Pros and cons with the insulin pump.

So, pros and cons of being on a pump. Being able to be on insulin, it was a great thing for me compared to tablets, it made me feel a lot better. But I had to inject a number of times during the day and you have different types of injections that you take in the evening. I was taking in the evening that Lantus covered the whole day and then I had Humalog during the day and I used to inject quite often every time I was eating so I was almost trying to do what a pump could do with a pen but after a while you become a you know a pincushion. There's only so many times you can inject yourself, right? And the reason why I went on the pump is the work I was doing, I was traveling a lot, I was changing time zones, my sleep patterns were unusual, I spent a lot of time at airports, it was very tricky to be able to do all of that constantly and my consultants suggested that I may consider being on the pump. And again, getting on the pump was an interesting concept because you have a device that's attached to you. Now, they're not huge but it's still something that's attached to you through a cannula. It's another thing to have with you. And again, I was very lucky because at my work there was a person who had what looked like a a pump. So I spoke with this person, I asked about it, it turned out to be a pump, exactly the same type I was going to get. So through the help, I guess, of the community, it helped me understand what it meant. But also through the help of the consultant and the team at the hospital, I was able to kind of get over the concept of being on the pump. Once I got on the pump, it was amazing, because it's attached to you. Yes, you're constantly attached you, you go to bed with it, it's a bit weird, but you get used to that because again the positive is that I can give myself insulin whenever I want. The other thing is it's easier, I found it easier at least, to control how much and when I give insulin based on food. So for example going to a restaurant with a pen it's... I don't have a problem necessarily that to show people that I'm diabetic. It's not something I'm worried about. However, lifting my shirt up in the restaurant is probably not something people would expect, right? And then giving myself an injection. I'm not squeamish, other people may be. So I will have to go somewhere to give myself an injection ahead of a meal. But I wouldn't necessarily how much carbohydrate there will be on the meal. I learned how to estimate by sight, but until you have something on your plate, it's very hard to estimate because you can't see it. Once it's on your plate, I could have, I guess, then gone off to give myself insulin and come back, but then the food is getting cold. It's not the best situation. But with a pump, it's in your pocket. You can literally just take it out, type in the number of units you have, put it back in in the pocket. It was brilliant. It really helped with that. So it helped with giving myself insulin in a stealthy way in public. Nobody ever asked me about the pump. I guess in the old days people thought it was a pager, then they probably thought it was a phone. I don't know what they would think it is now. From outside, I think it made it easier for me to give myself insulin in public. But from a control perspective, it made it a lot easier to adjust and then by combining the pump with the CGM, the concept, we almost get into the closed loop approach. My pump is still not there yet. Hopefully the next one will be, but we're slowly moving in that direction. I think that's absolutely amazing. I don't think I will be able to, I will really struggle to go back to just giving myself injections. I mean, of course I will have to do it and if the pump breaks down, I can, but the ability to change and to add and to control, actually to control the background incident as well is huge because with an injection of, for example, Lantus that I was in, you've given yourself a certain amount and that's it for 24 hours. You can't really give yourself less if you want it for some reason. With a pump, because it's constantly dripping small amounts, I can vary, I can add 10% or reduce 10%. If I'm going to go out for a three-hour jog, I can reduce the amount of insulin if I feel that I need to do that. For example, if I do go out for a long run, I do find that my blood sugar falls, so it's much easier for me to adjust it. So for me, the pros of a pump, again, are huge because it gives you that flexibility. The cons is it's a device that's attached to your body, but you get used to it. At least I did. It's also hard work, I guess. So I'm just trying to think what the cons are. I have a friend who tried the pump, but it wasn't for her because she said she constantly had to calculate things. And to me, that was a strange one because if you're diabetic, you don't need to worry about, well, you don't worry. You need to control your blood sugar because your body is not doing it anymore. But some people find it, I guess, trickier than others. you