November 14 – World Diabetes Day. We know that it is impossible to recover from it, but is there a way to adapt? We asked those who have been familiar with the disease for a long time. They were restored to hope and a full life insulin pump – a progressive means of treatment.
Diabetes belongs to the group of chronic diseases: cure is impossible today. It is dangerous for its complications – diseases of the heart, kidneys, nervous system, disorders in the digestive tract, deterioration of vision.
About 382 million people in the world suffer from diabetes, and by 2025 this figure could increase to 592 million *. In Russia, according to experts, about 10 million patients.
To prevent the progression of the disease, it is important to constantly maintain blood sugar levels at the proper level. Patients with type 1 diabetes need to calculate the required dose of insulin (based on the results of measurements of blood sugar levels, for example, using a glucometer, and depending on what a person plans to do: eat, sleep, or actively move) and inject it with a syringe or a syringe pen. As a rule, at least four such injections per day are necessary. But it is difficult to calculate the amount of insulin, painful bumps often remain from the injections, besides it is necessary to find an opportunity to make an injection each time.
November 14 – World Diabetes Day. It was established in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation (MDF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The reason is the scale of the threat that diabetes poses. The goal of World Diabetes Day is to raise awareness about diabetes — about the number of people who become ill and how to prevent the development of this disease.
To avoid many of the difficulties allows a modern device for continuous insulin therapy – insulin pump, a kind of pancreas. In a healthy person, the body is constantly supplied with small portions of insulin, which allows you to maintain the required level of sugar in the blood, and during meals the body produces an additional portion of insulin. The pump imitates the normal functioning of the body: insulin is injected continuously. For example, the Accu- Chek Combo insulin pump (Roche) supplies a person with insulin every three minutes, giving 480 doses per day. In this case, completely unnoticed, not only for others, but also for the patient. Using insulin pump, you can eat, play sports or relax when you want. That is, a person can control his illness himself, and not adjust himself and his life under the administration of insulin. Many say that after the transition to insulin therapy pompovuyu they found freedom of action, improved the quality of life, and someone believes that his life has become similar to the old – without diabetes.
Overcome your fear
Why not everyone decides on an insulin pump? Let us leave aside the financial question: as it turned out, even when it is possible to solve it, there are patients who do not want to install it. What scares the sick? Some talk about the reluctance to be “chained” to a medical device, to feel affection and dependence on the pump (it joins the body with a needle and a catheter). It is scary for others to entrust therapy to the device: sometimes it seems that this device is too complicated and difficult to deal with. The third category does not want to show the disease on display: the patient carries the pump with him (on himself) constantly. In addition, the need for regular replacement of the needle is scary. To part with these fears will help the endocrinologist consultation or classes in schools of diabetes.