Starting Pump Therapy in a couple of days - any advise / anything I should know?

'kay guys - hope your all good. Bit of an open question really but just looking to see if there are any pumpers out there with any advise / anecdotes for a soon to be pumper. Am going to be using the Accu-Check Spirit..





All answers welcome - thanks in advance :-)Starting Pump Therapy in a couple of days - any advise / anything I should know?
Blood checks, blood checks, and more blood checks. You may think I'm making light of your transition to using a pump, but I'm absolutely serious.





I'm presuming, because you haven't been diabetic for a great number of years yet, that you haven't developed any ... or many ... complications. That's good. It works in your favour.





The first few months will be about fine-tuning your basal rates, and ensuring that you're counting your carbs right so that you infuse the correct boluses for each mealtime. (Don't worry, you're not on your own here. Make full use of your diabetes team ... doctor, specialist nurse, dietitian, etc.)





One thing I'd suggest, if your doctor hasn't already suggested it, is to set your alarm clock to wake you during the night time so that you can test your blood then, but don't go changing your basal rates willy nilly. i.e. don't make drastic changes based on one reading. See if there's a pattern building. I'm not familiar with the pump that you'll be using, but if it's the same as the one I use, a Medtronic MiniMed Paradigm 722, it will allow you to transfer your readings to computer, and print pretty pictures out of how your glucose levels rise and fall ... that's when it's co-existing with a continuous glucose monitoring system. (They 'talk' to each other and your pump is able to display whether your blood sugar is stable, rising, or falling.)





I am absolutely convinced that you'll soon see the benefits of using a pump, rather than multiple daily injections. I've been using mine 10 years now, and can say that the only way they're going to get this bugger back from me is by prizing it from my dead or dying hands. (Actually, it's my second one. The first one died about two years ago.)





I wish you the very best of luck, sir.