Insulin pump question

I would love to know which pump ( you that are on pumps) would you recommend! My criteria would be easiest to learn and accuracy! I will be the first to admit that I am not very tech savvy!
Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. I live in Florida and it seems that there are brands that I have never heard of that seem to be outside of the US. Looks to me that we are behind in some situations.
Just my opinion from reading too much.

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@Tbjones, you can use the search feature within FUD to search for specific pumps that you may be interested in. There have been a LOT of discussions about the pros and cons of specific pumps. If you scroll to the Pump section, you can scroll through and see specific threads related to certain pumps. If you have pumps you need specific information about, Iā€™m sure someone here has experience with it. Just state the pump name and someone will jump right in!

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I do not have a pump yet. I feel certain doctors have their preferences for whatever reasons. I really feel I will get better information from people actually on pumps especially if they have tried more than one brand.

Well, we selected the Omnipod for Liam because of his age and fearing the snagging of tubes. Being tubeless, there is no threat of getting anything tangled. Weā€™ve been using the Omnipod for over 2 years now and we love it. We average about one ā€œerror podā€ per month and Insulet replaces them without question. We had more at the beginning of using them, but weā€™ve now attributed most of those errors to human error instead of a true pump error/malfunction. If you have any specific questions pertaining to the Omnipod I can certainly try to help. The smallest dose with the Omnipod is .05.

Thank you! I would prefer no tubing because of my twin 4 year old grandsons and my 2 German shepherds. A lot of activity and unsuspected interactions that I feel may cause issues.

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If tubeless is the requirement, then you are looking at the Omnipod in the US. I donā€™t think there is another tubeless pump on the US market.

My son uses a Tslim and doesnā€™t find the tube an issue at all, however, he wears a pump band at all times and always has his pump in the band. The tubes are always under his clothes, so they donā€™t catch on stuff except when he is walking around in his underwear.

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I use the OmniPod, tooā€”tubeless and waterproof are the way to go for me as a yoga teacher and active grandma! Easy to learn to use ā€˜cos itā€™s self inserting.

Iā€™m on the 670g and now use it as a dumb pump (just for bolus and basal rather than integrated settings like suspend on/before low). Personally I think it works fine as a dumb pump. The tubes donā€™t bother me a bit since thatā€™s all Iā€™ve ever known and I prefer that to the seemingly (to me) large pods. And I donā€™t have the opportunity to forget my pdm at home since Iā€™ve literally got my pump tethered to me. However, the 670g is known for being quite alarmy (especially if you opt to use the guardian sensors, which Iā€™m happy to speak about - but youā€™re on the dexcom g6, right?). I can also speak on using automode if thatā€™s something youā€™re interested in because for some people thatā€™s a big draw to using the 670g (itā€™s what made me decide to use the 670g!)

Using the 670g, It does take quite a bit of button clicking to get simple things done like a bolus (compared to my animas ping I had before (RIP animas). But the 670g is totally fine for being a dumb pump. Gets the job done certainly. I love using the extended bolus features and temp basals as well as manually suspending it.

However, personally if I were to go back and select again, I would choose the tslim x2 because of its integration with dexcom and the prospects of basal-IQ and control-IQ to come.

O also, just remembered- insulet is supposedly coming out with an omnipod with some sort of integration features (I believe) in 2020 - horizon? Someone else probably knows way more about this than I do

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Many people think they are large, but theyā€™re not really that large. Even for a 5 year old, theyā€™re not that large. You should look at one in person to see how big they are! I am happy to send anyone a POD if they wanted to see what they would actually look like on you. The size bothered us at first too because we had heard horror stories, but the real estate they take up isnā€™t that much. Yes, itā€™s bigger than the rel estate that the tubed pumps take upā€¦but not if you count all of the other things that you have to lug around with you. With a POD everything the pump needs is self contained (except the PDM to program it with.) Theyā€™re really not that large at all.

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I agree that itā€™s just fine as a pump, but if youā€™ve already got the G6, I would think the t:slim would be a better fit. Having used both, I personally find the Dexcom a better sensor, and, therefore, Basal-IQ a sharper suspend feature.

I hope Iā€™m not coming across as trying to overrule what youā€™ve said, @LarissaW. I agree with it. Iā€™m just trying to add in, having had a chance to compare the two, that the t:slim runs off a better sensor. For me. The Guardian is kind of sort of clown business. Again, for me. I donā€™t think thatā€™s an uncommon experience, but I also recognize that some people have much better luck with it.

I only got to use the OmniPod for about a month, but I was fond of it, too. Quite fond of it. In the brief period I was on it, I fell in love with the fact I was pumping but not connected to anything and found it relatively low maintenance. So many pumps, so little time. :upside_down_face:

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Not overruling me at all, @Nickyghaleb! Iā€™m in agreeement with you over the sensors (dexcom g6> guardian sensor) and the dexcoms added benefits to the pumping system. Like I said if I could go back, Iā€™d go with the t-slim (heavily because of the dexcom g6 incorporation)

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I just switched from Medtronic 523 to Tandem X2 about two hours agošŸ˜€. I love it so far.

