If money and insurance didn't matter which pump would you pick?

I have a 12 year old newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetic son. We are now starting to look at pumps for him. We really want to get him the best out there. So my question is, even though there are pros and cons to each pump, if your insurance covered any pump and the monthly cost was the same, which pump would choose and why.

Also if anyone has any insight as to any new pumps that may be coming on the market and may be worth waiting for, I’d love to know.

Thanks!

Good question. Samantha really wants to get a pump, so I’d love to see what people say. Did they tell your son he was to wait 6 months to a year to get one? That’s what our doctor’s office told us. Not sure if that’s true.

No. We just went to our third diabetes class on Thursday and they showed him two pumps. We are going to a pump conference next week to check out the different choices. I do know that our endocrinologist has 4 classes for intro to pump. I think after you pick your pump and get it they show you how to use it and have to wear it for a week with placebo while giving regular shots to make sure you know how to work it. We are three months into diabetes so it probably will be another 3 months before he actually has something.

We have chose the animas ping, actually my daugher chose it. She is 17 now but got it last year. The company has been wonderful to work with and she loves the features of the pump. She likes being able to bolus from her meter and not really have to worry about pulling out her pump when were out to eat or when she’s in a public place. The meter “talks” or pings to the pump. Its also has a food list in the meter including fast food, name brands, etc. that she can look up what she ate and get the carb. count for it. The girly stuff is she loves the colors of the meter and the colored screen. Hope you find the right one for you. :slight_smile: It also took 2-3 months to get hers and that was because of our ins. co.

Denise

Good news. We’re going to ask about getting one at our next appt.

I’m from the UK, and I’m fortunate enough to get my pump through the NHS. And the NHS seems to have chosen to go with Minimed pumps - I’m thinking that if my doctor chose it for me then it’s got to be pretty well certified. And I’ve never had a problem with the ones I’ve had - I’ve currently got a Paradigm, which I love!

It’s simple to use and small too. It thinks of things in advance, kind of like Apple does for computers or iPhones - things that you want to be able to do, you can. And there’s no gizmo’s that are unnecessary, it’s sleek and incredibly clever. I’d rather have something simple and reliable that won’t break (I’m the same with cars!)

Having said that, the idea of the Animas Ping sounds really good.

I like the food list option. Do other pumps offer that or is that exclusive to the animas?

I too have been gaining interest with the Animas ping. I was really leaning towards the Omnipod at first but after reading about all the complaints I lost interest.

I’d go with the Omnipod. Been on it for 3 months, it’s my first pump and I really don’t know if there are any more problems with it compared to others. I find there will be a few issues with a box and then no issues with the others. When there is a problem they have been very good with replacing. Any issues are definitely worth it for me not to be tethered 24/7. I don’t even know I have it on most of the time. If I couldn’t be on the pod then I’d go with the Animas Ping, it’s the closest thing to the Omnipod. The pod also has a food diary in the PDM I think it’s pretty common for the best pumps. Downside with the Omnipod is you have to always remember to have the PDM in order to bolus. Could be a problem with a child although I know a lot of kids who prefer the pod over the tubed pumps because it’s much more discreet. With the Ping you have an option if you forget it at home.

Something you may want to look at is the Mendingo Solo pump. Recently bought by Roche it’s a tubeless pump but much smaller than the Omnipod AND you can bolus from the pod itself. Of course no one knows when it will finally come to market, could be years. You can get an empty Omnipod to wear for 3 days and I know you can do a trial with Minimed with saline.
https://www.myomnipod.com/DemoPodConditionsAgreement/
http://www.solo4you.com/

I believe in trying before deciding, it’s a big decision! Good Luck!

