Although I’ll be happy to have the security of guaranteed healthcare, I’m definitely not looking forward to losing the top notch coverage we have now. My wife works for a healthcare system and my diabetes supplies are covered at 100%, with diabetes meds a $5 monthly copay with 3rd month free. I can’t imagine medicare will be able to match that. Thankfully, I’ve still got 18 years to go 
The kinks are such a fun band.
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Hey there RLS1, I wanted to check back in with you as I’ve been on the Tslim X2 pump now for a full week.
My results have been nothing short of extraordinary. I’m seeing a relatively effortless and dramatic improvement in my average blood sugar, time and range, and Dexcom’s A1C equivalent GMI.
Without looping, my average was about 70% time in range and 7-7.5% GMI with about 40-45 standard deviation. My last lab A1C a few days ago was 7.0%.
I’ve had a little bit of a learning curve, but I’m in the groove now. My last 2 days my average glucose is 142 with 89% time in range (70-180) and 25 standard deviation. Several times I noticed my time in range approaching 95% (over 24-hour period)
Even in the first few days when I was still figuring things out, I noticed a dramatic improvement in my overnight blood sugars. The X2 is constantly monitoring and adjusting basal rates when you’re sleeping and it’s not uncommon to see dozens upon dozens of micro insulin adjustments during the course of a night of sleep. My wife does insulin adjusting for patients at hospital occasionally but this is far beyond what any human being could do. It’s work that is uniquely suited for a machine to handle.
I must say, the tubing issue is kind of irrelevant to me at this point. If I had known I would have had such a dramatic improvement in my glucose control so immediately, I would have done this 2 years ago. My numbers are approaching pre-diabetic levels, and it’s really all with a minimal amount of effort on my part.
This technology really is extraordinary.
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My experience is very similar! A big part of learning is how to dose, for example wings and nachos, doing extended blouses, etc.
The issues with tubing I finally dealt with by getting a belt-pouch (from tandem) that I wear only at night. I was worried I’d either strangle myself or yank out the infusion when I tried sleeping with the pump under my pillow.
I had a longer learning curve. Getting my settings right. Took me 2 months.
But my a1c improved every time I checked it and sitting around 5.5% now. I never came close to that before.
Once I tightened it up that much I began to see the variation in carbs. The more fat I eat, the more insulin I need.
It’s the opposite of what I had always been taught. A piece of toast is 15 grams of carb. Thats 1.1 unit for me. A piece of toast with butter is 2.5 units of insulin.
I don’t know if I’m changing with age or if it’s always been this way. I have cut way down on fats and oils but I don’t really eliminate them.
Yes that’s very true… Eating simple sugar candy or carbohydrate without fat is very easy to treat. But the moment you add fat to it, the insulin becomes less effective. I’ve had moments where I’ve had too much pizza for example, and I can dump insulin repeatedly for hours and watch my blood sugars linger at 220 no matter how much I use, it seems. I do find that even a short amount of exercise “activates” the insulin, making it work much better. This can be as simple as a 15 to 30 minute brisk walk, or running up and down the stairs a few times.
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## schleima, thanks for sharing your experience. I am in contact with the local T-Slim Rep and am looking forward to a discussion with them. It may be an even better system for me than the OmniPod. Apparently, for swimming, I can bolus a bit for basal, then disconnect the tubing and do my swim. Then reconnect and bolus as needed.
I especially like the discussion about how fat makes it harder to control high BG. I will discuss with my wife because it was not what we thought, so we need to recalibrate how we do our meals!
Thanks again, RLS
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For what it’s worth, there is a T:sport patch style pump in development. As far as I can tell it’s not disposable. It looks like a mini t:slim with very short external tubing (an inch or two)… The disposable part is a pouch that sticks to your skin and you put the t:sport inside. It’s a much less elegant solution than omnipod but it sounds like it would work for your swimming when it is released.
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I’m dying to know where you got that information, please. I’ve been scraping for every detail possible the last 3 years, and I’ve been trying to figure out how the adhesive thing was going to work. Even the clinical trial people I talked to wouldn’t/couldn’t say. I sorta assumed it would be double-stick tape, but that sounded like a messy pain in the butt.
I have heard then say there would be multiple wear options, including a lanyard possibility. So that might be interesting.
For what is worth, it’s not actually in development. It’s a fully finalized project according to their last investor update. They’re just waiting for the approval on their mobile bolus platform (which is long overdue!) before they file on it. It’s literally just sitting on a shelf while the FDA gets their 
together. (Can you tell I’m out of warranty and getting impatient??? Lol)
I saw the pump just before Covid shut down. It was at a JDA event.
The pump is a little bigger than a pod but it’s square so the edges are not ace nicely ergonomic like pods are. But the regular infusion sets make it seem like a big advantage.
It is lighter than you would expect.
It is secured with double sided tape, the exact same tape that the Eversnese transmitter uses.
It’s seems to hold real well, but I didn’t wear it all day to see how it would last.
The tape is not like the glue mess you get from infusion sets and dexcom. It peels off. Again I didn’t have it on for a long period ,but it seemed like it wasn’t messy for the 30 min I had it on.
I tried running around a little with the dummy version and it stayed pretty tight. I don’t know if it was full or empty. Insulin could make it feel heavier I guess.
It holds a max of 200 units including prime so we are prob looking at a max 195 or so.
That works perfectly for me. I use about 150 in 3 days.
If they ever release it, it’s been delayed several times.!!!
I have 3 years left on my tslim anyway, but if they offer a trade in I’ll probably pay the cost.
Oh and the cartridges are completely different. More like a syringe drive like the Medtronic pumps have and you can see inside it. That makes a big improvement over the current tslim and the pods which are both hidden.
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I can’t say more than I already have, but I did get the info from someone with first hand experience.
I’ve been away for such a long time. I like your sense of humor. I’m glad I can read about what regular people think about complicated and serious matters. I’ve been with the DIY guys and I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on diabetes. At the moment I am running the FreeAPS X on an iPhone using an Omnipod and OrangeLink Pro. I wish everyone could join the “WeAreNotWaiting” community. Thank you very much for making me smile in spite of such a grave matter.
Thanks, but what a non-elegant solution. That ugly thing almost kills some of my excitement.
It looks like they’re going with versatility over convenience. Obviously the omnipod can’t be used as a traditional pump whereas t:sport can. But since their pump isn’t disposable, obviously the adhesive is the thing that gets changed out rather than the entire pump and the pouch was their solution for that.
Those pics are of the new tandem tsport which isn’t out yet.
I wonder where you got the pics.
I use a iv3000. I pit it on the spot I want to use, then I poke through it for my inset. This makes a bigger anchor. And the iv3000 is transparent so it doesn’t look any different.
I can’t pull mine off even when I catch it on a doorknob.
Tandem is hosting a “R&D Day” tomorrow, where they’re devoting the entire time period to talking about their pipeline projects, including but not limited to T:sport, Tandem Source (new software), and Control-IQ updates. I imagine they’re getting ready to make all sorts of information public, hence the new graphics. I’m really looking forward to this. I stalk all the investor updates for whatever pipeline snippets they tease, but this is an entire event devoted to it, and none of the financials.
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So I take it this pouch is different than the double sided sticky tape you mentioned earlier?
Wouldn’t surprise me if they come out with adhesive sleeves with different graphic designs.
Yes it’s totally different from what I saw in 2019.
I bet you cover the pump with iv3000 and it would stay. You won’t need to bother with it since it will be controlled with a phone.
I’m hoping to be able to use different sites. Instead of my belly and hips all the time.
Also I could buy the sticky’s from eversense