Not to bring this back around to the 670G again, but I don’t believe that to be true when you have a pump that is administering insulin without your input. My pump could give me 0 insulin or could give me more than 200% of my regular basal rate. Its discretion. This is no longer just an insulin pump. It’s Christine.
Seriously— I think it’s a very dangerous thing when you have a diabetic who has no idea how much insulin they’ve received or are going to receive. I watch person after person in my group struggle to figure out why their blood sugar is so high (and we’re talking significant highs), and when you look at their graph screen, they’ve gone 8 hours at 12% of their normal rate. With a Medtronic CGM, even the predictive suspend feature can be a real disaster. With a laggy sensor, the resuming of insulin can be delayed by an hour, and often people don’t even know it’s off.
It was rarely more beneficial than it was a nuisance. It’s known that the 670G can give you a nice flat line over night, but it is achieved by suspending and reducing insulin for significant periods of time. You pay for it in the morning when you get up and bolus for a breakfast— and then hit 300. So people’s solution is to trick their pumps into giving them extra insulin, but I’m not sure how trickery is safer when it comes to insulin delivering devices.
Personally, I don’t think these “smart” pumps are safer. Not yet. Hopefully making use of a better performing CGM will have a big impact on these pumps’ capabilities, but the 670G isn’t using a strong CGM, so we don’t know yet where the problem lies.
@Nickyghaleb. Ahh, but part of using a pump correctly is knowing if it is functioning to your liking. A 670g keeping your Bg at 170 is not going to kill you. Maybe annoy you enough to stop using it, but not kill you.
Ahh, but if my 670G could just keep my BG at a 170, it would, at least, still be on my body. Come to my group, hear the people talking about how well the 670 keeps them at a 170…
This part, more so than the other, is a very valid point.
I’m curious, too. it’s a harder number to pin down than you might think. My room is at almost 800 currently. I’m guessing there’s active participation by about 150 people or so. There’s periodic participation by maybe another 150-200 and then occasional participation by maybe another 200 people after that. General consensus is some level of disappointment, frustration, or distrust, but people are still finding different ways to use it. There are people in there who claim that the reason the more prominent tone in there is negativity is because the people who are content are not speaking up. Certainly that is a valid point. However, because I do youtube videos as well as run the room, I have seen a fair amount of people come onto the scene singing its praises only to be talking about jumping ship 3 months later. Many of them never really advertise that second part though— out of respect for newcomers and concern of swaying their opinions. So their silence actually represents a change of heart, and not in Auto Mode’s favor. In all fairness, there are swings in the other direction as well, with people reporting finding more success— sometimes on their third or fourth or seventh try. Some of these people have teams of people helping them, some are changing their behaviors, some are doing fake carbs—- or “fill cannula”— to get more insulin. We’re all in it to get good results, so I don’t judge any of it, but to say this system is a relief more than it is a burden is debatable. Most of my group talks in a way that comes across as angry with Medtronic and with their pumps. A few in there absolutely love it. I personally think Medtronic has a huge problem with their sensors right now, but I don’t know if they’re fixing it. Word is that they’re about to release a new transmitter that is going to cure everyone of their sensor blues. People are very hopeful. I would be, too, if I weren’t sitting here looking at my new Dexcom.
After watching Medtronic’s new tech come out for a while (and using one that was supposed to be so very new and innovative in its time), I am of the opinion that Medtronic pushes products to market too early. They set their sights on the quickest possible FDA approval process, and not on making the best possible products for patients. Which is somewhat nice in that other companies can maybe get their new tech to the market a little more easily in Medtronic’s wake… but I also think patients get told that their pumps will be something, and then it’s not that or it’s like a crappy version of that. But of course, this is all just my opinion and my own frustrations with Medtronic
I would say that the fact they’re in a Facebook group, or here, indicates that they are likely NOT the ideal users of the 670G. They are people who want finely tuned control, in a narrow range, within numbers of their choosing. The 670 is ideal for the 90% of users who do not want to micromanage, or are unable to, and don’t join forums, and just want something to do all the work for them and give them numbers they (and their endos) are happy with but most of us here would find unacceptable. (This is out of a conversation I had with my CDE this morning about numbers and who decides what’s acceptable.)
