Once upon a time...
I was terrified to wear an insulin pump!
And every time I went to see my endocrinologist (the long, fancy word for a diabetic doc) he would continually berate me about how a pump would make my life easier, my blood sugars better, blah blah blah. I went to see this doc every 3 months. Yes, four times a year I would get this speech. And I can't even tell you for how long... I was diagnosed at the age of 3 and a half. I'm sure my parents heard it then; I heard it from the time I started going by myself to see him in high school. The thing is, when he talked about pumps...
I pictured this obnoxious thing, stabbing my through my skin, and continually pricking me. Not to mention the long tubing that I was sure I would pull on, yanking the terrible needle out of me, along with skin, muscle, and organs!
NEWS FLASH!
This is not what pumps are like!
But how was I supposed to know that? He just talked and talked about how great they were and never really showed me anything. How was I really supposed to know how great they'd make my life and how much I wish I would've started using one earlier? So for most of my Diabetihood, I was a needle user. Wow, that sounds like I'm some drug addict! (Which I used to and continue to joke about! "Gotta shoot up before I eat that!")
And for most of that time, I was a PORK insulin user! Yes, it is what you think it is, insulin taken from a piggy! Fellow diabetics will probably freak out at that fact, since pork insulin is like a myth in the community, but it is indeed true. When I was first diagnosed, my mom caught it pretty early, or so they thought, and I was very sensitive to Humulin insulin (a type derived from human rDNA). Pork insulin worked more the way it was supposed to, so that's what I went on. Since it worked well, that's what I stayed on until the invention of Lantus insulin.
Lantus is a longer acting long-acting insulin that replaces the long-acting Humulin N or the pork version. It would help my blood sugar stay flat during the day so I could choose not to eat if I didn't want to. (With N, you would get a peak of insulin action a few hours after taking it and so you'd have to eat some sugar to counteract it. It also didn't last very long, so I, for example, needed to take 2 shots of it a day--one in the morning and one at night--while Lantus lasts a full 24 hours (in most cases...I eventually took it twice a day and when that got irritating since it wasn't really working, I got brave and opted for the pump!)
There's a little more to this story though...how the switch happened exactly...
I left home and went to college at the end of 2002. A couple years later, I decided I was getting a little old for my pediatric endocrinologist. Yes, that's right, I was over 18, in fact, I was 24, when I left my PEDIATRIC endocrinologist! He had been with me through it all--for over 20 years! How could I go on to see someone else?! But I decided, before I made my permanent move, to try out someone new.
I went to college at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ for my bachelor's degree. There are a ton of hospitals in New Brunswick. And what did I know about picking a new doctor...so I just called one up and made an appointment! I went to see him after just hearing about Lantus. Now, for you young readers, the internet was relatively new back then in the early 2000s. Not new-new, but new enough (and my computer old enough) that a "quick" search on Lantus via the internet would've been an hour's long excursion in futility! And you'd expect a doctor to tell you all about it anyway, right? Well, here's the basic conversation from my appointment with this new doc:
Me: "So I heard about this new type of insulin called Lantus. Could you tell me more about it? Should I use it?"
Doc: "Oh, yes, oh, yes, Lantus. Sure. Here, here, here is a prescription for you."
And that was it more or less. I blame myself for not advocating for myself and speaking up to say I didn't know anything about it, but there was also a language barrier and I don't think we were fully understanding each other. Less than perfect circumstances, for sure. I went home and tried to figure it out...and it was a disaster.
Anyone who's ever been on a diet (or been a diabetic) and need to count their calories or their carbs knows that it isn't as easy as counting of a package. Especially if you eat anything that you cook at home that includes fresh anything. Well, when you're using Lantus, that is what you need to do--count your carbs. You need to do it on a pump too, but not on pork N and R. Nope. You just eat at specific times of day and dose for bad blood sugars. That's pretty much it. So I tried to figure it out by myself. And I really sucked at it. (Heck, I still pretty much suck at it, but less so than back then! I've had years of practice now and lots of help from wonderful nurses and educators!)
So....yeah, I went crawling back to my pediatric doc. And he was happy to save me. I stayed on Lantus for a short time after this, and had lots of help from my doc and his staff to get me on track. At this point I had also switched from old school needles to the fancy pen needles you see on TV all the time. They really are awesome compared to drawing up a needle from a vial that needs to be refrigerated!
