I'm a LADA too! I have a Love Hate relationship with my 670G!

Hello All,
First time posting here but I’ve been lurking for a while since starting Auto Mode with my Minimed 670G in May 2018.
I’ll start with a little background about myself. I’m a 55 year old male and was first diagnosed as type 2 back in 1997. I should have done more research then. Looking back, I believe I should have known that diagnoses was incorrect. My Father was type 1 and so was his Father. So, I was first taking Glyburide and when that didn’t get my BG low enough my Dr. added Metformin. This, along with diet and exercise, worked for a while as my a1c was down around 6.5. But gradually my control became worse and the dosing of diabetic meds was at max. I was made to believe that I just needed to try harder. As the years went by, I got more disillusioned and my Dr. was calling me non-compliant! So frustrating. May of '05, my Wife and Son and I moved to Oregon to be closer to My parents. Shortly thereafter, I started seeing a Doctor here and my a1c was 11! He said he could tell by looking at me that I was not type 2. So he started me on Humalog and Lantus MDI. Again, I did ok for a while. My a1c was down around 6 for a couple of years but I struggled with hypoglycemia, especially at night. So I would get up and over correct and my BG would be high for the whole day. My a1c kept creeping up and my Endocrinologist (same one my Dad was seeing) would try to get me to be more diligent. I think a lot of damage was done when I was being treated as a type 2 and not being close to “in control”. So I am now a very “brittle” diabetic. I found another Endo years after my Dad’s endo decided to quit his practice. My new doctor told me about the Minimed 670G, so after figuring out how to pay for the supplies, I decided to give it a go starting May 2018. My new endo also told me about LADA and said that my history indicates that I’m in that category. So, after 9 months with the 670G, I can say that it has helped me to get a much better handle on my control. I have very few lows. The CGM does a great job of letting me know when I’m headed south so that I can start correcting before feeling like I’m about to die! My last a1c was 6.9 and the one before that was 7.0 I LOVE my 670G when it works as expected. I HATE it when things go wrong like when Dawn Phenomenon causes my BG to creep up and the sensor doesn’t follow. A finger stick in the morning indicates a BG of 180 but the sensor says 150! Fortunately, I think I’m getting a handle on this and the DP is a little better lately. I think I Love my pump more often that I hate it. Hope I haven’t bored you all to much with my long winded story, but that’s my diabetes in a nut shell.
I look forward to participating here and hearing from others about struggles and successes .

Greg

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Greg,

It may not help completely, but be sure you update your transmitter. It is a free upgrade if you have one of the older models. Here is the web site to key in your serial number to see if you qualify.

https://info.medtronicdiabetes.com/bgcheck

Note: I am a Medtronic ambassador. My opinions are my own. They did not pay me to say nice things about Medtronic devices or the company. OK, they sent me a shirt and a cup but even I am more expensive than that.

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Thank You @ Rphil2,

Yes, I’ve recently started with the new transmitter. My Medtronics sales rep recommended the updated transmitter due to the fact that I was struggling with the “Loop of Death”. Frequently, when starting a new sensor, my BG was not stable when calibrating for the first time. This caused the pump to require new BG to start or stay in auto mode. The new trasmitter seems to help with the "BG Required trouble but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to help with DP. The only things that do help are being careful with timing and contents of dinner meal and limiting late evening snacks. I’ve also reduced the AIT setting from 4 to 3hrs. We’ll see if that helps.

Greg

Welcome to TuD, @GregS. Reading your misdiagnosis story reminds about how lucky I was to get correctly diagnosed T1D (LADA) at the age of 30.

I share your antipathy with a clinician’s use of the non-compliance charge. I wonder if this tactic has ever worked.

Glad to read that you’re getting along with the 670G. I don’t have any 670 experience but I’ve witnessed many and varied accounts of users’ experience.

Good luck going forward!

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That’s about when I got my upgrade to the 670G, and I have been using the new transmitter since it became available as well.

I have noticed this kind of thing as well. Several things I do that help keep the sensor & meter BG in sync are:

  1. Wait 20-30 minutes after getting up (actually out of bed) before attempting to calibrate or eat breakfast. I often do this by doing other morning activities such as getting dressed or possibly preparing for the rest of the day.
  2. Always wait 20-30 minutes after showers before attempting to calibrate. Something I often do is calibrate before the shower rather than after. If I also need a correction bolus, let the calibration finish before doing the correction bolus. Then (if applicable) do the meal bolus (or snack bolus, whatever the case may be) after the shower without doing another BG.
  3. Do NOT do BGs at every meal, do BGs on a predetermined (or approximately the same time) schedule. This can be adjusted so that you NEVER do the calibration immediately (or soon after) after eating. This will prevent meals from causing calibration problems.
    These things are things I never thought about doing, since with my previous pump (which did not have Auto Mode) I seemed to never have good or correct numbers.

I actually have mine at 2 hrs, I would probably reduce it even more I could.

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That was the thing that finally broke me on the 670G and I went back to manual mode permanently. There didn’t seem to be a settings fix because the problem was the sensor, not the pump or the algorithm.

And yes, your misdiagnosis story is a very familiar one around here. It’s astonishing how often this happens, and blaming the patient for “noncompliance” or inadequate effort goes along with it. After decades of stats showing that nearly as many people get T1 in adulthood as get it as kids, you’d think they might stop doing this. It was the whole POINT of changing the designation to “Type 1” instead of “Juvenile.” But some fixed ideas are just really hard to change, even among professionals who should know better.

Anyway, welcome to TuD Greg!

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I think it’s a lot like raising kids. A parent will find much more success when their child is praised for the things they are doing right more often than criticized for mistakes. The child will eventually start pushing back if all they hear is negative feedback from one or both parents. Maybe My previous Doc should take a parenting class. I can recommend some very good ones;) :wink:

Welcome to the site. You can always experiment with different tech, which will likely be more expensive. You could try a T:slim, Dexcom CGM, and/or Omnipod pump. Most people like.

For the most part, I’m happy with the 670G. I’m going to stick with it for at least a couple of years. I hear Medtronics is working on some exciting improvements for the next model and I’d like to be toward the front of the line to get in on that.

Greg

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So … how many finger sticks are you averaging per day?

6.4 finger sticks per day average over last 30 days. Time in range 90 percent. Average BG 130 MG/DL

I’m getting a 670 soon because my 530 broke. I’m not going to use auto mode or the Medtronic sensors, so for those reasons, I presume that the “love/hate” thing will be on the “love” side of the equation. I love my G5 sensors, have used Medtronic sensors in the past and despise them. Even if they are more accurate now, there is something about the whole xmitter/sensor thing that irritates my skin to no end and they won’t stay on in high-heat conditions when I’m sweating. I tried everything, to no avail. My G5’s don’t fall off in the same conditions and they are very accurate. Tandem was too slow to respond to my request for a pump–Medtronic literally had a loaner pump processed for shipment in less than 2 hours of my call.

@Dave44 Have you held the 630/670 in your hands yet? If you’re used to the Medtronic line of pumps, the 670 is going to feel very strange in your hands. I immediately hated it and did not like that they changed from a landscape to portrait orientation. It just feels off, and wrong. I can’t speak to button presses to get to certain menus cuz the pump didn’t make it that far before I returned it. I hope you get along great with it, hopefully they get the sensors covered by Medicare, so you can take full advantage of the pump. The new G3 sensors are supposed to be on par with the G5 accuracy.

Yes, I’ve had the 670 in my hand. Agreed it’s a different animal than the 5xx series.