Animas exclusively has the calorie king food database. It has 500 food items and you can customize it to have your favorites in it. It has the smallest increments for basal rates and has the largest bolus available. We truly have no complaints and my daughter loves it. If she were sick and I needed to check her sugar during the night I could give her a bolus from the meter without fishing for her pump and really wake her. She uses the cleo for her cannula. Its self contained and you never see a needle. My advice is to take the info. you get here and really research it on your own too. I was told each company would send someone out to your house to demo there product. Whats best for one may not be best for someone else so even though we truly love the ping I want to see you get whats best for your son. Brandi was about 12 when she went on the pump so we gathered as much info as possible but in the end it was her choice and she chose the deltec cosmo and now the ping. After a year on the ping it is best hands down. Hope this helps. I will be glad to answer any other questions you may have or I can tell you how to talk directly to her.

I would very much recommend waiting the 6 months. It’s really not that long, it feels like it is, but really it’s time well spent learning the disease. Also with MDI therapy you have better control over the logging of what you have done. It’s very important to know how to control your disease with MDI therapy because when the pump fails (not if, when) you have to be able to switch back and not go into DKA. That’s my personal and professional opinion and the majority of endocrinologists agree too.

I would go with an Animas Ping. I currently have the medtronice 722 and its good but i want the option of the carb info on the pump. It really could make life easier.

I think the Minimed food diary has to be manually input, doesn’t come with any info installed. The Ping has the Calorie King and the Omnipod has a general food diary.

Wow lots of votes for the Animas Ping, I thought there would be more people saying the omnipod.

I would still go with the mini med pump and CGMS system that I have it works for me and that is what matters. everyone is different. We all have different wants and needs and mini med works for me.

The omnipod is appealing because it seems like its pretty pain free to put on. Do the minimed and animas ping hurt when you have to change it every three days. I do like the idea of the CGMS, but I think I heard that you still have to prick your finger everytime and that the CGMS is really just an emergency back up if you have a problem going low too much. Is that right?

I have the omnipod and love it. No tubing to worry about. You can shower, swim, play sports etc with it. You should order the demo pod so your son can try it out and see what it feels like. It is pretty much pain free insertion.

Why would people choose a tubed pump when they could have the omnipod. Am I missing something? I know that there are issues with the omnipod malfunctioning, but since the alarm goes off when that happens it is not like there is any risk of getting too much insulin or not enough and not knowing, right?

The mini med insertion is pain free for pump sites to me and to many others it is like shots we get used to it. as for the cgm yes you still do finger sticks but there is more to it then back up. It is for tweaking those doses and understanding your trends.For me it is A life saver, see I have no hypo awareness and so without it warning me of that downward trend I could tank without even knowing it. This is trow for so many on this board as well. The Cgm is also a piece of mind for the moms of young ones for over nights. those tots BG’s can tank over night and without cgm mom never know but with it mom now knows and can adjust the night basal to combat that. truly A wonderful tool.

MM doesn’t hurt very much when you put the Silhoutte sets in.

W/ the CGMS, you don’t necessarily have to do a BG test, except a few times/ day when you have an obligatory calibration, when you ‘confirm’ the BG and the CGM are on the same page? The CGM isn’t so much an ‘emergency backup’ as a way to get more data? It is testing your BG every few minutes s that instead of waiting 2 hours to see what my BG is after I eat lunch, I can see it’s headed up very quickly. If you ‘plot’ your BG, you are plotting a few points. With a CGM, you get a lot more data that can not only warn you about emergencies but give you a much clearer picture of how insulin, food, exercise, stress, illness, etc. work together with your body.

The MM trainer explained this as ‘the CGM identifies trends’ and I agree that’s what it’s most useful for. If you are having dawn phenomenon (morning rise) every day between 5 and 6 AM, you can set your basal rate higher during that time period. It may not seem like much but I’ve had excellent results fixing those sort of problems with .05U/ hr more insulin during that sort of wierd metabolic ‘bump’ in my BG. Similarly, when I had a prescription for steroids, I doubled my basal rate and was basically fine.

The MM CGM insertion needle (you stick a plastic sensor in with a steel needle…) is pretty nasty , quite a bit thicker than the infusion set inserter needles.