Hello and a question
Dear Group, I am a long-term lurker in this Group and have been very
impressed by the consistent quality of information and enthusiasm of the
members. I am 48 y.o. and have been diabetic for 40 years. I am a very old
pump user having been on one of 5 different pumps since July 1979, but am
very isolated from other pumpers because, although Canadian, I have lived
most of my life in Japan, where IDDM is uncommon and insulin pumps are
almost unknown. In all my 21 years on the pump I have only been pumpless
for one single day, which was in October 1996 the day when I received a
preemptive kidney transplant in London, Ontario with one of my younger
brothers the generous donor. Thanks to pumping I have been spared the other
complications of DM (have no retinopathy or neuropathy at all) and had a
very easy time after my transplant even in the early months when I was on
prednisone (I am now on Cyclosporine alone with HbA1c’s consistently 6.1%).
I gave up on diabetes specialists/endocrinologists several decades ago
and have had no opportunity to speak to pump representatives or other
patients. So a lot of the info available in this group is like a foreign
language to me (i.e the different kinds of pumps and tubing now apparently
available). In this connection I was wondering if I could ask a question. I
use the first generation Disetronic pump (H-tron), but have heard that a
much more sophisticated pump (D-tron) is or will soon be commercially
available. Does anyone have any info about the features of this new pump
and/or when it will be available? I am returning to Canada next week for a
long summer vacation and am really hoping to be able to pick one up then.
Thank you in advance for any info and for allowing me to be a lurker thus
far and hopefully become a more active member in the future. John Gelblum,
Kanazawa, Japan
August 31st, 2004 at 4:27 am
Dear Lurker,
Your post is most interesting.
I am surprised that IDDM is uncommon in Japan; do you have any statistics? Any
reasons suspected for this to be the case?
Despite your abandoning endos and specialists, you seem to have done very well.
How did you get information to accomplish what you have done?
I was diagnosed with Type I while stationed at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan
in 1956. Those were really the dark ages; treatment: take one shot of NPH
daily, and forget it. "We have cured this disease", the Navy MD advised. I
paid the price 25 years later with a A1c of 16…. But, I cannot blame this on
Japanese medicine.
David
September 2nd, 2004 at 1:01 am
Hi John: Welcome to the group, even if you are a lurker:))
From what I learned from the new East coast rep, the D-tron has not
September 3rd, 2004 at 1:23 am
Has not what???
September 4th, 2004 at 7:59 am
Near as I can figure it’s still not avail;able in Canada, John. Where are
you destined when you come back to Canada?
fp