Pump Warranty up next month

Minimed also offers some low-income assistance I believe. From what I've heard, both companies do a great job of assisting customers through the insurance approval process.

My Busted Pancreas-

Thanks for all the info and also your opinions. When you mention dropping pumps, one reason I like tubing (I use 23" tubing) is that it stops the pump from hitting the floor when I fumble and drop it. Although tubing has always saved my pump from disastrous falls, I still get cracks in the case periodically. Medtronic always replaces the pump immediately and I've never had the cracks do anything to affect the pump working.

My problem with the waterproof claim of the Animas pump is that like any pump, it can get leakage if there are small cracks in the case or I think it's the battery cap that you need to replace periodically. If I were on vacation, I don't know whether I would want to take a chance on getting water in the pump even if it were completely guaranteed. (BTW Medtronic will replace your pump if you get water damage.)

Your post helps reinforce my gut feel that I'll just keep using my current pump as long as possible.

Brunetta-

One thing to consider with Medtronic is that any pump purchased today will not be compatible with the Enlite sensors as far as I know. There will be definite programming differences. Current pumps are programmed to have sensors only last 3 days and that can't be changed until they get FDA approval for the Enlite sensors that will last 6 or 7 days. Also I assume that the pump that will go with the sensors will be the Veo with the automatic stop of insulin flow in response to low blood sugars.

If I were to buy a Medtronic pump now I would want the assurance that I could use the Pathway program to get the pump compatible with the Enlite sensors. The last time I used the Pathway program, it was $400 which is pretty expensive, but way cheaper than a new pump.

Thanks, Zoe. I didn't know that about Animas.

I know that your Animas is your first pump. How do you like it? Have you had any problems?

Ok I looked at the new MM senor thing but it was an integrated sensor and infusion set and not the new enlite sensor I had hoped for.

Was it the Veo pump that is available in the UK and canada now, but not apporved by the FDa yet? Saw it on the Minimed website. It has not been approved in the U.S.,yet. Today,I talked to a Minimed advisor on the phone. You are right, Lathump. the Enlite sensors can only be used with the Veo..The sensor is smaller, inserts at a said to be relatively painless 90 degree angle, and lasts 6-7 days. The Minimed person said he did not know when it would be approved. Could be tommorrow,could be in January or February 2013. Oh well.

God Bless,
Brunetta

I love it, Lathump. I especially like being able to do everything from the remote. The problems I've had have been with infusion sets though they seem to come in clusters and then I'm fine for awhile. But I think that happens with all pumps.

Lathump, I wore Medtronic for 8 years and when my warranty was up 3 1/2 years ago I was in the same situation. I could no longer wear Medtronic’s sensor so I was underwhelmed with the Revel changes on the pump side. I had had a lot of me problems with no delivery alarms in that I would clear the alarm but forget to hit resume so I would quite literally go for hours and hours with no insulin infusing until a critical high sugar would alert me. Or I’d clear the alarm and mean to deal with the problem later and would forget. If you only partially clear the alarm you can end up in limbo with no insulin infusing forever as the pump will not alarm again. So anyway that and a run of customer service issues had me looking elsewhere when my out of warranty pump down arrow button started sticking too much.

I switched to the Ping 3 1/2 years ago. I love it, so glad I did. The only thing I miss is the escape button. I like having the basal info on the home screen and basal history. I didn’t chose the pump for the screen but having had it I would never go back to Medtronic’s. The high contrast makes everything easier to read especially at night without my glasses. It is more difficult to see in daylight. Bolusing directly from the meter is awesome I love that feature and used the remote all the time until insurance changes made the cost of the strips prohibitive for me. Alarms are louder which I like and much more customizable. I am not getting the equivalent frequent no delivery alarms with Animas like I was with Medtronic and if my reservoir happens to run dry and I clear the alarm the Animas pump will realert which is a very good thing for me. Customer service has been excellent.

The extra button pushes haven’t bothered me at all but took a few days to get used to. I haven’t had issues with the pump being any less or more durable than Medtronic. It’s been really nice to have the option to keep it connected for water based activities. I inspect the pump for visible cracks before going in the water and I figure that’s good enough. It’s worked well the past years. I have had pumps replaced for a couple of issues but none have been due to water damage. Either way if it malfunctions they will replace it.

I really like Diasend the web based software Animas uses and have had no problems downloading my pump at home. I had a ton of issues with Carelink and our Macs.

I too wear Dexcom now. There’s pros and cons to having two devices. Sometimes it’s a hassle during the day but I love it at night. Also I like not having to get my pump out everytime I need to do something which is why I like the remote.

Hope that helps and wasn’t too wordy and long.

Thanks, DianaS, for your favorable post about Animas. I know that a lot of people love their Ping pumps, and it’s nice to hear someone like it better than Medtronic.

I was at Mini med facility this past week and they assured me that the new enlite sensors will work with my REVEL pump. OF course not avail yet. They said it is all in which software version you have. I have the most recent which was made to accept the enlite because they thought it would have been approved by now.

Of course they could totally change the entire system when the come out. I don't know why they cant make a pump that will accept all sensors. I mean as long as they are FDA approved, it should not matter. I think MM would make a killing if they created a pump that would do that, Everyone would have one.
We could use dex sensors or enlite or even the standard Mm sensors which I use,

They do not want to give up the sensor market but really they already have because the Mm sensors are not as accurate and the needle is huge. I do think they would capture an even bigger piece of the market if they did, but who am I anyway.

I don't think they want their potential liability exposure linked to other people's products. It's easy to blame the FDA but pumps can be dangerous and it would complicate the process of investigating mishaps if you have a wider open array of goodies plugged into the suckers. Somewhere recently there was a thread about meter variance that seemed to suggest that meters were all over the place and I can only imagine that there'd be challenges using different sensors with different CGMs.

That's what they used to say about calibrating CGM with different fingerstick meters. now they allow us to use any meter. My first DEX had me attach a wire dongle to my Dex to my meter every time I wanted to calibrate because they didn't trust I could enter the results properly.

CGM's are only ballpark devices anyway. I am sure it would not effect anyone in a big way if they opened it up. I mean we all have to use fingersticks several times a day anyway.

I spoke too soon about my new Dexcom system still being in the box. My old receiver bit the dust last night. None of the buttons work. So this morning I charged up the new receiver and have been using it with the old transmitter and sensor. It’s working just fine. The old one keeps alarming that it is out of range, but I can’t push any buttons to turn it off or clear the alarms. Absolutely nothing happens when I push the buttons. So I’ve put it in a drawer in my laundry room until the battery runs down and it quits vibrating kits alarms.

I am so dependent on my Dex that it would have been a bummer if I’d had to wait several days to get a new receiver.