Hi all,
I can’t believe January has already flown past as it only seems like yesterday that we were celebrating Christmas.
January has certainly been a wet month with terrible floods all over the country including local flooding in my village which of course causes lots of people problems with travel, I just feel for the people who have really been affected by floods in their homes which must be awful.
Cycling during January has certainly been damp, windy and really affected my BG levels even though I have been trying some specific cycle energy boost drinks and gels that have helped. The worst thing for me is when my BG level drops during the night even after dinner, one evening I was 10.0 before bed and then woke during the night to a hypo of 1.9 which I must say was very scary indeed – this was the closest I have had to needing an ambulance. I have now started to have a couple of biscuits just before bed to be on the safe side and a CGM would certainly help but too expensive for me to fund.
On the subject of CGM – we have been advised of the New generation of Medtronic Enlite Sensor which certainly looks great.
I am sure you are all as curious as I am to see what other Diabetes products will be released in 2014 to make our Diabetes even easier to control.
Thanks for reading and please feel free to share this blog.
Andrew Borrett
MyPump
MyPump Blog
My Pump Blog 
Hi Andrew, I have type 1 and started pumping this week. I was thinking of starting a blog and when I searched I came across yours! After a year long battle I have managed to obtain NHS funding for CGM and I start that tomorrow. Thanks for blogging, what a great way to share experiences! Emma
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Hi Emma, well done on the Pump and CGM – I have tried many times to get NHS funding for a pump but keep hitting a brick wall. I have tried the Animas Dexcom CGM and the Medtronic Enlite sensor of which both work great.
We all need interesting blogs so definitely go for it and keep us posted, I have no issues if you wanted to have a guest blog on my site to share your info.
Drop me an email if you need any help.
Thanks again
Andrew
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Hi Andrew, thanks for your reply. I’m saddened to hear you can’t get your pump funded. I know what hard work and how frustrating it is fighting the system. I would love to post on your blog, thank you, I’m sure it will take me a while to work out how to set up my own! Kind regards, Emma
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Hi Emma, it was the CGM which I would love to get funded as getting the pump was fairly straightforward after a while. I started on a Medrtronic Paradigm Pump for about 2 years then onto an Animas 2020 for 4 years then my current Animas Vibe which I have had for about 2 years. So I have had a few of which 2 were funded as they need replacing every 4 years.
Good luck 🙂
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Hi Andrew, yes I qualified for the pump but had a big battle to get the CGM funded. I finally persuaded my consultant to put in an exceptional clinical circumstance form and I wrote a accompanying letter explaining how it would improve my hba1c and quality of life. I think what won it was the low suspend feature, as nighttime hypos were frequent and impacted greatly on my quality of life. They initially agreed to 8 weeks funding, but I declined and said I didn’t want to start if it would then be stopped on funding issues regardless of its benefit. I wrote to the commissioners requesting long term funding and they finally agreed, depending obviously on its effectiveness. I have the Medtronic veo with the enlite sensor. I would be happy to share the letters I wrote if you feel it might benefit you? Kind regards, Emma
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Hi Emma, it sounds like you did have a battle to get the funding, it’s ridiculous really that the PCT can’t see the long term benefits of being on a pump with CGM ?
So how have you found wearing the two sensors ie cannular and CGM sensor as don’t you run out of places to put them both ?
Does the CGM alarm much and have you been on it for long now ?
I would love to see the letters if that’s possible and you didn’t mind as you must have written a really great letter ?
Kind regards
Andrew
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Hi Andrew, hope you are well. I have had an interesting few months with the pump and CGM! The pump is fine, no problems other than non exisitant follow up care from my so called team. Sink or swim springs to mind! The CGM has been troublesome. There was no problem with wearing it or any of its functions, but even set to its lowest alarm settings, it was frequently alarming. For instance, after eating a meal it would spend at least an hour telling me that my levels were rising and then once the insulin kicked in it would be shouting that my levels were falling. I spent a lot of time saying ‘I know, I know’ to it! I would say I was having to attend to it every couple of hours, and most of the time it was not telling me anything that I didn’t already know. It went absolutely mental whenever I was hypo, which was frequent when I first started on the pump.
It was helpful in that I got to know the effect that different food groups had on my BS and I was surprised to see how long certain foods and exercise affected it for. It helped with the nighttime hypos and woke me up before the levels were too low, which really helped. However since being settled on the pump and not having the long acting insulin, my nighttime lows are much less frequent. So after 12 weeks I decided with my team to stop using it, which was handy as my trust changed it’s NHS provider and they removed the funding! I now have funding for 6 weeks a year which I am happy with. My consultant said at the start that it would be really annoying and I wouldn’t get on with it and it irritates me now that he was right! Sorry for this long post, hope it helps, emma
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