YAY!!! Yes it is… It has changed my life as well. It’s good to hear of
another success story on it.
I got my A1C today and it was 5.9! So it went up a little from 5.6 but I have less lows so that’s good. I had to change my carb ratio and decrease my active insulin time but my numbers are improving. My time in target for the last 7 days is 88%. Double Yeah!
One of my favorite things about this pump is that I can wear it swimming and if I wear the pump close to the sensor it keeps me in range when I swim. That’s a game changer!
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How much are you having to work to get these results compared to pre 670
pump?
For me, I spend about 10% of the time I used to on the previous pumps managing my diabetes.
I think I’m getting the adjustment to this new pump down so right now I’m at about 35% of the mental work I had to do with my last 2 Medtronic pumps. In the next month or so I hope to whittle it down to 10 or 15%.
I still have to keep an eye out since my infusion site poops out somewhere between 36 to 48 hours but boy oh boy it was a full time job for me with a CGM and previous pumps. I’ve tried every single type of infusion set available but it’s my skins reaction to insulin.
I had a few rough weeks at first but I’m really starting to see how wonderful this pump can be.
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Well, the readings are more stable, but an average of almost 180 is very high if you ask me. I get just above 100 with loop so this would not do it for me.
In order to get 120 average you would need so spend quite some time below that level as well, so with a minimum of 120 i think that you will rather be on a 150-170 average, as the charts above are showing.
For the first 2 weeks on auto my readings averaged around 150 but after talking to our Medtronic reps I shortened the active insulin time and changed my carb ratio to more insulin for less carbs. Those two changes really did the trick.
Basically the pump gives you a “super bolus”. In
Manual mode a bolus is given on top of the basal. In Auto, the pump gives you a bolus and waits some time after your bolus to resume basal. By shortening the active insulin time it resumes the basal faster and by lower the carbs to insulin ratio it gives more insulin up front which is how we were directed to do the super bolus in some of my many diabetes and intensive insulin therapy classes.
My average is now about 130 and that’s with the ever present “change infusion set” spikes that have plagued me for years. I’m thinking I might get that a bit lower in the next few weeks but if not, I’m just thrilled by not having all the lows.
Even in manual mode, the new sensors beat out all the previous Medtronic sensors for accuracy so even if you didn’t use Auto this is a better pump.
But if you swim, motorcycle, do long distance driving and can’t constantly look at your pump and CGM, this is a game changer. I think you have to give it a month to prove itself and maybe that’s too short.
In short you can adjust it to make sure your average bg is a whole lot lower than 180.
One helpful tip someone gave me, while in auto mode, don’t think of it as
active insulin time, but rather peak insulin time, because insulin on the
downward trend won’t really lower your bg. So the 2-2.5 hr “active insulin
time” is ready at 2-2.5 hours your insulin is peaking.
Thank you that’s helpful. I wonder if Medtronic could put together a brief handout for folks that have been on a standard insulin pump for years. Although we covered the fact that there’s no extended bolus anymore I didn’t fully get that it would change all my bolus strategies.
I know Medtronic is very protective of their Auto Mode algorithms but really they seriously need to give long term pump users a whole lot more details up front on how this works and how different it is.
Your trainer should have gone over that. Mine did.
My bolus strategies have been simplified dramatically. For Pizza, bolus
for proper carbs, wait for double arrows down, then eat. easy peasy. give
it a try next time. Same worked for bagels which I hadn’t had in 12 years
or so…
No, my trainer showed me the mechanics of the bolus but didn’t stress that the basal stops completely for some length of time after the bolus. She thought my active insulin time might need to be shortened a bit but didn’t explain why. She also thought my carb ratio seemed good, but it’s good riding on top of my basal, not as the only insulin for an hour and a half.
So I always prebolus 20 minutes for everything. My food would likely be stone cold by the time I see two arrows down. Even a set time prebolus can be logistically challenging when: going out to eat- I bolus immediately after I order and try not to eat more than a couple salsa and chips before the food comes, going to friends who almost always have nuts and chips and dips before dinner, or a big holiday dinner. I’ve always relied on extended boluses to stay in range. So maybe I need to bolus in stages and give plenty of time for the insulin to hit my system.
My other big frustration was when I used the messaging in the StartRight app, my StartRight coach couldn’t get my messages. I had to email her.
So I had to use the pump graph to figure out what the pump was doing and reverse engineer how to set the pump to keep me in range.
Sorry for the long tirade but I did want to vent a bit.