MY SON IS 14 AND IS INVOLVED IN FOOTBALL, BASKETBALL AND BASEBALL. HE PLAYS A SPORT NON STOP ALL YEAR LONG. HE HAS BEEN DIAGNOSED FOR 2 YEARS AND HIS A1C HAS REALLY BEEN GREAT (6.8-7). HE HAS ALWAYS USED THE NOVOLOG AND LEVEMIR FLEXPENS. HE TAKES 5 SHOTS A DAY. HE IS ALL MUSCLE AND THE SHOTS SOMETIMES ARE PAINFUL. MY QUESTION IS- WITH A PUMP, HOW OFTEN WILL HE HAVE TO DISCONNECT IF THEY PRACTICE 3 - 4 HOURS A DAY AT SCHOOL. I DON'T SEE HOW THE PUMP WOULD BE BENEFICIAL IF HE HAS PRACTICE OR GAMES EVERYDAY. AND HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH TYPE OF PUMP IS THE BEST FOR ATHLETES?
I play men's rugby and am active with training/working out and use the pump. My pump (Animas-IR 1250) allows me to disconnect when I'm going to participate in my activities as it would definitely not stay connected through the duration of them. Overall, the pump has made life with diabetes so much easier. Being able to disconnect during sports and reconnect afterwards is easy. I would talk to your son's doctor and get their thoughts on it as everyone is different in their approach.
I too have a son with T-1 who is 14..he runs x-country and plays b'ball all with the pump. He wears it in a device that is velcroed around his waist..it has a plastic window so he can see all settings and can do whatever is necessary. We have worked his settings out so that he gives a temp. basal rate or whatever needs be during each activity. We have learned through experience when to back off and when to give more. But the bottom line is he has not had to disconnect. He also played baseball for a number of years too with this. I ordered it through the diabetes mall website. And just FYI, his A1Cs have been great too..never going above 7.5...we have just now gotten him a CG sensor to work with along with the pump...it's all good!
Pump!! I play tennis 2-3 (sometimes 4 if we have a match) hours a day in addition to running 30-60 minutes daily. I have a pump, and I don't disconnect. I actually wear shorts under my uniform and just slip it in the pocket. This works because:
a) I get my insulin over practice (I have delayed lows from exercise) b) My CGM reads to my pump, so that is always handy to make sure I'm not going too high or low c) It is always on me, so I always know where it is.
As far as what pump is best, there isn't really one for "athletes." If I were you I'd choose a pump that fits your son, not his sports. They all vary, so it's good to look into them and decide from there what would work for him; hope this helped.
Get a pump! I would recommend Minimed or the Omnipod. I love my pump and have worn it since 1995 my 7 yr old has had it for 2 years as well. I am super athletic and can run up to 4 + hours at a time. He wouldn't be disconnecting for 3-4 hours as the only insulin in the pump is short acting (humalog/novolog). Disconnected that period of time without insulin, even when active he will be spilling ketones. But, by making a temporary basal rate he will have fewer lows, a steadier weight, and perform athletically his personal best. The pump is amazing for so many reasons. As far as disconnecting goes the Omnipod is not an option for pulling it off your skin but it is a tubingless system. The other pumps leave a small site in your skin that can be easily disconnected from. I like my pump for this reason. See your CDE they usually all have the pumps in their office to check out. I think Omnipod will actually let you wear one for a month to check it out. Good luck and just try it, you can always go back to shots- but who would want to?!
I think the pump is great too....my now 10 year old son has had diabetes for nearly 4 years...he plays soccer and we just disconnect during games and/or we lower the delivery to 50% or so........for practice we generally have him take it off in case he gets in a "rough situation"...pushed, falls, etc....sometimes he will be high right after, but generally get a delayed low....we just monitor closely on those days...he has a game today at 4....
I can understand your concerns....my son certainly doesn't practice that much, but you can always suspend the pump for a period of time or lower the basal rate...we do that a lot...you can lower to 50% or even more....that will keep a little bit of insulin going in but not as much while he is active.....disconnecting is generally not a big deal......you have to change the site about every 2-3 days but that beats 5 shots a day! My son uses the animas 2020 pump! The only way to really know if this might be helpful to your son might be to try it......does he go low a lot with his high activity rate.....if he does, having a pump might help with that.....
with those of you with the pump who leave it connected when exercising, do you have a problem with sweating? Does the sweat loosen the adhesive or whatever attaching you to your pump?
I don't have very many problems with that. But just in case, I carry medical tape so if I'm not in a situation where I am able to change a site I'm good to keep playing ;) I've never had sweat cause it to come off. Sometimes, especially with CGM and Tagaderm, it gets uncomfortable to have tape stuck to sweaty skin but that is the extent of my experience with it.
I have no issues with the adhesive and I am a rower (around water, sweat you name it). You can also get an additional layer of tape as a second skin to help reinforce the adhesive if needed.
I rarely run into adheisive issues with the excercise I am involved in. I say rarely cause it does happen. I just have to test it out more. For me, I do run and sweat alot, I have only had a few excercise related removals of the infusion set. Keeping it attached otherwise is not a problem. The one time I can think of that I lost the infusion set was that I was on my vacation a few weeks back on a cruise, one morning when we were docked at the Island Port I ran a 5k and than came back to the room drenched. I took a shower and than realized that the set was dislodging. However, I am not sure if this was because of sweat, the humidity, or something else. As on this occasion there were many different factors that I do not normally run into. Usually when I excercise and run, i have a cool off period before I shower, the set was new and the humidty on the ship could have affected it, or because I was covering myself in sunscreen for a few days, it may not have attached itself fully.
Thankfully, it has not happened often, but this summer will be the real test, as it will be my first full summer on the pump.