You are not mistaken with the target audience, I don’t think, but this…
Is not as accurate a statement. I’ve got a mix of people in my group that includes people of all types of control, but most of them have joined because they can’t figure out what their pumps are doing. To this point, I’d say I don’t think membership is a reflection of commitment or dedication as much as it is a need for help. I’ve got lots and lots of people in there who are happy at a 150+ (200?), they’re there because this pump requires a lot of support.
I’m in a number of Facebook groups, and I agree. Generally, Facebook is not the same audience that is drawn to these forums. The Facebook groups I’m a member of have many, many members with A1c results in the 8-10+ range, which is probably a much more accurate reflection of the “average” diabetes community than the rest of the DOC is…
I concede. I belong to one FB group, for Dexcom battery replacements, and I have zero friends, likely because I joined under an assumed name, and I haven’t even signed in since last May when I needed a battery, so I shoulda kept my trap shut about presumed audience.
And the list of things we have in common grows. [quote=“glitzabetes, post:7, topic:5661”]
Hope you love it! Did you get the G6?
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I did get the G6, and I hope I love it, too. I’ve got people in my group, very sheepishly so as to avoid getting lynched, who post pictures of their Dexcom and meter values. They’re in love with their Dexcoms, and they want to shout it out to the world. But not to the group. Because the group might not share in that excitement.
How are things going with your pump mission and MiaoMiao and all of that?? Do you use Dexcom??
I’ve been using the new pump and Dexcom since Halloween! Love it, honestly. I’ve been finding the G6 to be very accurate for me, and not being constantly nagged to calibrate is really nice. The Basal-IQ on my pump also works even better than I’d imagined it would! So yeah, I’m a happy camper haha.
I’m currently trying to get my brother to try out my old MiaoMiao, and so far he seems scared by all the info I threw at him (whoops) but tentatively interested in trying. He was very intrigued about the whole “open source CGM software” concept, as I was hoping he would be.
That’s awesome. I’m really glad to hear you got it all sorted and landed with such a nice arrangement. Did your endo make things right?? You were having some problems with your endo, right?
And that’s great news about your brother, too. You’re doing wonderful things.
Yes, he did. I am generally much happier with him now, I think now that he’s seen that I’m serious about controlling things he’s actually very good. And I guess its reasonable that it threw him off during that one appointment, I had basically done a 180 since he had seen me a few months prior, and suddenly had tons of graphs for him to look at vs me usually coming with nothing.
And now I waffle. That these people took steps to figure things out, to get help, even to search for somewhere they might find help, indicates a degree of commitment and engagement that I think many people don’t have. Many people might just shrug and say “Oh well, it is what it is.” They learn to live in peace with their 670 and weird numbers the way they learn to live in peace with the squeak in their car or their toaster that only browns one side of the bread.
There’s no need to waffle. Don’t waffle. Just trust me on this one. Of course it doesn’t include everybody… There are going to be some out there who are doing whatever weird and unhealthy and highly questionable things. Trust me though that my group is full of people who didn’t care. People whose a1cs were 10 and 11 and 14. As much as I blast this pump, I also give it a lot of credit for getting people to pay attention. I can’t think of another device that has actually put people on the right track. I’ve referred to Auto Mode as a diabetes boot camp. I don’t know what they do in a real boot camp, but if it’s unpleasant, hard, at times miserable, possibly unethical, and probably even a little dangerous, then it’s a great metaphor.
I don’t know what kind of rookie makes boot camp jokes in front of people she doesn’t know aren’t drill sargeants, so I hope I haven’t offended anyone. I only mean that the process and performance are so off the wall and mind numbing that it requires the user’s attention. Demands it. I think for so many diabetics who struggle with control, it’s that attention that is missing. In that regard, the 670G is the coolest device in the world, and I would be inclined to call it brilliant— if I thought they had made it that way on purpose. In reality, I think it withholds insulin, and because people don’t realize, they’re forced to try to figure it out— which is a healthy behavior for diabetics, just not one that we all naturally do. I remember the first conversation I had where it dawned on me what this thing was good for. We were two diabetics with a common past of poor control, history of depression, general lack of understanding, etc, and we were debating whether or not the active insulin time would have any effect on the micro bolus delivery. I remember thinking how cool. I still feel that way, but now I’d like to take all that I’ve learned to a device… that’s not going to try to kill me.
[quote=“glitzabetes, post:7, topic:5661”]