The Pump vs The Cocktail Dress

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Medtonic sent their certified insulin pump trainer to my house yesterday and I've been wearing it since about 8:30 pm 7/05/2010.

I used to wear the pump when I was in high school.  I didn't like it for many reasons.  I was teased and kids literally ripped the pump right off of me and laughed.  The popular boys chanted "Hey baby what's your pager number?"  Obviously, what they think doesn't matter, and most of those boys screwed up their lives anyway.  I also had trouble wearing dresses with that darn leg strap and the pump did not feel very convenient to a 16 year old girl in California.  The point is that some of my earlier concerns carried over to now.  How do you wear a pump and feel confident and safe?

My best friend (fashion designer) and I are working together to develop new and better attire to make wearing the pump safer, more convenient, more comfortable and a better way to hide it in a cocktail dress!  Let's face it ladies, the leg strap sucks!  How can you hide a pump in your bust without it looking awkward?  How does a girl in the HOT summer climate wear a pump unnoticed and in the most convenient way possible?  My best friend and I plan to tackle this issue along with many others this summer.

My goal is to make functional attire that is affordable and enables us all to continue feeling cute.  If anyone wants me to give them updates on our progress add me as a friend and I'll keep you updated.

Nice to meet you!  Ciao!

Kellie :)

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Kellie,

one word. Pocket.

If you can figure out a way to make a pump pocket in a dress without it having a bulge you have got a winner. When I got married the designer of my dress made a pump pocket for my gown and it made my life 100 times easier. But, of course my dress was a ball gown and I had a lot of room for it not to look obvious. I am sure you can think of many creative ways to add accessories and other interesting appliques to hide bulges ... If you need design ideas I can help with that if you want.

Let me know or send me a PM to my inbox for my contact information.

~G

3

I actually wore a leg strap tonight! I absolutely hate it! and hiding your pump in your bra only really works if you have big boobs lol Either way they are both awkward and extremely uncomfortable. The worst is when your out at dinner and you need to get to your pump... I've deff have gotten some looks when I'm at the table and I'm reaching up my shirt or trying to look at my pump under the table under my dress haha

My Diabetes nurse educator was actually diabetic too and we would share tips. She told me she wore a jock strap under her dress at a wedding and put her pump in it instead of keeping it on a leg band. loll I thought that was hysterical.

Deff keep me updated if you think of anything that is better and if i have any ideas i will let you know :)

4

The leg strap is useless. It isn't strong enough to stay up your leg. I actually had my pump fall out from beneath my dress onto a wood floor and a waiter pick it up and hand it to me with a strange look on his face. Yes, that did happen LOL

I could deal with getting to my pump under my dress and get strange looks. What I couldn't deal with is a strange looking device falling from between my legs LOL That is more awkward LOL

Jock strap is kinda weird. That brings the word bulge to a whole other level on a woman LOL

Anway, another option I have used are spanx to hold the pump in as well as my fat LOL Wow, I am really cracking myself up here with all my puns haha.

 

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[quote user="Gina"]

Anway, another option I have used are spanx to hold the pump in as well as my fat LOL Wow, I am really cracking myself up here with all my puns haha.

 

[/quote]

The only thing is w/ the spandex/volleyball shorts you would have to clip it to something because from experience it falls, just like yours did Gina!! For school, i have to wear these uglyy skirts, so usually i clip it onto the strap, and just wear the shorts over it so it stays in place, i haven't had a problem with that so far! i do the same thing with dresses. 

pumps give us a whole new thought process when getting dressed!!

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Oh man. I'm having the hardest time with my clothes. Just started pumping this past month and I already have like nooo dresses that can work with my pump. I'm so bummed. I'm going to try buying some shorts or I suppose leggings might work but on really skimpy clothes its a bit harder. And I consider myself to be "lean". Whatever that means.

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I've recently had a little bit of success for a First Communion and Mother's Day brunch...

I bought two dresses with pockets (those are in right now).  And then I cut the tiniest hole in the pocket of the dress so that I could put the tubing through, and my pump sat right in the pocket.  No one could see it at all.  And when I needed to bolus, I had easy access to it. 

I used to do the bra thing, but it is just so uncomfortable.  Not worth it, especially in the summer.

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I always wore the pump in the side band of my bra - not the front sillies! I'm not big enough for that. It basically rested under my armpit and after a couple of days I barely noticed it. That was my spot of choice for the pump. I never tried the leg strap - seemed too flimsy for me.

 

Cora

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Different things work for different people - and different outfits.  :)  My top two places are on my hipbone, tucked into my undies; or the front of my bra.  Trying to wear it on the side of my bra doesn't work for me - it looks like I have a growth of some kind.  It's not a toooomuh.....

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First, I love this thread. It makes me laugh. All the crazy things we do. I have similar problems all the time.

The leg thing is tricky. Ok if you are sitting, but don't try to dance! If I can, I will wear stockings, that sometimes help hold it up, but who wants to do that??? And certainly not in the summer. I have tried the bra thing a couple times, and it works sometimes, if the dress comes up high enough. Sometimes it looks like I have a third square boob, which is always interesting, since I am not exactly "curvy". I'm also really little, a whopping 5' tall, so I am always wondering when I wear a lower dress if ppl look down in there and wonder what is going on. lol. I tried the side thing before, but it usually looks like I have a weird growth as well. If the outfit was loose enough, I might be ok. I actually started out back in the day with a Disetronic pump, which came with some interesting holders. I have one that has a hook on one end that you can put over the side of your bra. If your clothes are loose, it works pretty well, but usually any dress I wear is pretty snug in that area and it doesn't work. If I wear looser clothes I feel like I look pregnant. Not what I am after, haha.  I have pulled my pump out places before and gotten weird looks. Or it has fallen out and I have to shuffle across the floor as inconspicuously as possible and go readjust. Most of the time I am with ppl who know me pretty well, so it is just funny, but it could get awkward pretty quickly. It's always awesome too when the dress is long, so when you are holding your pump the tubing isn't long enough to go from insertion site, down to the ground and then back up. You either have to do this weird "hunch" walk, or pull up your dress. Good times there, lol.

