Got my 670G working on Monday (7/17/17) We aren’t going into Auto Mode till after 1 week. I was told going into Auto Mode sooner was not giving users the results they were expecting. I will be in Auto Mode on 7/24/17. Already, in Manual mode, I wake up in the very low 100’s. Not the first 2 days but the last 2 days (105 and 115). In manual mode! I really like the auto suspend and the fact that it turns back on when I’m at 100. Just wait for what I ate to hit or a small snack and it will turn back on. It has it’s quirks however. Once you learn how it thinks you can figure out how to work together. It is a relationship that we are building with the software. Relationships take time but you get out of any relationship what you put into it. My experience with the 630G was terrible. No relationship. With the 670G my first half of my first day was terrible but by 2pm it got better and now it’s Friday (day 5) I am very happy and ready for auto mode!
How do you get more time out of the sensors? Like enlite for medtronic? I have only pulled the transmitter off and reattached it and gotten a few more days out of it. Are you saying i can do that more than once?
Using the method you describe and recharging the transmitter before replace I have managed 18 days out of a sensor, calibrating at the correct times and secure placement of the sensor are key for getting extra time out of the sensor.
I’ve managed three six day periods before the sensor accuracy seriously dropped.
Thank you. I had not thought about recharging transmitter. So obvious though. Today I start up the auto mode on 670G. Disappointed to hear no one thinks these sensors can be tricked into longer wear. Thanks again.
Auto Mode is a very different world than Manual Mode. It took the pump 5 days to get me mostly right. I slept terrible the first 4 nights. The last two have been better. Occasionally it wants me to get up at 1 am to check my blood sugar. (Like that is ever going to happen!) So I woke up out of Auto Mode. I check my blood sugar and calibrate and I’m back in Auto Mode. It only has happened a couple of times but it is REALLY annoying when it does happen. It is nice to be able to sleep in a little extra on weekends. It is still working on my after breakfast rise. I am on day 6. I was considering returning it on day 4 but the pump has since figured out a few of my other spikes and the graph and meter readings are getting more and more even.
My MT rep said it can take a week for the pump to settle into you in auto mode and it still watches and learns you after that time as well. Yesterday, day 5, was the first change made to the settings to see if that helps my after breakfast rise.
The guardian 3 sensors are close to the meter but I did get a couple 50 point variations the first day and this morning, day 6, it was off 27 points, but I didn’t get up for the 2:26 am BG check either. If you must have accuracy go with the DEX. The guardian 3 are not spot on but they are 100% better than the enlite sensor that came with the 630G.
It seems to work slowly getting to know me. After a week in manual mode and getting the best sleep at night that I had had in years. The bar (and my expectations) were very high for auto mode. Auto mode kept me in the 200’s the first 2 nights. The 170’s the next. the 160’s the next. The 150’s the next. Now I’m in the 130’s. And the overnight graph has been very smooth and even.
I mentioned a relationship being developed in my first post.
This Auto Mode part has, for me, started rough and was frustrating. It has since gotten a lot better. Getting happier! Just need my after breakfast rush to be fixed and then I will be mostly satisfied. Will post in another week!
I’ve been using the 670G for 13 days and have been in Auto Mode for 9 days. I had the same experience you had more or less. I’ve been told the pump needs to “learn you” for a few weeks. I’ve noticed my micro-bolus amounts have climbed from a maximum of .150 initially to .250 today when it is working hard to bring my BG down. I think you have to be patient. I was told to wait 2 hours after a meal and perform a BG test and let the wizard make the correction. My medtronic trainer and I have taken my carb ratio from 10:1 down to 8:1 and adjusted my active insulin time from 3:00 down to 2:30. When you see your BG rise more than 60 points after a meal you’d want to make those values more aggressive assuming you’re entering the correct carb values in your boluses.
I wonder why companies just don’t copy the OpenAPS/Loop model, amend the algorithm if needed and go.
Finally got my Guardian 3 sensors yesterday, so 670G is now in place. Will do manual mode for a week. Looking forward to it!
