Tuesday 14 May 2013

Pump logistics

Dresses and diabetes, two things that don't go together very well. (sorry to any males reading this, its all about dresses for this post!)

I really like wearing dresses but have never really wear as many of them as I would like because logistics of them with diabetes can lead to some embarrassing moments. When on injections I found doing injections discreetly when out quite difficult as hiking up your dress to get to a stomach site at the dinner table tends to be frowned upon! This meant trotting off to the loo to do an injection whilst everyone else digs into their meal, definitely not ideal.

Moving over to a pump there came the problem of where on earth can I put this thing and still access it in a dress (this is where remote connections would be useful!).
Theres the spibelt option which I used, this is fine and well hidden up until it comes to accessing the thing, some shuffling and catching of the pump is done which takes some time.
Theres the thigh garter which is again fine apart from the square lump on your leg, the occasional pulling it back up my leg and again access to it.
Dress with Pocket,
pump can't be seen.

So diabetes and dresses don't mix right? Wrong! I found a solution for my dresses. Seeing as most of my dresses are fairly flowy with a full skirt, I thought pockets might work. And they did!

So following this tutorial I added my first pockets in the seams of one of my dresses. I then added a buttonhole to the pockets (probably best done before sewing them in instead of after!) and the lining of the dress so I could thread the tubing through. Although I would suggesting measuring the size of the little clippy bit that attaches to the site as one of them was too small and I needed to redo it :(

The pockets in my dress turned out well and they can't be seen even with my pump in one of them. I will be adding them to all of my others :)
Inside the pocket

I'm now off to buy more dresses to add pockets to after!


Buttonhole 
Inside out




I just wanted an excuse to use my sewing machine and this lovely fabric!

5 comments:

  1. Thats really smart! Nice blog! When did you get your animas vibe? what is MDI? ;S

    (ps. not only women wear dresses ;P)

    /Jennifer, 24y/o diabetic from Sweden :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jennifer

      Thanks thats really kind :)

      I got my Vibe at the beginning of April but before that I got my 2020 (my first pump) in July last year, it was changed for the Vibe because of a fault on all the 2020's.

      MDI stands for multiple daily injections and consists of one injection of long acting insulin (e.g. Lantus) and one of rapid acting insulin (e.g. Humalog).

      There is a page at the top which explains lots of terminology (or see here http://whatinsulin.blogspot.co.uk/p/diabetic-terms-and-language.html)

      Danielle.

      Delete
  2. Wow you have talent my friend! I can't even thread a needle without sticking myself(which then of course means I have to test! no wasting here). I never wear dresses just because of my pump.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I was thinking of just never wearing dresses but I was determined to find a way!

      Delete