Lots of offers out there, whomever @elver wants to accept the help from, just send that person/people a PM. The rest of us will stand down…guns ready to draw if needed. 
In other words, if I don’t get a PM from @elver, I will assume someone else has provided the help.
@elver,
Regardless of who you get the stuff from, make sure you get some FreeStyle test strips. I can send you some if you need them.
The nice thing about using the old style PDM is the built-in meter. That way, the only thing you need to carry with you is the PDM, and some strips.
When I leave the house, all I need to carry is the PDM and this combined lancet and strip holder:
Assuming you have your CGM on your phone and you are carrying the phone with you, that’s all you need.
What is the Costco price? (haven’t heard of CMPP)
Also, I have a PDM I don’t use and a mountain of pods…in case it’s helpful…
So now we have an Augustus Gloop, a Veruca Salt, a Violet Beauregarde, and a Mike Teevee.
All we need is a Charlie Bucket and we are all set!
As long as no one tells a Mr. Slugworth about the Everlasting Gobstopper, we’ll be fine!
Thank you to everyone who has offered equipment, supplies, and help! I am sincerely grateful to everyone here for the offers, you are all amazing! Thank you!!
I think in this situation, I might be Charlie (or his Granpa)
At @ClaudnDaye 's suggestion, I’m gonna stick it to the man and take @Eric up on his offer.
@ClaudnDaye I would feel very guilty asking for help against Liam’s rainy day supply, but thank you very much for the offer!
@John58, Thank you. If I decide to pursue Omnipod, I will offer to buy your spare PDM.
@MarkP - CMPP is the Costco Member Pharmacy Program. It’s a cash only/no insurance pharmacy option at somewhat reduced prices available to Costco members
This part always irritated me. Grandpa has done nothing but lay in bed for 100 years and then suddenly he can get up and jump around and dance.
And him saying, “I’ve got a golden ticket”. 
BS, grandpa! You didn’t do 
! Charlie found the ticket, you didn’t do anything, you lazy old man.
But Grandpa jumped up out of sheer excitement for his grandson and, you know Grandpa was his favorite “grand parent” so knowing he’d be with him and able to accompany him to the fantastical Willy Wonka factory was important to Charlie. You noticed he DID sway and stumble at first and nearly fell over…at least they made a lame attempt at showing he struggled a bit (for 5 seconds of the song.) lol.
I’m definitely grandpa then…
@elver,
Your stuff is on the way. It is expected to get there by Friday. I included 100 test strips so you can feel the joy of not needing to lug an extra meter around.
BTW, when UPS asked what the contents of the package was, I said “office supplies”. So make sure you use it at least once when you are in an office. That way I am honest. 
A few notes on setup of the PDM. You go through a menu and can pick things like bolus increments (choice of 0.05, 0.10, 0.5, or 1.0 unit increments), IC’s, basal rates, at what point you want it to alert you of a low reservoir, etc.
I personally do not use the bolus calculator. When you are done with the setup, you can turn off the bolus calcs if you want. I think it is easier to just put in the amount I want instead of having to go through all the crap like telling it what you are going to eat, blah, blah blah!
I have bolus presets on mine for different values and pick the one that is closest and then scroll up or down from there. Like if I want to take 4.5 units, I pick my 4.0 unit preset and scroll up to 4.5. That’s much easier than starting from 0.0 units and having to scroll all the way up.
Feel free to ask about the setup once you go through it.
Another thought - you can use your current basal numbers for your basal profile, but if your pump is frequently turning off your basal to prevent you from dropping, then those rates will be too high! So just consider that when creating your basal profile.
Anyway, feel free to ask. I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts about it. I will PM you the tracking number.
“I’d suggest just normal pump use for a while before you dive into Loop”
Eric’s point here is important - it’s highly recommended to take some time in the beginning to get up and running if you’re new to pumping and to understand the nuances.
Also, this forum has answered more questions for me about fine tuning settings than any Dr or CDE ever has (in my experience)!
Agreed completely with @Eric and @Millz about looping. It’s one of those “learn to crawl before you walk and learn to walk before you run” things. Just the same as it’s good to know how to manually bolus and manage diabetes “tech free”, it’s also important to understand the fundamentals of pumping in general before delving deeply into looping. We pumped probably a year or two before we started looping…we would have started earlier had we known about loop but by the time we were looping we had already done MDI and pump for a couple years.
We are indeed moving forward with a pump. Contrary to what most folks use here, we did ultimately decide on the t-slim. Saline start is next week, and pump day is August 6.
I was assured that we wouldn’t techincally be locked into 4 years. As @Eric said, as long as we are willing to pay for the PDM from Insulet out of pocket, we then could get a script for the pods to be covered by insurance. Although, what @elver has stated makes me quite nervous whether that will be the case or not. I"m very much interested in Horizon, and although my son seemed kind of excited about the t-slim, I think he may ultimately be happier with a tubeless/waterproof pump.
We ultimately decided on Tandem as not to wait for the technology through Insulet (and not to wait to make the switch to a pump in general), with the idea that when Horizon does come out, we may want to make the switch if the reviews are looking positive (and if we just aren’t happy with Tandem). Looping was appealing, but I knew, personally, I just didn’t want that extra step in building and troubleshooting the Loop software myself (hubs an I are tech savvy, he more than me probably, but he works/travels a lot so diabetes management in all aspects is squarely on my shoulders). I feel like there’s still enough trouble shooting I’m doing already, tech aside!
I’m not sure if it is Tandem, or our medical center, but we are not allowed to start off with Control IQ. We will be started on Basal IQ, and that is it. I’m very much on top of his blood sugars and trends, and I hope I"d be able to recognize if Basal IQ is suspending a lot ot certain times of days that that’s the que that he’s likely just getting too much at those times. Not sure when they allow the transition to Control IQ. At this point we’ve been doing MDI for about 10 months, and then we’ll spend a while, I’m sure, getting used to the pump (with the help of basal IQ).
Anyway, not that anyone was on the edge of the seat 
, but that’s where we are at. We are excited and nervous, but as just like at dx, we had to get used to finget pricks and needles and had no choice. So this is another transition that I hope we’ll get used to, and I really hope makes quality of life much better.
I think the t:slim is a good choice. If they had a 90-degree infusion set that I liked, I’d be willing to use control-IQ in 24-hour sleep mode. Sure, I prefer the customized control and streamlined user interface of LOOP, but I’m also the type who prefers to select individual components and build a computer rather than just getting something from Dell or HP.