Just got my 670G a few days ago and am still awaiting the Guardian3 sensors, so I haven’t started using it yet. But I wanted to say how much I appreciate the reports from @halford and @thoffmanjr of their real-life experience. My original experience switching to a standard pump was a lot bumpier than anyone had led me to expect and I was ready to chuck it at several points, so I know expectations are important! Virtually every time I’ve gone through a major treatment change I’ve had a lot of trepidation about it. That whole thing of feeling like getting dx’d all over again. I’ve already been conscious that my I:C and correction ratios must be drifting quite a bit from the settings I’ve been using since I started pumping 5 years ago, so I’m going to have to go through all that again. Plus switching to a different CGM system (I’m a Mac user and Dexcom → Medtronic feels a lot like being forced to switch to Microsoft) and learning a whole new set of peculiarities and wrinkles you never figure out until you’re actually wedded to thing has that little voice in the back of my head saying Why are you doing this??? You’re doing ok without it!!! Just bail out while you still can!!!. I like this analogy:
It really does feel a bit like an anxiety dream where you’re in the church getting ready to marry someone and you realize you haven’t actually met them yet. Helps to have some reassurance that even if my new permanent partner is kind of a major pain to begin with we’ll probably get along ok after a few weeks of getting to know each other. Helps to settle the agita a little bit anyway.
I understand your concern but like most big changes in life we tend to be “overly” concerned compared to what really happens. That helps us resist jumping off bridges. 
So… The Auto Mode micro boluses instead of straight basil rates is a big deal. I have seen that the Guardian 3 sensors are providing to be more accurate than the enlite sensors and I didn’t think the enlite sensors were that bad. The best practice for sensor calibration, I believe, is waiting to calibrate before meals so your BG is stable. That makes a big difference in my opinion. I didn’t mention this before but I am also taking Jardiance which is the best thing I’ve taken since insulin. It helped stabilize my blood sugars dramatically. I’m going to experiment soon and stop taking it because I think the pump my be able to accomplish the same effect. If you have high overnight blood sugars, you should be on Jardiance. It is amazing and I’ve talked two other friends into getting on it and they’ve seen the same ridiculous results. I’m not exaggerating either and I haven’t had a single issue with it. I can’t believe more people aren’t taking it.
Ok. 2 weeks in. It is getting better. The first 2 days in auto were rough. But it has gotten better. A lot better. I’m glad I made the switch from MDI to the 670G. I am not trusting the technology. It is hard to get over it. My morning blood sugars are great when I get up. Very low 100’s nearly every day. There is some tweaking that is still going on. The pump is not a magic wand. You still have to work. It is nice to not stress if I “forget” for an hour that I have diabetes. It’s nice that it happens. Oh, I also feel “off” when my blood sugar goes low! I don’t sweat or get shaky but I do notice when it drops. It’s been over 2 years since that has happened. Pre-pump, I would be totally unaware when my blood sugar was low (even in the 40’s) now I feel “off” a little bit so the pump has helped!
I just came back from a diabetes nurse visit, where I had the opportunity to see the 640/670G, Omnipod, Roche Insight. I have been a Minimed user since Feb 1998 and I must say that the 640/670 is the ugliest pump ever made. That cheap, thick, black plastic material… omg. I am schocked. If that is how the future is supposed to look like, then I prefer to stick with the past and my Veo.
What surprises me as well is that no engineer has considered the orientation of the display/buttons vs. the belt clip. Older Minimed models have a horizontal display, which can be read from the side, while this one is constantly upside-down. And the size and the weight… Jeez. I am really disappointed. And sad, because I planned to go for 670G next year.
The Omnipod pods were a pleasant surprise. They are very small, while the PDM is still a brick. I hope that that will change with the new PDM. But then the question remains - what if you forget your pdm at home and you are going, I don’t know, on a trip? No, a phone app, even as an emergency backup solution, is necessary.
The insight was more of a classic pump with a nice controller and meter in one. I was informed that it will be compatible with the new CGM that Roche will release (more competition on the market), as well as with Senseonics implantable sensors. The pump has a flexible software, so apparently it can be made compatible with whatever Roche decides to go for. At least some good news. They also had interesting reservoir solution - no manual filling, but Novo is making special cartriges for them “Novorapid Pump” containing 1.6ml or 160 units.
Ok. I use the 670G. I have a massive spike after eating 50g of carb for breakfast every day. I have taken insulin 1 hour before eating and I go into the low 200’s. If I bolus and eat at the same time I will go to the 390 to 410 range. I don’t feel good at all when that happens and that is when I’m at work so my mornings are very rough. The Medtronic trainer and my endo changed my carb ratio form 1:15 to 1:13 for my breakfast window. Now I crash mid morning. What do YOU do on the 670G to help with these morning (breakfast) spikes?
