First post on this and I need advice.
I have recently came into some money left to me my a deceased relative and am thinking of getting a pump with it as the NHS are unlikely to give me one.
A little bit of info – I am 17 years old and have been type 1 diabetic for 16 of those. There is no history of diabetes in my family but 2 other children under 4 in my street were diagnosed with type 1 within the same year. when I left Yorkhill Childrena Hospital I was 14 and by Hba1c was 6.4. Since attending the adult clinic the the Victoria Infirmary it has rose and rose and has been between 9-11 for the past two years.
To add to my problems, in August my hurt my foot and being absent minded and forgetting that feet are a big issue in the diabetic world, thought that it would just heal itself, which of course it didn’t. My big toe on my right foot became infected and I ended up in A&E after it getting stood on and being too painfull for words. I was then in hospital for just under a week and had half my leg bandaged up. It was the worst experience of my life. I was on 96 hour of IV antibiotics and was getting blood tests everyday, and for someone with terrible veins this was not good. The people taking blood were trainee doctors on their first rotation and could not take blood from me. The inside parts of my elbow were massivly bruised for weeks after.
When I got out of hospital I was given enough pills to sink a ship but my toe did not get better, and after countless trips to my GP and given more pills, including Clindamycin, the domestos of antibiotics(kills all known germs) nothing was working. Then mid november, I was sent to A&E again and got my toenail removed, which in my opinion should have been done in the first place, but oh well. Anyway, my toe heal faster than any of the doctors thought it would.
However, my a1c is still not improving, and this is causing me to think about the pump.
I would really appreciate some pros and cons from pump users.
Thanks Kirsty French
Glasgow xx