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I was on a pump for around 20 years. I had 4-5 minimed pumps and they were all dependable workhorses and logical in design. I got the 1st gen Tandem because of the color screen gimmick. Major downsides were hitting buttons 10 times to get insulin, out of the blue deals where you would get an alarm at 3am saying the reservoir failed, spending tons of time refilling the reservoir and charging it on usb. I was going to go back to minimed but once I saw minimed come out with the 670g I hit the eject button, i knew that deal was going to have problems. It had way to many changes compared to their prior pumps and their most critical part the cgm sensor was 3rd rate compared to Dexcom. I was faced with the same dilemma. I decided to take a risk and try Tresiba/Novolog then Fiasp and now including Afreeza with Dexcom and my life is way simpler and my A1c has been 5.1-5.6, I looked back on my medical history and with a pump I was 6.2-6.8 and my Std Dev way higher and time in range was much worse. If you want to go the pump route because it meets your needs or eating habits maybe the 670g in dummy mode + Dexcom G6, but most endoā€™s will likely say you have to get the cgm that minimed supports. I have bad feelings about Tandem after being tortured for 4 years but maybe theyā€™ve designed the X2 better and the biggest plus is Dexcom support, I guess current user could give more insight on their 2nd Gen. I also used one of the earlier gen versions of minimed cgm and it was like shoving a pencil in my stomach, blood would be going everywhere truly medieval. Good luck.

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Sorry this is a side track, but how do you like afreeza compared with fiasp?

Fiasp is much more similar to Novolog, in fact i only notice maybe a 5min difference in impact speed. If i have a bowl of oatmeal in the morning say instead of waiting 30min i could eat in 25min. Not a huge difference. However different people have different experiences.
Afrezza is in a different class. It will start dropping your blood sugar in 0-5min, its truly fast. However iā€™ve found it better in the morning, its perfect for a high carb breakfast. It has the added benefit of leaving the system fast as well so your not getting low later. Typically a pump user would think all that novolog/humalog/fiasp insulin is out of their system in 3 hours based on their programmed IOB time, but thatā€™s not true, there is a slow lowering for say 5-8 hours. They just donā€™t match up to the profile of a moderate to high amount of carbs in the morning, even waiting 20-30min. Anyway after a month iā€™ve went back to using Fiasp at lunch because it ends up working better. If i were high though no doubt iā€™m going to start inhaling Afrezza. The funny selling point of Afrezza was the inhaled aspect but it makes a funny whistle sound like your using a cracker jack toy to grasp for air. The biggest pluses are insane speed of action and its out of your system fast.

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Good luck with it. Hopefully it works out good for you.

The X2/G6 w/Basal-IQ really works great for us.

Are you planning to use the Basal-IQ algorithm?

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Personally, using the t:slim X2, I find that giving boluses is much faster than on my previous Medtronic pump (530G) simply due to being able to punch in numbers on the keypad instead of having to scroll with up/down keys. I personally donā€™t mind the extra confirmation buttons.

Iā€™ve never experienced a middle of the night reservoir failure so far (although Iā€™ve only been using the pump since Halloween). Iā€™ve gotten a few occlusion alarms but theyā€™ve mostly been false alarms that could just be dismissed.

The cartridge change process does have a bit of a learning curve and is definitely a bit annoying.

I personally prefer the USB charging, I donā€™t have to buy batteries for it/hunt for them when they need to be changed. Pump charges super fast in my opinion.

The definite big bonus for the t:slim X2 is the Basal-IQ function and pairing with the Dexcom G6. Basal-IQ works much better than I imagined and has definitely reduced my variability, time low, and most importantly (to me) my fear of lows. Itā€™s also allowed me to be more aggressive with my treatment choices.

Totally not trying to go against you with my post here, moreso giving the opinions of a current X2 user and all that.

I had the displeasure of using the Medtronic Sof-Sensor for a couple of years, I thought the insertion device for that sensor felt like shooting a harpoon gun right into your abdomen :stuck_out_tongue:

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Sounds like something you look forward to doing every week to 10 days.

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I couldnā€™t quite remember how long that sensor lasted but I knew it wasnā€™t longā€¦ went off to find a user guide for the Revel (which was the associated pump for those sensors) to double check andā€¦ the sensors lasted 3 freakin days!

Iā€™ll just say Iā€™m glad technology has come so far since then :slightly_smiling_face:

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I had the same first experience with CGMS with sof-sensors. I recall doing restart, after recharging transmitter, so only used the harpoon about once every 6-7 days. But the benefit was learning about post meal high BGs, and impact of carbs. Before that, only BG tested before meals, to calculate bolus. No one ever mentioned after meal bg check, and only prescribed 4 BGs per day.

And having problems with the sofsensors is what led me to finding the online diabetes forums !!!

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