Monday, April 16, 2007

Investing in me




It had become harder and harder to tame the beast using multiple daily injections, I am also super sensitive to insulin that meant having to wait till I am super high to correct via injections or risk being a yo-yo. I do not like playing with yo-yos let alone subjecting myself to being one, this lead to erring on staying high to avoid being bouncer except weeks turned to months, months turned to a year I was waking up high feeling like I had just finished going a few rounds with Mike Tyson instead of the nine plus hours of rest I just woken from. Taking a correct dose with breakfast brought me down nicely till the evening hours when I got ready for my next boxing match - I mean sleep.

I started looking into an insulin pump; I knew my provincial and supplemental insurance would not cover a pump I had to pay for the pump out of pocket.
As I talked it over with my sister she quickly reminded me of the fact that I had happily paid for braces out of pocket adding, --

“With those high blood glucose you may be paying for some more dental work sooner or later if you want to keep that smile”…………

Hmm as I flossed that night her voice like a broken record played over and over in my head.
I had just worn braces for the second time in my adult life and was extremely happy with the results. I was planning my next steps in cosmetic dentistry and had already met with the doctor, a plan drawn, which involved removing some of my gums to expose a little more teeth although now straight they a little. I would have followed up with a whitening zoom treatment sadly all out of pocket after all that is what people see not high blood glucose!

My plans seemed so vain seeing that I was melting from the inside out - a melt that would eventually melt away, what people see, from high blood glucose. I did some research online got all the information packages and setup meeting with the reps. I told all the reps upfront that I was meeting with the other reps to compare and contrast some were very pusher and told me their pump is the best and to not waste my time meeting with the other companies some were pampers themselves and were nice, pleasant telling me the most important thing will be getting on a pump any smart pump.

I met the Animas rep at a Starbucks a block away from home, on my way for a run. He was one of the reps who were happy to be a pump resource regardless of which company’s product I choose. He also had three of the four pumps with him to show me, he went through all the screens on each and every pump pointing out the different names used for the same things on each pump. We swapped diagnoses stories and waited for my sister and running partner when she arrived, before I even introduced them to each other I asked my sister to pick the pump she preferred.

She picked the Animas pump over the other two, she preferred it looks she later told me. Reservoir size is not an issue I go six days before changing the reservoir, battery life is amazing plus pumpcy has been very good to me.

I may not have the Hollywood smile but an insulin pump has been by far the best better investment.

7 comments:

justme said...

Hi.
I take it you met with quite a few comapnies? I would really like to know how you would compare them. I have been looking at pump treatment lately. I have only met with Medtronic so far, and plan to meet with Roche for the Spirit soon. I actually don;t think there is much more choice over here than those. What was your opinion on them??

Scott K. Johnson said...

Hey Adjoa,

A smart investment in my opinion.

While it can be frustrating have to pay so much for diabetes control - there is no better place to spend the money than on your health.

Pearlsa said...

Hello Justme,

You are right the choices you have in SA are Medtronic and Roche’s Spirit. I have however contacted both Cozmo and Animas to see if they have reps or selling agents located in Africa. I will let you know when they get back in touch with me.

Between the two companies I will go with Medtronic, ask what version they currently have available in SA, If they do not have the 522/722 ask, when that will be available and what your upgrade path will be with them. The 522/722 are very good pumps plus this pump has the inbuilt Continues Blood Monitoring.

In my opinion Accu-chek Spirit is not the way to go. I love the Roche Company and most of their products but not this one. Because, most of the advance controls and calculations are not inbuilt, they are done via a Palm PDA or Palm Treo cell phone. My personal experience with the Accu-chek pocket compass software was that the company did not keep up with technology and as soon as my palm OS PDA was upgraded the software was obsolete. Till this day I am still waiting for them to upgrade that software.

You may however have better experience with Roche; they seem to release things in Europe and sometimes SA months even a year before it gets to North America. You may want to still talk to them ask what they are currently working on and if you do go with them what their upgrade path will be as well.

Let me know if you have any question I will be more than happy to help.

Pearlsa said...

Thanks Scott,

you are right there is no better place to spend money on than ones health.

justme said...

Hi Adjoa,

Thanks! Medtronic showed me 3 pumps - the 722 and 2 previous models. She also showed me the Gaurdian, with both the old and new transmitters (the new one then not available yet). My choice will be heavily affected by my medical insurance - but keeping in mind the upgrades that will be available to me. The 722 is very expensive, with the other 2 cheaper (they look, especially the one, quite old...) It seems as though Roche will be cheaper, so possibly a more realistic choice to start of with meanwhile. The largest drawback for me currently will be the monthly consumables and what the medical scheme would cover in this respect. I also intend changing schemes in the next year, so I am also keeping that in mind. It also seems as though upgrading could be possible on an annual basis - which if I had a pump that was not so great, but cheaper, could upgrade to a bteer one after a year - but I am not 100% sure about this yet. I will let you know once I have met with Roche. Insulin pump therapy does not seem to be that popular over here either - I think this is mainly due to cost.

Chrissie in Belgium said...

Adjoa, I am so happy about your decision about getting a pump. At least for me I feel so much better with a pump. I have had D for 45 years and have few complications but I felt IMMENSELY better with a pump over MDI! Huge difference. Your realize. There are several good pumps out there - but honestly they are not all that different. I have a Cozmo and love it! Adore it. I too am very sensitive to insulin - my total daily dose is 14-16 units. It is impossible with a syringe to make accurate correction boluses! I hope you visit me at my site too, http://whrissieinbelgium.blogspot.com! I have been pumping for 2.5 years now and I still really love it! And isn't it nice to talk with people all over the world about the D! Talking to a fellow diabetic is really different than to someone who doesn't have it!

Bernard said...

Adjoa

Sorry that I've not read your blog in a while. Congratulations on the pump, I think you'll be very glad you spent your money on this.

I will be due to get a new pump in September. Currently I'm using a Minimed 512, which I really don't like. It's missing a lot of statistics features that are in the newer Minimed models.

I've been looking at pumps and considering my options. Right now, the Animas is number 1 on my list. But I think I'm going to ask the pump representative to give me the software to use before I commit to anything.

To me a pump or meter is part of a system. The immediately reading and insulin delivery is important, but the information from the readings and doses over the long term is also very important. I've been so disappointed with software so far, I don't want to switch to a new piece of diabetes equipment and find the software is not very good.

If you get a chance, I'd be really interested if would post about the software for the Animas and what you think about it.