I have been reading various information on the different pumps and requesting information and speaking to reps on the phone. An Omnipod rep is coming to speak to me in person tomorrow. I go to an info session with Medtronic in about a week. I get e-mails from these companies all wanting me to wear their meter.
I like the Minimed Revel from what I have read, and that is the one that I believe I am going to go with.
I know that the Revel has tubing. I am thinking of going with the 43" tubing, for ease of sleeping. When you are wearing the pump, where does the tubing go? If you bend it, will it kink or clog or cause other problems?
I was thinking at first that you would wear one for during the day and a different one at night, but upon further thought, the whole point is to wear this pump for three days, change everything and start again. So, there is no need to change to a different length of tubing for sleep.
Should I just start with a shorter length of tubing?
I did go over to Amazon yesterday and order the Insulin Pumping book. It should be here pretty soon. Amazon is good about shipping.
I have had an Omnipod since May. It isn't perfect but I like not having to worry about tubing at all. I have no problems sleeping with it. I can't imagine using tubing.
Hi BlessedLife. I wear 32" tubing, Sure-T infusion sets, with my MM522 pump. Day and night, I wear a spibelt (www.spibelt.com). I have also put my pump in my pocket which is convenient, but the spibelt is the most comfortable of all for me. I don't care for short tubing. If you get the Revel, you could ask Medtronics for samples of different types of infusion sets, different lengths of tubing, and choose what works the best for you.
I have a Minimed 522 and I use the 43-inch tubing. It's long enough I can lower my pants when necessary without pulling on the infusion site. (I use Quicksets.) And I can put the pump in my pants pocket or wear on my belt while using an infusion site anywhere on my body. I simply coil up the excess tubing and tuck it in my slacks.
Medtronic with 42" tubing for me. Infusion set (almost) always on my abdomen, pump (almost) always clipped to my belt. Here's an image of a cell-phone case I uploaded a long time ago where I hold my pump. It's a bit scuffed (and has since been replaced), but it works.
The tubing tucks right in my waistband. When I do it this way, it never gets caught on anything. (If the pump is in a pocket,, sometimes it does). The longer tubing is helpful. Like Gerry said, it's helpful when lowering your pants (to use the bathroom, to change clothes, even to put in a CGM if you use the spot I do). I also find it helpful when wearing longer mens' dress shirts (not likely an issue for you), and it's nice to bring the pump up to eye-level rather than bring my head down to pump-level when I need to interact with it.
When sleeping, it inevitably falls out of my pajama pocket, but the long tubing gives me plenty of slack to toss and turn without concern.
Oh, and as far as problems with kinked tubing, it happened once in my 5+ years of pumping. It was bent sharply just at the reservoir connection (the case I used had the flap on the top, rather than on the side as you see in the image above, and the tubing was stuck beneath the flap)and my BG rose inexplicably.
I would go with the shortest tubing unless you specifically know you will need longer. Less tubing to have to manage. Mine is 23".
At night, I've found the best place to wear it, if you wear a shirt, is to thread the pump up the inside of your shirt and then clip it to the outside of your shirt collar under your chin. I used to place it there temporarily while i put on pajama bottoms, then clip it to my pajama bottoms, but one night i forgot to transfer it and woke up suprised at where it was. The fact that I didn't realize it was in the "wrong place" until i woke up and tried to bolus was a sign that it was in the right place!
If you don't twist around a lot at night (i do) you can suprisingly just let it loose in bed with you and be fine.
I don't like the longer tubing sets for a couple of reasons. First of all, it seems to me that it's a lot of "wasted" insulin you use when you're priming, and also, I tend to wear skirts, and if I'm not careful with how I wind it up and tuck it wherever, I'll end up with a bunch of tubing hanging out below my skirt. Also, I've found that when I use longer ones, they're more apt to get kinked.
