I'm going to be getting my first pump very soon, and I am almost positive I want the T-slim. I was leaning towards the Animas Ping, but after some research on the T-slim I changed my mind.
My mom still thinks I should get the Ping. As far as I know, her only concern with the T-slim is the luer lock being on the outside of the pump. She thinks the tubing could pop off or become kinked on the ends. I've heard of the air bubble issue, but is kinking also more of a problem with the T-slim?
I was concerned about it too before I got my t:slim. I thought it was too bulky and would be in the way. But I can tell you after 6 months that it has never been an issue. The only time you may get a bubble in there is when you are priming it, but it's easy to release with a few clicks. If that is your only concern do not worry about it at all. I absolutely love my t:slim, and would never trade it for any other current pump out here. It's simply the best one, IMO. Good luck!
Have been using the tslim for a year now. Have never had any issues with kinked tubing. I make sure that when I change out the cartridge that the I tighten the leulock hard.
The only time I had a problem with the small bubble that can appear in the hub propagating down the line was when I had not fully tight end the hub.
As for the "bubble" problem. For me personally I have found that if you take your insulin out and let it warm to room temp before drawing into syringe that I do not get bubbles. I draw up insulin in slow motion, use minimal flicking/banging to get air bubble out of syringe. When I inject in to the cartridge I do that in slow motion as well.
The faster/harder you push/pull the insulin out of/into bottle/cartridge the more you foam it and actually cause bubbles. The same goes with banging the pump as you are priming the lines. Flicking the leurlock to get rid of the bubble actually causes more, and can break it up and make it go down the line.
I sit my pump upright and have the pigtail pulled up straight while I prime it. I use two shelves in my storage closet, pump sits on one shelf and I have a hook on a higher shelf that I hang the tubing over. Makes it easy to keep pigtails straight up as it primes. I can be doing my site change as it fills.
I'm very happy with my tslim, I like the small size and ease of programing. I love the rapid bolus feature and can use it with out needing to pull out pump. I have it set to 10 gm of carb increments and can pre bolus for a meal as I head to the cafeteria. Then once I get meal can then pull it out and add the balance of insulin needed.
I really like the tconnect program for pump downloads and the viero meter uploads right into your pump data. Don't need any special cables since the charging cables are USB and can be used for downloads as well as charging.
I tend to charge my pump once a week. Be ware that if you do that then it will get warm as it charges. I let mine sit on a lunch pack freezer block while it is charging so the insulin stays cool. The pump does have an insulin overheated alarm, and will warn you when it has gotten too hot as in sitting in sun at the pool too long etc.
Give a shout if you have any questions.
The Leur Lock on the PING is outside the pump also. I have the PING and am switching to the PING. I have had it for 5 years and never did the tubing comes off. I have no concern about the Leir Lock security on any pump. They fit very tightly. Also air bubbles occur in any pump. Good luck.
No problems here, either — I absolutely love this pump and have had no problems at all with the tubing or luer lock. You're going to love it!
# months with the T:Slim, NO Luer Lock concerns, The lock is close to the pump, the pump is so small, and Slim, (pun intended) I just drop it in a pocket and pull it out as needed. The color touch screen is bright and easy to read the air bubbles are essentially not a problem. The Luer Lock is designed to catch bubbles and keep them trapped, if you see a bubble, just ignore it, it will stay right there and not affect anything. The load does take a couple of minutes, but it is easy and depending on your daily Insulin use, you may be able to load the cartridge every 6 days and just change your sight every three.
I have been T1 for over 48 years and on MDI for over 42 years. Sixty-three days ago, after doing a lot of research into the available pumps and a saline trial of the Ping, I went with the T:Slim with the following results:
1. No bubble problems whatsoever. I keep the bottle of insulin I am currently using out of the refrigerator. There is no problem whatsoever in getting the bubbles out of the syringe and there are surprisingly few in the pump, luer lock or tubing. They push out as the tubing fills.
2. I am careful to tighten the lure lock connection fully when I first connect. It has never come loose. My wife worked in an ICU for 18 years and has never had a bad lock unless it is from human error.
3.I like the "tail" between the cartridge and the lock as I can run the cartridge for six days with an intermediate infusion set change. I have not done this yet, but my endo said I could. There is no reason to do this to cut down on set expense and mine are fully paid for by insurance (sets, cartridges and insulin). Therefore I would only do this in an emergency.
4. I am still tweaking my basals and boluses, but in 58 days, my H1AC dropped from 7.5 to 7.1. Note that since the H1AC covers 90 days I still have some pre-pump results in there. In addition, I can see my averages moving down as I make adjustments so I know that my H1AC results will be better once I hit optimum state.
5. My endo was a "Medtronic house" and wanted me on that pump. I told her it was T:slim or nothing (I like NOTHING about Medtronic, their proprietary nonsense, their outdated pump technology, the way they do business or their tax inversion scheme to avoid US taxes). After that speech, she agreed to support me on the T:Slim. We are BOTH very happy with the results and she is happy that she has someone who wanted to try the T:Slim. It's been a learning curve for both of us on the new pump but she supported my decision and the proof is in the numbers.
6. Tandem's support has been fantastic. My nurse/CDE came to my house and demonstrated the pump, went to my end's office on day one of my start-up and followed up with me (though I have had zero issues). My salesman was great. He gave me a non clip case to fit better in my pocket, replaced my sets used for training and follows-up to see how I am doing. I had built my own set of Excel spreadsheets and graphs to monitor the MDI I was on, and the Tandem people thought I would never give that up. I found the T:Connect was more efficient and did 90% of what I had done in Excel and I did not have to load the data manually. I dropped my Excel system a month ago, much to the surprise of the Tandem people and my endo.
7. I use a Freestyle Lite and load the data into T:Connect with a cable from my meter to my MAC. The software works flawlessly. When I go to my endo, the data from the pump and the meter is all there for them. She just goes to the graphs and asks specific questions and makes suggestions.
8. I use a DAD and I think he needs a contract revision! I am getting far fewer lows that he has to alert me to.The bottom line is that I hated the Ping when I did a saline trial two years ago, but the T:Slim is a decision I have no regrets about.
Congratulations on your success. I am getting a T:Slim Demo today.
Thanks, everyone! I told Mom what you all said about it and she's on board now.
The cartridge changes takes the most time, changing just the infusion set is quick and simple, I regularly go 6 days between cartridge changes, I too have my cartridges, sets, and Insulin fully paid for. The caveat is someone is paying for them so I make every effort to be frugal within reason, to save us all some money.
Hi all, I'm researching the Tslim, My MM 723 warranty is up. I have a couple questions for Tslim users:
1. Is there a suspend feature on this pump? I read somewhere you couldn't turn it off, but what about suspend temporarily, like to shower etc.
2. Is the IOB automatically subtracted from bolus calculations?
3. How do you deal with the lack of "reverse correction" calculations?
4. Since the battery is rechargeable, does it loose the ability to hold a full charge over time? (like a cell phone does)
Thanks for your help.