Thanks Joe! I know I should just sleep on it for a few days and then decide what to do.
I am glad that your refurbished one is working good. I have a friend that has a refurbished MM one & I know she hasn’t had problems with hers. It probably wouldn’t have bothered me if the other ones had lasted longer!
I am not really worried about having extra insulin either - it was the idea that it was supposed to be there & wasn’t - since that was my first pump, I also did not know that it was supposed to be.
I appreciate all your help & I am sure I will see you out on the main board!
Kelly, Sorry that you’ve had such a frustrating experience with pumping.
Replacing in warranty pumps with a refurbished pump has been industry standard for as long as I’ve been pumping which is 9 years now. I’ve never had any more problems with a refurbished pump than I’ve had with the new ones. For me it kind of goes in spurts some of the Minimed models I used had lots of problems (I think my 511 was replaced 3 or 4 times) but others ran for years before something would wear out or break. But I also knew from the very beginning that any warranty pump replaced (or upgraded) would be refurbished rather than new. That’s too bad. Animas should have made that clear to you it shouldn’t be a surprise.
There’s nothing wrong with taking a pump break or deciding that pumping is not for you. I’m also not sure that your insurance company would be able to do anything with the pump or could even legally give it to someone else so I’m not sure that sending the pump to your insurance company would accomplish anything. I agree with the others that hanging on to the refurbished pump for now would be a good idea. It would keep your options open long term.
Thanks Diana. I wish the replacement policy had been discussed with me prior to getting the pump. In one way, I can’t even blame the sales guy because I had kind of done my homework on the other pump stuff and was kind of an easy sale for him. He probably figured I had checked into that also
I know my insurance company can’t legally do anything with it other than making some kind of deal with Animas. I feel like because I only used it for 8 months and they paid 100% for it, the decision is theirs as to what to do with it.
Kelly, It has become pretty standard now for insurance companies to make you wait until you have a problem with an out of warranty pump instead of just replacing them when the warranty is up. I would expect that your insurance is the same. They may say that they will only pay for one every 5 years, but if it failed between the 4th and 5th, I would expect them to pay for the new one. I know that Minimed will send you one out if this happens, not waiting for insurance approval. If you decide on a different pump though, you have to pay a lease fee for the pump that they sent out.
We have actually had better luck with refurbished pumps than we have had with new ones over the years. Melissa’s last Minimed was still working well past the 4 years. I’m sure that it would still be working, but since I had no supplies and it was out of warranty, I let Michael take it so that he could take it apart. Last time we had to use the Cozmo, it was working fine too. Now that she has the Omnipod, and has two PDM’s, we haven’t needed to use it. Every single one of her pumps had to be replaced at least twice, and I knew going in that each of the pump companies had the same policy. None of them offered up that info though, and many people still don’t know it. They get what they think is a new pump because it looks new and never question it.
Maybe when you find out what they have to say about the one that you sent back, you will feel differently, or maybe you will be even more certain that you don’t want to pump.
Thanks Mary. If you had not told me in Jan that they send refurbished ones out, I never would have questioned it! I am sure there are people that don’t realize that. I hope that they will tell me now what was wrong with the first one - I am not going to hold my breath on that though. I was promised someone from management would call me today and they didn’t.
With the first pump, I started getting a lot of air in the tubing. I replaced the caps and Animas had me trying different things to see if that changed anything – they even sent me 2 new cartridges & 2 infusion sets to change everything out. The pump was not usable because I was getting as much air in the tubing as I was insulin and every time we tried something different, I ended up ripping it off. I met with an Animas rep in Pittsburgh and she watched me fill the cartridge to make sure I was doing everything right. She agreed that I was doing everything right. A couple hours after I met her, I started getting a ton of air in the tubing of the set she watched me do. Right before the air showed up, Animas called me to let me know they were going to replace the pump.
Right around that time, Dick posted here complaining about some of the stuff on the Ping. One of his complaints was that there was 16 units of insulin left in the cartridge when the pump said zero – I almost told him that he was wrong. Mine never did that and the cartridge was always bone dry when the pump said 0 insulin remaining. After the new one came, I tested it out by letting the cartridge run down to zero and there was a lot of insulin left. I know that first pump was giving me too much insulin. I had two bad unexplained lows the last 2 nights I used the pump. Once I got the new pump, my basals had to be totally reset.