I walk after breakfast to help me lower the effect of my breakfast carbs. I find just 20 mins will lower my blood sugars by 2 whole points. Well worth it for me since I can’t stomach eggs in the morning.
Have you tried increasing the pre-bolus a bit more? What happens if you pre-bolus 1 hr and 10 minutes? Are you wearing a CGM so would you be able to see if this causes a low to occur before the BG rise?
When you did the 1 hr pre-bolus with the 1:15 ratio and went into the low 200’s, what was your BG at 2 & 3 hrs after eating?
I’m in Auto Mode so I have to have the CGM. Remember this is the 670G. No lows, solid 120’s or 130’s for hours before so the dawn phenom doesn’t apply. My blood sugar stays in the low 100’s 2-3 hours after with the 1hour and 15 min prebolus. I’m just trying to get away from waking up at 4 am to eat breakfast at 5 am. I want that extra hour of sleep. Any other 670G users in Auto Mode dealing with post meal spikes?
Right after posting this I checked my pump and my blood sugar was falling fast. I looked at my graph and it appears that I was getting micro bolus’ before I work up! I ate my breakfast after only waiting 30 minutes! I did hit the low 200’s 1 hour after and then 2 hours after was 177. For me this was awesome. Then the transmitter for the sensor failed, 1 hour later after doing what the book says to troubleshoot and doing it again with the phone support they are overnighting me a new transmitter. I hope I don’t have to wait another 3 weeks to see if the pump is correcting me or not…
I cannot thank you enough for your input. I, too, had an awesome experience on manual mode, but was going insane for the first 4 days on auto. I was ready to just go back to manual when my husband found your blog. I’ve since spoken to my diabetes educator who reached out to Medtronic. It really seems that only the " magic " has been reported, and that true expectations are now being revealed by real users. Not that I don’t think that the 670G will be life changing, just that one week in and desperate is when Medtronic informs me, in response to my concerns, that auto can sometimes take 3 to 4 weeks to learn sufficiently. It’s not usually that long, but definitely 4 to 5 days. I have pleaded that this be communicated from the outset, because the let down from pretty reasonable control 6 months ago ( A1c 7 ) then a week on manual giving me an average expectation of 6.5, to what the heck is happening BS 190 all night and Dawn phenomenon 220 without eating, was quite devastating. ( I’m sorry, but it really was. )
I’m sticking with it, with HUGE kudos to Halford. Day 6 and the pump has stopped yelling, max bolus for 4 hours, check BS, in the middle of the night.
Thanks again. Hope we all continue to share and learn.
Hoping to get some advice here. I got hooked up to the 670 on Monday. So far, I’m extremely frustrated.
-
I’ve been bouncing from 40 to 300 for two days and the corrections are off. After dinner last night I was 300 and it only corrected me .10. This morning I was 180 and it only corrected me .30. My vibe would’ve corrected me 1.30. I know because I have my vibe filled with a water cartridge so I can compare boluses.
-
the cgm hasn’t picked up all morning for about 5 hours.
-
With my vibe if I noticed an air bubble I could prime the tubing to get rid of the air bubble but I don’t see a way to do that with the 670…anyone have a solution for this. This could be a deal breaker for me.
Is there a way to send this pump back. Im ready to throw in the proverbial towel.
I’ve been on the 670g for 6 weeks now. It took about 5 weeks to get me figured out. Your first post left out a lot of needed information to help you. Are you in manual mode or auto mode? How long were you in manual mode before you turned auto mode on? We will start with that.
I’ve never troubled with airbubbles in my line because I make sure there are none. You can always go to “Resevoir and Tubing” in “Options” and clear the line. So that shouldn’t be a problem.
It took a week for my night numbers to start to get right. It is really great to always be in the 130 range when I wake up.
It is starting to finally get my after breakfast spike under control in a reasonable time. I did tweak the settings, even when I was told not to. I changed my carb ratio a tiny bit and my insulin sensitivity a tiny bit a week ago. Since then everything has improved.
It works different than your Vibe. It does the thinking but not until you are in auto mode will you see that. Your post makes it sound like you are in manual mode and expecting it to work like it’s in auto mode so please clarify so those of us using this system can help. Thanks.