SamQKitty

I don't know what's available in Australia, but I think most of the pump manufacturers have made them available pretty much world-wide.

As for how it works: The pump is a device about the size of a pager. It attaches to your body via a length of tubing and a flexible plastic canula. At the end of the tubing away from your body (in the pump) is a reservoir to hold the insulin. The pump settings are programmed by the user (with help/advice from your diabetes educator or doctor). There are two types of programs: A) basal, which is the amount of insulin your body needs to perform basic functioning without eating and B)bolus, which is what you need to cover the food that you eat.

The basal rates may be set at different amounts per hour for different times of the day. For example, when up and active, you usually need a bit less insulin to function, but while sleeping you usually need a bit more. My pump is programmed to give me 7/10ths of a unit per hour from 10AM to 10PM, and 9/10ths of a unit per hour from 10PM to 10AM.

Then, to cover food, you need to count carbohydrates. Your doctor/DE will establish an insulin to carb ratio for you (usually 1 unit to 8g, 1 units to 10g, or 1 unit to 12g, but it can be adjusted up or down). Mine is 1 unit to 10g. So, for every 10 grams of carbohydrate I'm planning to eat, I program the pump to give my 1 unit of insulin immediately.

Example: Breakfast today I had 3/4 cup cereal (26 g carb), 1 cup of milk (13 g carb) and 1 small peach (15g carb), for a total of 54 grams of carbohydrate. I programmed the pump to deliver a bolus of 5.4 units of insulin.

To use a pump successfully, you must be willing to test your blood glucose at least 5-7 times a day and to learn how to count the carbohydrate values of food. It's a bit intensive, and you need to be thinking of your care constantly.

On the plus side, you can achieve terrific control with a pump and usually do so without experiencing severe lows. I've been on the pump for 8 months and I've brought my HbA1c down from 9.2 to 7.0 (goal is 6.5), and haven't experienced a single severe low in that time. Before the pump, my blood sugars were all over the place, including many in the 20's and 30's.

If you have any other questions, post back and I'll do the best I can to answer them.