My meeting with my team has just been pushed back a month so I have a lot more time to obsess over my pump choice. I have a few things that I'm unclear on about the Ping before I can decide which pump to get. I'm in Canada so it would be the Combo with the Aviva Combo remote:
1. What can you do without the remote? A simple bolus and site change? Is there anything else that can be done or that you wish could be done?
2. I get the feeling from this pump that the pump itself is old reliable tech with a fancy new remote attached to it (compared to, say the Ping which feels like a shiny new pump with a shiny new remote). Is this an accurate assessment? Does it matter?
3. Can anyone in Canada comment on their service/support?
4. Any reliability issues? I read a lot on here about failures for the new gen of Minimeds and for omnipods but no real mention of problems in this group. Are they that much more reliable or are minimed/omnipod users just whinier or that there aren't as many Spirit users on here?
5. Any reason you, as a Spirit user, can think of that I may or may not want the same device over a minimed, Omnipod or Ping?
Remote can calculate bolus, insulin on board, etc... and is a meter, Wish it had CGMS in it..Can pretty much do everything from remote. If i read correctly
but if you dont have the remote, I believe you can still run the pump itself as if it were the old Spirit, no IOB, no calculator, but you can bolus and set temp basals and such by hand..and change cartridge (rewind and prime and such)
Doesnt really matter. but they ironed out a few of the annoyances such as the clock now syncs with the meter on its own.. also smaller fractions of basal are allowed..
Not a fan of MM... Customer support, or their devices.. also not a fan of the solenoid system MDT uses in their pumps.. it doesnt split basals uniformly over an hour. Tend to refer to Combo pump as the Swiss Tank.. it hasn't got a ton of bells and whistles, but its very reliable.. Only reason i sent mine back was I wore off the rubber coating on the bolus buttons.. Still worked fine. just was a little difficult to push the side buttons in the center..
My problem with the omnipod is that there is only one cannula size..(which can make it difficult for some people) and sometimes they do have premature failing pods.. PDM is a bit irate on size and type of battery..
My thing with the animas is the capacity .. its a 200u cartridge, that may not be an issue for you.. also if your battery dies on the animas, you have to rewind and reprime.. also you have to re-enter the suggested bolus due to MDT patents.. I actually like the Animas but id have to change the cartridge sometimes within a day and a half with that pump, esp since i use the long tubing.
You can get the manuals for almost all pumps online, and look em over,, have them demonstrated IN person like buying a car.. Really do think they polished the new spirit pump, but put a lot of thought and features into the remote vs the pump itself.. if you do go with the omnipod you do everything with the remote and if you lose it..or forget it.. your basal will keep running untill the pod expires. but you can't bolus..
