I’ve been on insulin, obviously, since I was diagnosed in 1970. I’ve been an insulin pump user since the year 2000, October 2000, and used just about every single pump on the market. I’m currently using Omnipod, and finally able to use the Dexcom CGM to check my blood sugar round the clock. So, my doctor and I have… Pretty much, I’ve been with her for a number of years. Maybe seven or more. My other doctor also. The two of them just kind of let me make my own path. As technology became more available and was more affordable, that’s what we did. And I was always able to get along with them by sharing my ideas, my interests with them. No one ever forced me to do anything that I didn’t want to do, and I’ve been fortunate that I always could talk to them about whatever I wanted and whatever I thought I should try, and they would help me get it. So, that’s always been a pretty good deal for me. Again, I’ve tried almost every pump on the market, and right now I’m using Omnipod and very, very pleased with that. And a Dexcom.

I currently use a Dexcom G6 glucose monitor and Insulet Omnipod insulin pump. Mostly, these devices have made managing diabetes much easier and less of a burden each day. It was discussed with my diabetes doctor, and we decided it would be the best option.

I currently treat my diabetes using an insulin pump and a continual glucose monitor. The two talk to each other and work to address my insulin levels throughout the day autonomously. So it takes a lot of the stress off me. My doctor and I thought it made a lot of sense because it’s the newest technology and also is incredibly safe. And it just does a lot of good with really no downside to it.

He mostly handles things himself, which we have to do so that we know that he can take care of himself in a couple of years when he leaves the house. Everything he eats has to have a set amount of insulin that he takes. He has to have another set amounts, if his blood’s too high, you have to know what to do if his blood too low. We go to a doctor every three months to validate to his blood work looks good and adjust meds as needed. They’re also on call.

Yeah, so I go see the doctor every three months and each day I do my blood sugar checks and just try to make sure that keep my blood sugar in a normal range. And if for some reason I’m not, then I have to take more medicine. But yeah, that’s pretty much it. My doctor and I agreed to do it this way for now since my condition’s not real bad and so she monitors me and we just make sure that things are going well.

I’m currently using an insulin pump to address the needs of being a type 1 diabetic. This was actually decided by my doctor back in 2000 when I had expressed an interest in becoming pregnant. It was mandatory to be placed on an insulin pump for tighter control of your diabetes.

Hi there. So what’s really important for me is a low sugar diet that I follow pretty significantly because if I don’t, I don’t feel well. My doctor and I decided on the course of treatment, I have Kaiser, and Kaiser actually has a whole treatment team for people with diabetes. So there’s classes that you attend online or in person, and they show you how to use your monitor. We’re currently in the process of trying to get a continuous monitor for me, just to make it a little bit easier. We also reviewed several medications. She’s tried quite a few, and we’ve settled on one that tends to help me stay a little more regular. My blood sugar was fluctuating pretty badly, even when I was following a restrictive diet, and that has definitely helped.

So, how do I manage this condition, including medical treatments? I am currently on the Tandem t:slim insulin pump, and I use that in conjunction with the Dexcom G6 CGM. How did I decide on this? I had started off on the FreeStyle Libre, I liked it a lot actually. It was very accurate for me, but I didn’t get alerts for, especially, low glucose, low blood sugar. I live alone. I moved 1500 miles away from my family, and so I needed alerts, which led me to the Dexcom. I haven’t really been too impressed with the Dexcom. It’s kind of hit and miss. But with the current way of the world right now, with COVID, I looked into getting possibly the Eversense CGM, but they’re not accepting new patients. And then, I really want to wait until it can be implanted longer than three months, and see if maybe they integrate that with the Tandem pump, like the Dexcom is. I decided on doing all this. My doctor lets me basically try whatever, which I love her for. I could not do shots. I was taking I think 30 or 35 units a day of long-acting insulin. It was not working. And as soon as I got on the pump, my control was much better, and it was just a much better situation. So, that’s what led me to using the pump, and then I knew about the integration with Dexcom for the closed-loop system, that they now have the Control-IQ. So, that’s what led me to the Tandem pump, as well as I didn’t feel like I really had a comparable system that would give me the results I would want.

