I have been on Medtronic's system for nearly 2 years now. I am supposed to be upgrading to the new enlite system but, it is taking forever. I have been considering swtiching to Tandems T-slim w/ Dexcom. Any thoughts appreciated in either direction. Thanks
I like the idea that Dexcom make work via a smartphone in the future.
Can't compare to medtronic but I'm using dex G4, and T:slim. Also is my first pump - diagnosed one month after 60th birthday. G4 came first and I'm impressed by the info it gave me. So much missed with what food really does if you just test pre meal and 2 hour post as my endo recommended. The G4 led to a full fledged diet makeover and got my A1C down to 5.8 but that ment a lot more shots on MDI. My basal did not hold for 24 and needed to split, and the only way to keep from spiking post meals with my work schedule was to pre bolus an approximate amount before going to lunch and then adding on as needed depending on what was available in the cafeteria. As you can see things added up over the day.
The tslim is easy for anyone familiar with touchscreen technology, has an intuitive flow pattern, and is easy to program. It works well for me as a first time pumper.
Things to consider compared to your current pump ----
Bolus calculator
Can use carbs and or BG to calculate dose or correction but it currently does NOT subtract until you are below 70, regardless of your target. Is supposed to be fixed in upcoming upgrades.
Basal rate can increment at 0.001 BUT needs a base rate of at least 0.1 dispute the fact that a bolus can be as small as .05, this is program issue not physical limitation and I hope will be fixed with next pump upgrade.
Programs ----
Can have several.different pump programs each program can have up to 16 segments in 24 hours.
Is easy to copy a basic program and tweak individual segments.
The duration of insulin and bolus size is fixed for each program, but can be different from program to program. And the I:C ratio and CF can be different for each time segment in a program.
Temp rates ---
You can set temp rates up or down in time blocks as small as 15 minutes. If a low rate is requested that will take basal lower than 0.1 then will only go that low, BUT you can set rate of 0 if you want, once time is up will resume programmed rate.
Give me a shout if you need any other specifics.
Thanks!
I am leaning toward t-slim for two reasons. Modern pump and future Dexcom integration. Another thing is I like the sound that Dexcom will be intergrating with smart phones someday soon as well. I always have that with me :)