Ive been on the pod 4 years next month. In 4 years Ive had less than 20 pod failures, and many of them were my fault. All in all its been great.
I am now considering moving to a traditional pump for one primary reason: cost. Last year my insurance changed (not by choice) and I now have an 80/20 plan with a $1200 deductible. After insurance, pods are costing me out of pocket about $409 every quarter. Up until this year it was only about $100.
Just got off the phone with Carecentrix (provider of DME stuff for Cigna)...so, right now Im paying $409 for a 90 day supply of Omnipods. A traditional pump's supplies would cost me $102 (or so) for 90 days.
The Omnipod is great...but not 400% greater. Im getting in to see my endo ASAP. Thats ridiculous.
/sigh. Its been a nice 4 years though. If it werent for the increase in cost from Omnipod combined with my insurance coverage going down, I'd happily stay on them. Theyre nice (for me).
Soooo....Im currently looking at the Ping. I like the additional glucose tester linked to the pump, and the fact its waterproof. And they seem to have a great record.
My son got on a Medtronic pump back in December and it came with the Contour Nextlink meter that links to the pump. My son is 8 and runs the pump by himself most of the time for the day to day doses so it is pretty easy and we love the Nextlink meter. The meter only takes a super small amount of blood and it has a USB connection. The Medtronic isn't waterpoof, that is a nice feature of the Ping.
We are just looking into the Omnipod. I guess I will do some insurance research before we go too far with that option.
That is sad, esp because you had reliable success with it! Cost is the main reason I never got on Omnipod. Otoh, I have been pleasantly surprised by the tubing of my medtronic and how acceptable it is. I take solace in the smaller volume of the overall tubed pump gear vs Omnipod gear with its large PDM.
We chose the Animas Ping for our eleven year old (he made the final choice) very recently. He's a new pumper. What do I like about Animas pumps. The remote is my favorite part. I can check him at night and give him an EZBG (bolus) without having to pull his pump out of Spibelt. I didn't think the remote would be such a great feature but it is. I like that you can add favourite foods/carbs into the meter too. The waterproof is great but really that necessary. I also preferred the screen on the Animas vs. the Meditronics screen. We didn't go with the Omnipod because the idea of having something so bulky on his skinny arms, etc. just wouldn't be very comfortable for him. But, that's just a personal choice. So far, we are pretty happy with the Ping. One thing though, the software for downloading info., etc. is not the most compatible with Mac computers.