It was mentioned I have a Dexcom that monitors my blood sugar and then I also have a Omnipod to get my insulin delivery. It’s like a tubeless pump. I started out with a Freestyle Libre, and that was recommended by my doc. He said, “Hey, if you don’t mind, this could help,” and it’s awesome being able to have constant blood sugar readings because I’m athletic. And I really feel like doing physical activity, you really need to know at all times what your blood sugar is doing, and I just can’t imagine people who don’t have some sort of CGM doing that. That’s how I ended up with that, and I switched to Dexcom under my current insurance, because my impression was that it was supposed to be better than the Freestyle Libre, and my current insurance covers it 100 percent. I don’t have to pay anything out of pocket, so even though it’s far more expensive, it’s better, cheaper, or it’s free for me, so why not get the better one? Frankly, the only benefit of the Dexcom over the Freestyle is just the fact that I get constant readings. I don’t have to scan myself, whereas with the Libre, I had to scan myself every time I wanted a reading, so that’s definitely a big benefit. With the insulin pumps, that was sort of driven by my old endo. She kept saying, “Well, you should consider a pump. It would help you get better numbers, especially if you can get a hybrid closed loop system, like a Tandem. I just was never interested in having any sort of cords on me or things hanging off with me, so I was not interested in a pump for a while until I found out on Reddit that there was a tubeless pump solution, Omnipod. I had no idea until I saw that. And I was interested because, frankly, when you’re out running, it’s really annoying to have to stop and give yourself insulin with a pen. And then unless you have that InPen thing, you can’t really do a smaller amount of dose. You have to do a relatively large unit dose. So the pump gives me more flexibility to be able to adjust my insulin while I’m doing physical activity, or turn it down so that I’m not going low and different things like that. So having a pump is huge, and it was something that, yeah, it was recommended eventually by the endo, but I was the one that found the solution that worked for me, and I was kind of disappointed that I had to find that myself rather than someone letting me know that that was something I could do. Yep.

take two different kinds of insulin every day. One breakfast, lunch, dinner, and one when we get up in the morning.

My daughter currently wears an Omnipod insulin pump and a Dexcom G6 Continuous Glucose Monitor. She has NovoLog in her insulin pump, fast acting insulin. How did we decide on that approach? My daughter, when she was seven, she had been on shots, insulin shots for about a year. At age seven, decided she wanted an insulin pump. And Omnipod at the time was the only one who had a waterproof insulin pump. And she spent all summers, usually in the ocean or swimming. So we needed something that would last just as long as she would. So we chose Omnipod. It’s a patch type insulin pump, and we chose it because it was waterproof. She didn’t have to disconnect when she went in the ocean, or swimming at home, or playing with her friends. She could keep it on and it would survive a day swimming, in the shower, and everything else. Our endocrinologist was fine with it. And then about when she was eight, we started with the Continuous Glucose Monitor to help see what her sugars were doing throughout the day, all the time.

So right now, I manage my diabetes with insulin. However, I do eat keto and try not to use insulin as much as possible. I also use the Dexcom G6 Continuous Glucose Monitor to monitor my blood sugar 24 hours throughout the day, instead of using the manual finger prick, although I still use that, but less frequently because it helps manage my diabetes.

I manage my condition by taking two different types of insulin each day, sort of a quick release with meals, and then the long-acting insulin once a day in the morning. It’s NovoLog and Tresiba. And on top of that, I have a continuous glucose monitor that I wear, which allows me to test my blood at any point in the day. It helps give trends whether you’re going up or down, and helps give a lot of good information.

So currently I use MDMI, multiple daily injections of two forms of insulin to manage my disease, as well as a CGM, a continuous glucose meter by Dexcom. The combination of these two has made my condition less of a burden, less of a stress. The CGM wakes me up in the middle of the night if I am high or low so I don’t have that fear and anxiety of sleep. Also, I’m quite active. So it helps me see the trends and where things are going. The CGM truly is a godsend. I can’t see myself living without it. With MDMI, I kind of came to that decision. I have not switched to a pump yet. I started out with multiple daily injections with pens and the screw-on needles since my diagnosis. So it’s something that I’m comfortable with. I have been able to manage my diabetes in a healthy range in the five years that I have had this disease with MDMI. So I don’t see myself changing anything right now, due to a pump being such a big commitment and such a big change. I’m just not ready for that in my life. So that’s kind of how the doctors have come to it. The CGM helped me with better control. I am comfortable with the multiple daily injections with the needles and everything like that and dosing myself. Yeah, and I’m very happy with how I’m able to take care of myself.

To manage my Type 1 diabetes, I’m on an insulin pump and a continuous glucose monitoring system. A couple of years after I was diagnosed, I was still taking multiple daily injections. I had done the research myself to see that there was a pump available. I was the one who approached my doctor and said, “I think I’d like to be on the pump.” And she agreed. At the time I was a little annoyed that the doctor didn’t bring this up to me, that I had to be the one to bring it up to my doctor. But she did agree. Eventually, I did change doctors cause I didn’t really like her or how she handled things. And so, I’ve been on the pump for I’d say 13 or 14 years and it really has helped me to manage my condition.

Current management is using a CGM, Continuous Glucose Monitor, and an insulin pump that helps when my sugar goes high, blood glucose goes high or goes low, it shuts it off. My doctor and my husband and I came to this decision because I no longer feel my limbs, so it makes it really hard, especially when sleeping at night. It’s very easy to go low and you don’t wake up. And then you die from being a Type 1 diabetic.

Initially, I tested my blood sugar manually and used my insulin by pen. After realizing my active schedule was too hard to control my sugars and keeps them from going low, I got a continuous monitor, which is much easier to control my A1C and I use insulin pens.