Saturday 25 February 2012

Why would I use an insulin pump?

Control. 

I was going to end my blog post there, but figure that there may be a little more explanation and reasoning needed for this.....you know, to convince you. 

I was diagnosed with diabetes in 1991 and lasted about 15 years with relatively good control...or so I thought.  I had not complications, as all my eye exams were always great, and still had full feeling in all my extremities.  Then my life had some changes where I was doing more and more and concentrating less and less on my diabetes and control of it.  I moved around often and never had to stick with a doctor long enough to endure all their "preachings".....in retrospect that attitude could have been very bad for me.  Then I had a doctor in Ottawa who made sure I went to an endocrinologist and they saw my HA1C tests up really high....in the 12 or 13 range.  I was asked if I would consider an insulin pump, and my first reaction was "No, why do I need one?".  Simple answer was that my "control sucked" and I had to get it better controlled.

I had a couple reasons for not wanting it:
- vanity - I couldn't imagine having that thing attached to me all day
- tubing - I have young kids and could just imagine them pulling at the tubing
- saw it as an admission that I had somehow "failed" as a diabetic

My "reasons" (more like "excuses") were put to rest rather easily by the diabetic educator I was working with:
- vanity: insulin pumps are nowhere near as large as they used to be and can be easily concealed both by males and females (although I am not as intimately aware of how all that works!).  Quite honestly they could be mistaken for a cell phone (mine was) or some mp3 players.
- tubing: Many people my age apparently have the same concern and I was told that most kids do get the message that "this is medicine for Daddy, and you cannot touch it".  In practice, I was amazed at how well that actually did work.  There were questions at first, but I have never had my young ones pull at the tubing, not even once.
- "failing": What would be considered "failing" is me not taking care of myself and helping myself find better ways to control my diabetes (in turn, my health) so that I can be around for my family.

After the 12 % and 13% HA1C test results I had brought down my result down to 10% in the very next test.  It went down to 8% the next test.....within a matter of 6 months my chances for complications from  diabetes had reduced significantly.  I felt better physically, mentally, and knew that I took the right step forward in the control of my life.

The 8% reading is still not perfect, and I will later talk about getting that down even further.

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