I am a type 1 diabetic (DM-I), but I have never used a pump. Honestly, I wouldn't be interested in a pump unless I had a problem with sticking myself with needles several times a day (I don't), or if it was a pump that could continuously monitor my blood sugar, as I have a much bigger issue with the lancets for testing than the needles for injecting. I usually barely feel the injection, but the lancets hurt. As far as I know, pumps don't monitor blood glucose yet, but last I checked they were working on it, in the very city I live in, but I'm not sure about getting involved in the trials.

I don't know everything about your situation... maybe your doctor has a reason for having you on a pump, but I don't see the advantage of it. Did he explain? I hope so, my first Endocrinologist was a major disappointment in that he failed to explain much, and then reported me to the DMV as uncontrolled when I went to college and stopped seeing him. Then my licence got suspended every 6 months because I didn't reliably get my mail from parents while I was at college. They finally stopped suspending me when a doctor reported to them that I had never had a lapse of consciousness. Personally I think the Oregon DMV overreacts in general to the potential for hypoglycemia while driving.

As for the pump, if it discouraged me from staying active I'd go back to needles for sure. I check my blood sugar almost every 2 hours some days, and my physical activity level has been variable. I have noticed that I have a MUCH easier time keeping my blood sugar near the normal range when I am physically active. Things like physical activity and a good diet are important for everybody, but physical activity is doubly important for diabetics like us. I also found that carefully counting the grams of carbs in everything I eat helps, and being on long-acting insulin (Lantus, insulin glargine) helps, especialy in avoiding having high blood sugar when I wake up.

It sucks and it isn't fair, but if you take it seriously and take care of it reliably it probably won't be anything more than an annoyance for many years. If we take care of ourselves, we may even live a normal lifespan. Don't count on a cure. It may happen within our lifetimes, but DM-I seems to be autoimmune, and without immunosuppresants implants would likely be destroyed. So it's not like you can just replace the islet cells, a long-term solution would have to be more innovative than a mere implant. There are many worse things to have, and the positive thing about type one diabetes is you can do something about it, and it just might encourage you to take better care of yourself than you otherwise would have.