when it came time to dial in the dose… fantastic!
• What really did me in were the two times the pump decided to break, I was in Mexico… one of the only places the pump company could not send pump supplies… great! It’s 3 am on Jan 1^st and I need insulin… I did learn, however, that you can get a vial of humalog and 10 syringes delivered to your hotel room, but you had to hunt down long acting insulin in the many Mexican pharmacies. Oh and it doesn’t help if you don’t speak Spanish…

This list could continue on but I think you get the idea… the pump and Coral are NOT friends.

However, my mind was changed last Tuesday during the Young Women’s Support Group meeting (the meets every 2^nd and 4^th Tuesday of the month) … There was a recently diagnosed young lafy who was sharing her diagnosis story with us. After only 6 weeks of being diagnosed, she was on the pump. She said she could never do injections, she HAD to have the pump. I was thinking to myself what I always think when pumpers talk about how great the pump is.. “Girl, you got it all wrong. Those machines are faulty and make you want to eat more. Get on the Humalog and Lantus injections.”

But for some reason, this meeting I decided to listen to these pumpers. I have recently been having trouble with my Humalog and Lantus regimen (multiple lows at night and highs in the afternoon), so I started to ask this young woman more questions. She then showed me an unused infusion set, and I lost it! The needles have gotten so small and you can now insert them at a 90 degree angle WITH a device to help. No more IVs!

WHAT? Where have I been? Oh that’s right, stubborn and closed minded…

So needless to say, I am really rethinking the pump. Maybe I just wasn’t ready in college. I am way less vein now. (Ask my friends, I almost don’t care what I wear a little too much.) I’ve learned that one should always carry an extra medicine. I even hear pump companies will send you a travel pump for free to take with you in case of emergencies (to avoid incidents like I had in Mexico). So this pump-hating diabetic just might change her stubborn ways.

I guess the only other question is… will my insurance cover it???