Animas going out of business looking into medtronic

im seeing that the screen is easy to see. im hoping much better than my animas. im still going to wait a few months before i switch over as medtronic has something with animas users. i know that animas has until march to switch over to the tandem one. so i may do that for myself. medtronic says they will call the animas users in the spring but i doubt they will do that. for swimming i take my pump off. but i dont actually swim, i will walk around in the water to get exercise.

why is my pump model such a catch? i have about 4 or five older models of my earlier pumps and no one would even accept them for donations. i have them stuffed in the back of my closet somewhere

If you are a kind soul, you might want to dig those up and see if any could be used my @Michel for his son. He is interested in looping.

Medtronic pumps for looping:

Currently, only the following Medtronic MiniMed models allow us to remotely set temporary basal rate commands, which is required to do OpenAPS:

512/712 (all firmware)
515/715 (all firmware)
522/722 (all firmware)
523/723 (with firmware 2.4A or lower)
554/754 (European Veo, with firmware 2.6A or lower; OR Canadian Veo with firmware 2.7A or lower)

Remember our PM a while back about looping? Open loop, and closed loop?

There are certain pumps that people use to do their loops. Medtronic doesnā€™t make them anymore. So you may have some valuable antiques!

ok what is looping?

Check out a great wiki post by @dm61 here

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intersetingā€¦sounds like something that a lot of us would use

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Hi Amy,
It might be that reading about downloading source code and compatible hardware makes your eyes bleed. If thatā€™s the case, here is a very elementary description of the idea behind looping. Super simple description, just the basics. Useful for even non-diabetics to understand.


In non-diabetics, the pancreas delivers insulin based on what the blood glucose is. It is constantly adjusting insulin delivery up or down. As you eat, it puts out more. As your BG drops, it reduces it and releases glycogen. But the pancreas delivers insulin into the blood. So it can fix BG much faster than we can with our injections.

All the insulin pumps are moving toward linking with a Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) device, like Dexcom or the Medtronic CGM.

The first step in the pumps with what they call AP, or Artificial Pancreas technology, was open-loop. It would link a CGM device with an insulin pump. Open-loop would stop insulin delivery when the CGM indicated low blood sugar. It was done automatically. But it didnā€™t do anything for high BG, it would only stop basal insulin for low BG.

Closed-loop takes it one step further. What closed loop does is both automatically stop insulin delivery when the CGM indicates low, but also automatically increases insulin when the CGM says the BG is high.

Right now the only pump that has a closed loop is the Medtronic 670G. But all the pump companies are moving in that direction. Tandem will be next, followed by Insulet.

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thanks ericā€¦that makes more sense now :slight_smile:ā€¦its too bad that its only in the 670g for medtronics as for us animas users i was told it would be the 630g. im hoping for the 670g that would be even better

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I think that is still open for debate! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I was surprised at my docs appointment today he was actually speaking highly of the Medtronic 670ā€¦ granted he wasnā€™t recommending it for me but in general he seemed to be seeing some good results with it in a number of patientsā€¦

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LOL! either way as long as i get the pump that i know i can rely on after animas ill be good.

Are you able to pick whatever you want? Or do you have insurance restrictions?

If you are able to get any one that you want, make sure you look at all of them. All the companies have welcome programs for former Animas users. You do not have to go with Medtronic, unless your insurance is forcing you.

Also, another option - even if Animas is going away, if you like your pump and it still works, you could keep using it as long as the infusion sets are still available.

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i like it but ive had a few issues with it and had to call animas on one of them. my warranty expires in sept of 2019. i cant get the tandem until my warranty expires plus i dont have $999.00 to give to them. so medtronic is the one that does have animas going over to. i was told by medtronic that it would be the 630g. but i guess ill find out when i want to switch over.

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Nothing wrong with waiting until your warranty expires. Particularly if that then gives you complete freedom to pick whatever option YOU think is best for YOU.

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true but if i keep having issues with my animas pump im going to switchā€¦its already hard to see the screen when your out and about. the other day it wouldnt take my two calibration checks and im not sure whether its because i was high or it just didnt want to take it

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The screen being dim - I understand. I have heard multiple reports on that in regards to the Animas pumps. We also experienced that ourselves. In our case, we kept the pump at least a year afterwards as we were not ready to switch and did not feel the screen being dim was enough to force our hand. As you state, it is only outside in the sunlight where it is really an issue.
That however is a choice only you can make (as to whether the screen being dim is reason to switch pumps at this time).

The calibration issue, I would discount unless this happens again and you are positive it is not working as intended. That sounds quite possibly to be something not related to an actual pump issue. Just a guess however.

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Yes - if you switch to Medtronic from Animas under the terms of the ā€œdealā€, you will get the Medtronic 630g. Be aware that the 630g works with the older sensor, the ā€œEnliteā€ whereas the Medtronic 670g works with the newer sensor, the ā€œGuardianā€.

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i am keeping an eye on the calibration issue. i also had an issue with the pump rebooting itself. that got resolved with talking to animas. hasnt happened since. the dim is one of the issue. i guess ill have to see what happens in the next few months. hopefully i wont have any more issues arise.