Gang, I’ve ordered my Animas Ping, and am just now learning about all the red-tape, delays, etc. How frustrating.
After it’s approved by Blue Shield (which takes a few days), Animas then receives the go-ahead to ship. After it’s shipped (which takes a few days), they then put me in a queue for a trainer. After a trainer is assigned to me (which takes a few days), I then wait a week or so for a call. We then make a future appt. for my first training.
So the bottom line is this: my pump will arrive on my doorstep, and I’ll have to wait another week or two before I can even use it!
I knew my son was going on the pod… so I ordered it and did all that before I had the appointment w/ the doctors to put i on him for the first time. We had to use the ped. Endo office for training… but since then we quit them and I have close contact w/the Omnipod Pump instructor for my area and I cant even begin to say how great she is w/out rambling on and on… she is very accessable and has made the world of diffrence in his treatment.
This is normal for most pumps… Thats actually EASIER than what I had to go through to get mine…
If you go through Joslin, its even more complex, more appointments BEFORE its ordered and more after…
You only usually see the actual pump trainer perhaps twice. Once before ordering, and once after… and theres no insulin in the pump either … You dont get that for a few visits…
We had about two weeks from ordering to training for our first pump (Minimed). I remember it seemed like a long time, although in reality it’s not – I understand your frustration because it’s so exciting and hard to wait!
Our second pump (Omnipod) I arranged for a trial first before I bought. The rep here is very good, so we were trained and podding within a week. We went straight from the trial pods to purchasing our own system, so it worked out pretty well.
It will be worth the wait for sure! Hopefully the trainer can accomodate you quickly.
