First off, thank you to all those who answered mine and many others in here’s questions about this pump and Control IQ.
I switched from the Omnipod Classic. Love the Omnipod, but was just told a month ago that our insuarnce changed pharmacy benefits, and the new one won’t cover the Dash or 5. I’ve had my heart set on a loop system, but really didn’t want to delve into the DIY looping (I’m not in the apple ecosystem, and even though I am good with tech, just didn’t want to mess with everything). I just decided that I looping systems were just too good to not try, and my insurance assured me that if I wanted to go back, it’s as simple as ordering pods and not t:slim supplies on my next 90 day order.
My obvious concerns were the tube, and what to do with it and the pump when I am active and sleeping. I ended up purchasing some garments from revelwear.com, and they are amazing, but have found it’s just easier to put the dang thing in my pocket if I am dressed for work with a tuck in shirt, or clip it to my workout/lounge clothes. Crazy how the simplest solutions are usually the best.
The algorithm is really a game changer. I am a one-meal-a-day eater, so I have a huge fasting window. I have played around in the past with my basal rates, but could never consistently lock in something. Felt like I was either slowly rising, or slowly falling, no matter what I was doing. And I hate slowly rising, so I have been slowly falling, then on most days needing to eat a date to pump me up from mid 80s to the low 100s. Haven’t needed to do that all week. It’s awesome watching the algorithm work as it lessens the basal to “stick the landing” of my falls and bring them back up to target.
I have been playing with the settings. I do see the appeal of using sleep mode all the time, as it keeps it in a lower range. I may continue to use this throughout the day, as I am fasting all day until 5pm, so in theory sleep mode will work good because there shouldn’t be any sharp rises or falls, but I find I don’t like sleep mode as much when I actually am sleeping. This likely due to the fact that my one meals are huge 2500 to 3000 calories (I’m a 200 lbs male who is a former college athlete, now is a has been that just tries to continue doing athletic things but often just show how old I am getting). And those huge meals, which have lots of protein and fat, leave me vulnerable to unattended spikes middle of the night. I really wish I could use a 4 or 5 hour extended bolus, but CiQ only allows 2 hour. I may end up splitting my bolus into 2 2 hour extended, just have to set a reminder to give the second one. Anyway, I think I want the pump to have the ability to give me an autocorrection bolus in the middle of the night. I’ll keep playing with that in the future.
Also, like many that I have read, I’m not so excited about the Exercise Activity function. Yes I do like that it raises my target to 140, but if I do what it says, and that is to turn it on well in advance, and then in the beginning of my exercise, the pump senses my sugars rising, it will give an auto-correction bolus, which then, combined with my workout, will inevitably cause me to come crashing down. I may try to combine these methods, turning exercise mode on 30 minutes before workout, then right before workout switching it to sleep mode to keep it from auto-bolusing.
All in all, I’ve had an amazing experience. Not so humble brag alert, I have been 89% in range this past week! Please continue to post any advice or remarks based on my experience. Anyone looking to get into this pump, feel free to ask me any questions based on my initial experience. Thanks again for everyone here!