I'm totally trying the hipbone/undies next time though!

As for the taking insulin thing. I know some pumps have a remote that you can use. I don't have one though. Sometimes, I will head off the the bathroom right before food is served and give myself a bolus, but extend the time on it, maybe an hour or two, so I don't drop off too fast. I also have a "fast bolus" system, where I can program any amount of insulin I want to be delivered with a single button push and it beeps, so I can listen to it without having to drag my pump out and look at the screen. This works better for the leg set up, cuz I can feel the button and listen for the beeps. For example, now I have each button push to be 0.5 units, so 3 units = 6 beeps. I think it will go as low as 0.2 units, or mush higher, but the 1/2 unit works best for me.

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Those leg strap things falling down and having a flat chest were problems for me too when I was on the pump. :P I'm not on it now, but I try to wear my CGM receiver on my body, b/c I don't have luck remembering to remain within 5 feet of my purse unless I'm seating at a restaurant table... All I can say is that the last couple of seasons, there have been all those skirts w/ pockets someone else mentioned, and I bought multiple ones!!! Also, if it's just at work, I'll wear a skirt instead of a dress and clip the thing on my waist, and no one over the age of 5 has ever asked me what it was. (:

I have a wedding to attend this weekend, and not sure what I'll do with that dress. Luckily, with a CGM, I can just ditch it, but I hate to do it while I'm dancing.

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[quote user="Kim"] It's not a toooomuh.....[/quote]

Kindegarten Cop.... I love it. :) It's the same thing I thought when I heard my first baby's heartbeat for the first time. Sorry for going off topic, ladies.

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"i'm not a baby. i'm a tumor." <-- that's from hellboy. i burst out laughing when i heard it :o)

i'm lucky enough (depending how you look at it...) to have gigantic boobs. pumps in the boobs has never been a problem for me. i always worry about weather or not i'm suffocating the poor thing....

dresses with pockets!! i just bought 3 today because they were so damn cute. i never thought about performing surgery on the dress to allow my pump to hang out in it. such a good idea!

oh, insulin pumps. i love juvenation :o)

14

I've still yet to find a great way to wear a dress and pump at the same time.  I end up using the stupid leg thingy and having to pull it up like a million times throughout the course of a night.  Mine fits TERRIBLY partly because it's so big and I'm just not.  Seriously, I can fit that thing around my waist, but I have to wrap it around my leg a couple times just to make it fit.  I've had zero luck with putting the pump in my bra or on the side (I don't have much up top in the first place.)  I usually end up just not wearing a dress, if I can help it and just going with a top and a skirt, which is sad because I used to love dresses.  I'm in my brother's wedding in about a month though, so I'm going to have to face that stupid leg strap again. 

I have one of the remotes for my medtronic pump.  It's pretty awesome!  I don't have to dig my pump out of it's hiding place in order to give a bolus.  They are really pricey though.  For some odd reason, medtronic sent my brother one for free when he got started with his pump and he just gave it to me since he's not in the habit of having to hide his pump under his dresses! :)  I'm not sure I would have ponied up the money to buy one since I don't wear dresses all that much.

15

I have gotten awesome insulin pump accessories from this website: www.pumpwearinc.com. I got three sports bras (I'm wearing one right now) with the pockets in the front, a pair of underwear (I did not like these) and the leg strap thing (I hardly wear this because it's so HOT out). But the sports bras are my favorite thing ever.

A lot of the dresses I've bought recently are the tight-fitting, leave-nothing-to-the-imagination dresses that are in style now. I LOVE wearing dresses and I almost didn't return to insulin pump therapy because I didn't want to worry about the pump in a dress. Luckily, I have larger boobs so hiding the pump in my cleavage usually works.

But for those tight dresses with the plunging necklines, I sometimes just clip the pump onto my back (SEE THE PICTURE BELOW) and rock it. No one can see it from the front, if pictures are taken, so I don't really care.

Plus, I like when people ask me what the pump is because it gives me the chance to educate one more person about diabetes.

I just hate when people ask if it's an iPod! Why would I have an iPod on my back?!? Ughhh.

 

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My boobs are ginormous so I put it in my bra, I can fit like three pump in between LOL another trick is to stick it in your bra under your arm. That is what I do when i wear a strapless dress.

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Yeah I though about using spanx the other day.  My friend (Cheri) and I are actually working to design some attire and put patents on them.  We are going to experiment with different materials.  I have a lot of ideas.  I love hearing these new ones too.

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I wore Spanx on my wedding day, which happened to be the same day my Cozmo pump died.  I'm just sayin'.  Never again!

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I have a good friend that I met at diabetic camp in my early teens.  She has since moved on to a more professional job than myself, and she recently shared with me how she conceals her pump.  She went to a tailor and had little pockets inserted into the bottom of her slacks and skirts.  She tells me it's fairly inexpensive and much easier than clipping them onto her waist.

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I too look for dresses with pockets. I usually, not always, will cut a tiny hole in the pocket and run the tubing through it. I have even come up with different bra's that work better than others at hiding it in there. Doesn't always work though because my chest is not very big. I agree the leg pouch is useless and I hate it.  Let us all know what you come up with. I'd be interested in it!