I gave it about 15 months. I fought with the CDE at my drs office and with Medtronic about the rates and changing the AIT because I was consistently running hyper at least 25-40% of the time, despite giving phantom carb boluses and corrections like in Sugar Surfing.
I turned it off last night and woke up with a blood glucose level of 85. I’m running better today than I have in a long time. I think I need to stick to basal rates until a more aggressive algorithm comes along. I fought the good fight and am in need of a break.
You sure stuck with it longer than I did. I gave it something like 4-5 months before throwing in the towel. I’d say if you’re still struggling at 15 you’ve gone well above and beyond giving it a fair shot.
I don’t know if it learned to work with my life style or I learned how to work with its algorithm, but after 15 months, my control started to improve significantly.
I don’t know why, I think the drs office kept messing with the settings, I’d change them, they’d insist the settings couldn’t possibly be right and change them back. But I ran consistently in the 180s despite carb counting, pre-blousing, and correcting. And after every meal it would go sky high a couple of hours later. Something is just off for me.
Ever consider finding another doctor? I’d never let a doc mess with my pump settings except for the first month or two I accepted the advice of the endo who rx’d my first pump which was back in '96. (Nor has any endo I’ve had since, wanted to adjust my settings) Once we got things dialed in, together, I’ve been the only person on the planet to make pump adjustments. I would never cede that responsibility to another human. I think once an endo appointment devolves into argumentation, it’s time to move on.
Yep, that article is really accurate but didn’t express my personal frustration. I’m doing a lot more work to be in auto-mode for not good enough results. It’s just not aggressive enough and the safety features rule out any progress you make.
I think you gave it a good fight! And I agree that 15 months is a long time. I also think the amount of work it takes to get this system up and running correctly is intense, which is why I did not go with it when Medtronic called to offer it to me. I went with Tandem IQ. And I literally just charged it up, put my profiles in and forgot about it. It just does it’s thing. My urgent lows are completely gone and I am no longer having double digit lows. And no work!!!
We are clones! After 15 months of struggling with Auto Mode, 2 different Endos, and 2 CDEs I went back to Manual Mode. It took me about 1 month to fine tune the basal rates and carb ratios, and now I am very happy with ditching AM. 13 years ago I had a quintuple heart bypass and then 5 stents. I realize that high BG cause arterial inflamation…NOT good! AM kept me HIGH, making me stress out as to what damage could be going on. My A1C (in AM) went from 5.9 to 6.4. I dreaded multi-hour trips in the car because AM would not pull my highs down! On the turnpike, I would have to pull off the road and bolus and that wouldn’t be enough. I would be AGAIN be alerted that I was going HIGHER, pulled off the road, went to Manual Mode, then back to AM. Diabetes became a burden as never before! Now in MM I have rediscovered the Square/Dual Wave and love the suspend before low. I am in range 97% with 0 lows and 3% highs. The pump N-E-V-E-R "got to know me!
I am also taking a Big Pause on AM for the foreseeable future… for all the stress/aggravation of trying to “play nice” with the algorithm and having no better control/results than before I’ve finally switched CDEs to one who said “we don’t have to keep doing this, if manual mode is better for you.” I LOVE LOVE LOVE having square wave and dual boluses back in my arsenal again
I think once an endo appointment devolves into argumentation, it’s time to move on.