Features | Convinience | Comfort | Pros and Cons
Insulin pumps are of great interest to people with diabetes. Many consider them a panacea for sugar surges. But is everything so good and simple, as it seems at first glance? We offer only honest facts about the insulin pump, which will help to weigh everything before buying it.
Features and principle of operation
An insulin pump is an electronic device that is responsible for supplying and dosing insulin, administers the medicine according to the schedule, and also makes injections to compensate for sugar after eating.
The device consists of:
- electronic module with an integrated pump;
- an insulin cartridge that fits into the pump;
- infusion system for supplying insulin from the pump and entering under the skin: consists of a cannula and a catheter.
Is the pump easy to use?
The main myth – the pump solves all the problems of diabetes. In general, with it you can forget about high sugar. In fact, in order to evaluate all the features of the gadget, you need to pre-configure it for yourself.
The selection of the base, carbohydrate coefficients, the development of the capabilities of the temporal basal rate (PBC), as well as the study of many other nuances, without which it is impossible to stabilize glycemic curves – there are many nuances to deal with. It may take 2-3 days, and someone will need a couple of weeks. But practice shows that after switching to the pump, patients are in no hurry to return to the syringe pens.
How comfortable is the insulin pump?
In the past, immediately after the appearance of insulin pumps, users had inconveniences, but they were all successfully resolved. Special clips, elastic belts, bandages, thermal covers – there are dozens of accessories on the market that are convenient to use with a pump in any situation: at work, during sports, in the heat, in the cold. You can attach it almost imperceptibly and anywhere: on the waist, leg, belt of trousers or even a bra.
Sleeping with the device is also quite comfortable. You can freely spin, lie in any position – a mega-strength patch will easily hold the cannula on the skin.
Pros and Cons of an Insulin Pump
Advantages:
- insulin can be dosed with an accuracy of 0.05 units. (for syringe pens – from 0.5 units);
- You can set the time intervals for the introduction of basal insulin;
- You can pre-configure several basal modes, for example, on days of playing sports, weekends, for illness, etc.
- VBS option – you can temporarily change the dose of basal insulin (increase or decrease);
- several types of boluses are available: normal, square or double wave, if you need to compensate for carbohydrates after taking complex dishes containing a lot of proteins, fats;
- pumps take active insulin into account when calculating the dosage of a bolus;
- automatic calculation of the dose of insulin – just enter the amount of carbohydrates eaten and the current glucose level;
- the pump allows you to forget about daily injections, it is enough to change the cannula once every 5-7 days, the risk of developing lipohypertrophy is reduced;
- simple bolus entry – by pressing a few buttons, it is convenient to use both at home and in a cafe, at work, in a train, in an airplane;
- You will no longer forget the supply of insulin – the pump is always with you.
But the main advantage of an insulin pump is that it significantly smooths out fluctuations in sugar levels and avoids sudden jumps. When properly configured, modern models, for example, Medtronic 640G, working together with a monitoring system, can completely eliminate hypo- and hyperglycemia.
Difficulties:
- it takes time to set up the device, it is several days, during which you need to carefully monitor your health;
- some patients have difficulty replacing infusion sets;
- you will have to try different infusion systems in order to choose the most convenient for yourself;
- the user is attached to the gadget, which can cause some tension;
- it is worth being careful and ready for blockages, kinks of the cannula – such problems are not often, but still happen.