Is it hard for you to get back in the swing of things when you switch from the pump back to MDI'S? I cant afford the payments anymore because I am enrolled in college part time soon to be full time even through I worked. I didnt mind doing MDI an I really only got the pump because I was working and its was the best solution to keep my blood sugar under control. Has anybody else switched back to MDI since using the pump?
My DD likes to take pump breaks about once a year. The last one was last fall. In her case, the endo told us to add up her total daily basal and give her that many units of Levemir. The first day she was in the 90's all day, but that did not last long. Then we tried splitting the dose and eventually, after a ton of testing and talking with the CDE and endo, she ended up taking 13 units in the morning and 8 units at night. The only problem left to solve was that the Levemir does not last 24 hours, so her BG would rise between 9pm and midnight. She would just do an extra unit or 2 of short-acting just before that time. I was thinking of trying Regular insulin at supper time to deal with this when DD decided she wanted her pump back. With the split dose, she could easily drop her basal further for nights when she was active. Good luck. Test as often as you can until you get it right and keep in touch with your medical team. My daughter actually has better A1C's on shots (probably because there are no 500's from tubing that has torn at the reservoir because she had not changed it for several site changes as happened last weekend, etc.).
We did. I was nervous and expected it to be a hard transition. With the exception of having to find the right Lantus dose, it has been really easy. My daughter plans to never go back on the pump but I suspect it might change when she's older. Like you, she never really minded shots so the pump wasn't something she felt the value of.
I think that going back to MDI after pumping is easier than doing MDI the first time around... with a better understanding of how to time the insulin to work better, I found that many of the problems I had with MDI that led me to pump were a little easier to manage. That said, I usually expect some unusual #'s (both high and low) for the first 2-3 days after switching either direction.
Dd was on MDI for 18 months, a pump for two years, and has now been on MDI for 6 months. She loves MDI -- no bad sites, no pump to bother with when changing, etc. While she does miss the ease of snacking on the pump, she has no intentions of going back on the pump anytime soon. The funny thing is that dh is still on the pump -- and he's happy with the pump! To each his own!
We put off trying to go back to MDI for months -- probably at least half a year, more like a year, because I couldn't get over the hump of having to change from what I'd come to know. It was not a hard transition at all, easier than the transition onto the pump by far. I just got myself all worried in my head, it only took taking the leap and it was a breeze. I'm sure everyone is different, of course, but with the pump we were making so many adjustments all the time (temp basals, new basals, new sites, new sets) that the only real difficulty of moving back to MDI (calculating and adjusting to get the dose and timing right on the Lantus) was a cinch. And I will admit, diabetes is a lot less expensive for us these days. . .