That pump had always been very noisy from day one but the last week I was using it, it sounded a lot louder than it had been. The Animas rep agreed that it did not sound right & see even pulled hers out so I could hear the difference
Last Saturday, I did a site change around dinner time. I noticed the pump was making a lot louder noise than normal when I did the load cartridge. That night I woke in the middle of the night with high BS and I looked and had a lot of air in the tubing. I called Animas and they said because of the change in the motor noise, they were going to replace the pump.
Refurbished means that it meets original factory specs after any parts need to be replaced. Some refurbs are customer returns, because they did not like the pump, i.e. essentially new, just sold and returned because the person didn’t like/want a pump. Meets all original specs, no replacement parts needed.
It is still used and I don’t want a used pump. My insurance company paid over $6k for my pump and it should not be replaced with a used one so early in the game. I also find it funny that Animas in Canada replaced pumps with new ones - people up there don’t want used ones & their laws are different.
I’m not sure what you mean by insulin left in the cartridge. I wish I could find that post. That doesn’t make sense to me. I have my pump set to alert me when there’s 10 units left so then I know how much insulin is left. I always let it run at least to 5 units before I change the cartridge and there’s never extra insulin left in there. If it says there’s 5 units then that’s what’s left in there. I have the 2020 and also had the 1250 and both of them were set this way. It’s been perfectly fine this way so I don’t understand. Maybe I’m missing something?? I had my 2020 replaced because the rubber where the buttons are was actually wearing/peeling off. I don’t know if the one I have now is refurbished but I actually thought it was new because it functions as if it is. I’m wondering if anything would change if you spoke with someone high in the company if there’s a way. I know to you it seems crazy for this to happen.
I found Dick’s post – I did a search for “16.” No. 8 is the one that mentions the wasted insulin. My guess is that is a Ping thing. In the beginning, I did fill my cartridges up the full way because I was wasting a lot of insulin. Even though there are lines going up to 200 and you fill the cartridge up, you never get that – the pumps says you have about 184. I had a spreadsheet I was tracking everything and thought that Apidra was not putting 1000 units in the vials - I did not realize there were 16 hidden units in every cartridge. I am guessing that is where Dick got the 16 units left. I know with the 2nd pump, there was almost 20 units there – I did not get a syringe and measure it, but it appeared to be close to 16 units. I never had a drop in the first pump when I ran it down to zero.
I talked to a supervisor on Tues and she said someone from management would call me yesterday – no one has called me. She told me she would call Friday so if she doesn’t, I will try to call them on Monday. Based on the fact that no one has bothered to call me, I am guessing they won’t.
There were other posts that came up with the number 16 so I am guessing other people have discussed that before. I did not go and look at them.
A lot of the insurances that require a 5 year wait for a new pump will replace it between the 4th and 5th years if it malfunctions. If it’s still working then they’ll make you wait 5 years before they’ll authorize a new one. I’ve talked to a lot of people including those with Medicare where this has been true for them. At least this has been true in the past who knows what will happen going forward we’ll just have to see.
Diana, since I am on disability, I have a Medicare supplemental plan. I thought I saw someone say that even if the pump breaks, Medicare won’t pay for another one before the 5 years is up. I haven’t seen too many people talking about it breaking between years 4 & 5, so I just figured they wouldn’t pay. You are right, who knows what will happen going forward.
I am back on MDI Sandy. I actually did that Sunday morning because the pump that broke was not usable. I had hoped to be back on the pump when it came Tuesday, but that didn’t happen so I am just sticking to shots for now.
I’m so sorry you are having all these problems. I’m like you, after all this, I wouldn’t even imagine that you would have received a refurbished pump. Of course, that being said, it may work better than new…who knows. I’m like others here, I’d probably try and relax, regroup and make a decision then. Boy, I’d hate to have to go back on MDI. Knock on wood…
Thanks Carman. I am going to wait until next week before I do anything. Animas only gives you 14 days to return the pump and I received the replacement Tues - I can’t send that back with the labels they sent because they link the serial numbers to the labels you have. I was promised someone would call & they haven’t. I will wait until Monday to call them and then on Tues, I have to get my insurance company involved because I will only have 7 days left to deal with them.
Actually being back on MDI isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Other than having some bad insulin that I changed out, I am not getting as many highs as I was with the pump. I did not sleep good last night & missed the pump when I heard alarm going off this morning at 7 so I could take Levemir, but other than that, I really am glad to be back on MDI.