Only a few years later (I think it was 2006 or so) I moved on to a new ADULT endocrinologist that my pediatric doc recommended. And he was another great doctor with wonderful, helpful staff! And I started on the Omnipod (it had no tubes, so was a good first pump for me! Helped me get over my fears of being murdered by stuck tubing!) in 2009, just a few months before my wedding, which was my incentive to get it. I wanted to eat and have a good time and not worry about carrying around supplies for shots with me. And I had a great time at my wedding and my honeymoon (which was to Iceland--where we hiked volcanoes, a glacier, saw the so-named "Geyser," and went on a boat where we ate straight-from-the-bottom-of-the-fjord sea urchin roe and scallops! More on that adventure later... :)
And so here I am. A pump user. And a happy one at that. So happy that I decided to stab other things into me that stay in...like a CGM (continuous glucose monitor). But I will also say that I did try one of those tubed-pumps, and I was not a fan. I got totally spoiled with the ease of pulling my pants down with my tubeless Omnipod! (Sorry, that's a joke for diabetics only! Haha!)
And for most of that time, I was a PORK insulin user! Yes, it is what you think it is, insulin taken from a piggy! Fellow diabetics will probably freak out at that fact, since pork insulin is like a myth in the community, but it is indeed true. When I was first diagnosed, my mom caught it pretty early, or so they thought, and I was very sensitive to Humulin insulin (a type derived from human rDNA). Pork insulin worked more the way it was supposed to, so that's what I went on. Since it worked well, that's what I stayed on until the invention of Lantus insulin.
Lantus is a longer acting long-acting insulin that replaces the long-acting Humulin N or the pork version. It would help my blood sugar stay flat during the day so I could choose not to eat if I didn't want to. (With N, you would get a peak of insulin action a few hours after taking it and so you'd have to eat some sugar to counteract it. It also didn't last very long, so I, for example, needed to take 2 shots of it a day--one in the morning and one at night--while Lantus lasts a full 24 hours (in most cases...I eventually took it twice a day and when that got irritating since it wasn't really working, I got brave and opted for the pump!)
There's a little more to this story though...how the switch happened exactly...
I left home and went to college at the end of 2002. A couple years later, I decided I was getting a little old for my pediatric endocrinologist. Yes, that's right, I was over 18, in fact, I was 24, when I left my PEDIATRIC endocrinologist! He had been with me through it all--for over 20 years! How could I go on to see someone else?! But I decided, before I made my permanent move, to try out someone new.
I went to college at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ for my bachelor's degree. There are a ton of hospitals in New Brunswick. And what did I know about picking a new doctor...so I just called one up and made an appointment! I went to see him after just hearing about Lantus. Now, for you young readers, the internet was relatively new back then in the early 2000s. Not new-new, but new enough (and my computer old enough) that a "quick" search on Lantus via the internet would've been an hour's long excursion in futility! And you'd expect a doctor to tell you all about it anyway, right? Well, here's the basic conversation from my appointment with this new doc:
Me: "So I heard about this new type of insulin called Lantus. Could you tell me more about it? Should I use it?"
Doc: "Oh, yes, oh, yes, Lantus. Sure. Here, here, here is a prescription for you."
And that was it more or less. I blame myself for not advocating for myself and speaking up to say I didn't know anything about it, but there was also a language barrier and I don't think we were fully understanding each other. Less than perfect circumstances, for sure. I went home and tried to figure it out...and it was a disaster.
Anyone who's ever been on a diet (or been a diabetic) and need to count their calories or their carbs knows that it isn't as easy as counting of a package. Especially if you eat anything that you cook at home that includes fresh anything. Well, when you're using Lantus, that is what you need to do--count your carbs. You need to do it on a pump too, but not on pork N and R. Nope. You just eat at specific times of day and dose for bad blood sugars. That's pretty much it. So I tried to figure it out by myself. And I really sucked at it. (Heck, I still pretty much suck at it, but less so than back then! I've had years of practice now and lots of help from wonderful nurses and educators!)
So....yeah, I went crawling back to my pediatric doc. And he was happy to save me. I stayed on Lantus for a short time after this, and had lots of help from my doc and his staff to get me on track. At this point I had also switched from old school needles to the fancy pen needles you see on TV all the time. They really are awesome compared to drawing up a needle from a vial that needs to be refrigerated!
Only a few years later (I think it was 2006 or so) I moved on to a new ADULT endocrinologist that my pediatric doc recommended. And he was another great doctor with wonderful, helpful staff! And I started on the Omnipod (it had no tubes, so was a good first pump for me! Helped me get over my fears of being murdered by stuck tubing!) in 2009, just a few months before my wedding, which was my incentive to get it. I wanted to eat and have a good time and not worry about carrying around supplies for shots with me. And I had a great time at my wedding and my honeymoon (which was to Iceland--where we hiked volcanoes, a glacier, saw the so-named "Geyser," and went on a boat where we ate straight-from-the-bottom-of-the-fjord sea urchin roe and scallops! More on that adventure later... :)
And so here I am. A pump user. And a happy one at that. So happy that I decided to stab other things into me that stay in...like a CGM (continuous glucose monitor). But I will also say that I did try one of those tubed-pumps, and I was not a fan. I got totally spoiled with the ease of pulling my pants down with my tubeless Omnipod! (Sorry, that's a joke for diabetics only! Haha!)