Multiple Daily Injections vs. Insulin Pump Therapy

As a Type One Diabetic, because your immune system attacked your pancreas and destroyed the insulin making cells, you have no option but to take insulin to treat and manage your diabetes, and no matter how many scam websites try to tell you different ways to cure or treat it, this will always be the case. Although you may not have an option to choose to take or not take insulin, you do have a few different options to choose from when it comes to how you take the insulin your body needs. Most likely, when you're first diagnosed with diabetes, you will start out taking insulin via Multiple Daily Injections.

Multiple Daily Injections

 Basically, Multiple Daily Injections is just a bigger way to say shots. When using multiple daily injection as a way to take the insulin you need, you'll probably be on anywhere from 3 to 6 shots a day. Younger children tend to be on more shots than adults, simply because they may need snacks throughout the day to help stabilize their blood sugars, which results in the need for more insulin(which results in more shots) to cover their food intake. Adults, however, usually can get by with 3-4 shots a day, depending on the severity of their diabetes. During my about 9 years using Multiple Daily Injections to treat my diabetes, I was on everywhere from 4 to 6 shots a day. With Multiple Daily Injections, you'll be on two different types of insulin: a short acting insulin(I was on Novolog) and a long acting insulin(I was on Lantus). You'll take the short acting insulin to cover the carbs you eat at meal and snack times, as well as to correct any high blood sugars you have. Short acting insulin generally stays in your system for about two to three hours and takes about fifteen minutes to start working. In addition to using short acting insulin to cover food and correct hyperglycemia, you'll use a long acting insulin to help stabilize your blood sugar throughout the day. You'll take long acting insulin once a day, usually at nighttime, and you'll usually take a larger dose of long acting insulin than you will of short acting insulin since it will be in your system all day long. The long acting insulin will act as background insulin, always in your system to help regulate your blood glucose. Long acting insulin stays in your system for twenty-four hours and usually takes about an hour or two to start working.

Insulin Pump Therapy

With insulin pump therapy, unlike Multiple Daily Injections, you will only be on one type of insulin: short acting insulin(I'm still using Novolog for this.) Rather than injecting short acting insulin multiple times a day to cover food and high blood sugars and injecting long acting insulin once a day, you will be hooked up to a small, beeper like machine that will give you short acting insulin continuously throughout the day(this is called your basal insulin) in the place of a long acting insulin and you will simply test your blood sugar, enter the amount of carbs, and give yourself insulin for food or correcting your blood sugar with the press of a few buttons.
I know being hooked up to a machine might sound scary or unpleasant, but it really isn't. This is what my insulin pump looks like:

And this is what goes inside me:

Unlike many people think, there's no needle that stays inside you all the time. Using an insertion device, you'll use a needle to insert a tiny rubber tube(shown above) into your body, then you will remove the needle, leaving only the rubber tube(called a cannula). The cannula will be connected by a tube thinner than a piece of spaghetti to your pump, and the pump will send insulin through the tube, into the cannula, and into your body. You will leave each cannula in your body for about two to three days, and then you will put a new one in, which is super easy to do and takes about ten minutes or so.

There are several different brands of pumps. The pump I use is called the Animas One Touch Ping, but other popular and well known pumps include the Medtronic  Minimed Revel(Here's a picture:

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and the Omnipod(Here's a picture of this pump as well:

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There is no one pump that is right for every diabetic, so when choosing a pump, talk to your doctor about which pump might be best for you, and in the long run, don't worry too much about it! Most pumps do the same thing and they're kinda like cars: you choose the one that has the most feature that you like or feel will be beneficial to you.

Pros and Cons

Multiple Daily Injections and insulin pump therapy both have their pros and cons. These will be different for each individual person, but I'll share some of my personal pros and cons for each of these treatment methods.

Multiple Daily Injections

Pros:

• No tubing to get tangled on doorknobs and rip off(not that that's ever happened to me... just kidding, it totally has.)
• No pump to have to have pockets to put in or to ruin outifts(however, if all else fails, stick it in your bra, ladies. Sorry guys, I can't really help y'all out.)
• Less chance of developing ketones with high blood sugars because of long acting insulin always being present

Cons:

• Lots of needles(Multiple shots a day isn't fun, not going to lie)
• Lots of bruises(needles are sharp and human skin is tender and delicate)
• Takes more time at meal time(Having to take the time to draw up a shot before eating a meal can get a little annoying)

Insulin Pump Therapy

Pros:

• Fewer needles(Changing your cannula and infusion set every three days is so much better than taking 3-4 shots everyday)
• More freedom(It's easier to adjust your meal times and have a more flexible schedule with a pump than it is on shots)
• Less math(Your pump will do a lot of the math for you. If you're like me and math isn't exactly your forte, this is a big plus)

Cons:

• You always have something connected to you(With the exception of when you're showering, your pump is always going to be connected to you. To me, this isn't a big deal, but some people don't enjoy the feeling of always having a machine and cannula inside them. It's different for everyone, and you're the only one who can decide if this is a drawback to using an insulin pump for you or not.)
• Higher risk of developing ketones(Since you won't have a long acting insulin in your system at all times, ketones can develop easier than when you do have that long acting insulin to act as a back up net. However, don't let this scare you. Ketones can definitely still be avoided with proper management.

In the end, the decision is yours. Multiple Daily Injections and insulin pump therapy both treat Type One Diabetes the same way if used with proper care and management. If you have questions about either type of treatment, ask a doctor, a nurse, or ask me! I'm always happy to answer any questions you may have and I hope this blog helps you in making your decision.