Tandem X2 and Basal-IQ

Completely right, Tim. That’s why I said it depends. :slightly_smiling_face:

Hopefully, this discussion will help people navigate that maze should they need to.

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Since we had a COBRA side discussion, I’ll come back to wrap that up. The COBRA premium that I have is SO LOW that it’s a no brainer that I’m keeping it. The company I’m working for is based in Michigan. The amount I’m taking on is less than HALF of my medical premium for the last few years. That’s a nice silver lining. (Typing this also reminds me it’s time for give Tandem my card info so I can get my next supply shipment.)

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Hi Kristy, I too am thinking about opting out of my medtronic 630 and pay for the upgrade of a tslim. When I started on the 630 I used enlite sensors with the pump. I didn’t like them. The prices were too expensive as I didn’t have any insurance for them at that time. I Also didn’t like that the arrow either was rising or falling fast. The dexcom tells you whether it’s slowly rising or falling. I started on a dexcom at the beginning but had to switch to a medtronic pump as animas went out of business. At the time Medtronic was the company they chose to handle their pump users. Our choices for insulin pumps wasn’t very big in Canada. Now that Tandem is here we have more options. I am not working out of house right now but this pump would have been ideal for me as I had a very physical job before. I have hypoglycemia unawareness too. I am hoping that when the update for the tslim comes to Canada it will handle the high bloodsugars just as well as it does the lows. I also like the fact that it is rechargeable has a touch screen and you can update it at home.

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I’d say (IMO) if you had to pay for Medtronic supplies, it’s a no-brainer to make the switch to Dexcom/Tandem. Medtronic has been resting on it’s laurels for over 15 years. I don’t know why they lost their edge, but from my perspective, they sure as heck did.

So I had to email medtronic twice before I finally got a reply about my warranty confirmation letter. They said in order to get it that I would have to contact Animas. WTF! Medtronic are the ones that supplied me with this pump. She asked if I was thinking about going with a different company and I told her, YES! She asked the reasons and I told her. She also said to me “you know that that pump doesn’t reduce basal insulin during a low.” I told her that the tslim will have it when the update comes." She replied “yeah, when it does.” Making it sound like it was never going to happen! It wouldn’t make any difference to what I am doing now as I am using a dexcom cgm because their enlite sensors suck! By the sounds of it they are probably going to give me a hard time. I can hardly wait for the control iq update. My husband said, “so, wait another year.” I don’t think so. I am going to fight tooth and nail for this pump! If Medtronic didn’t charge so much for their pump & cgm supplies it might not be so bad! IMO I think medtronic thinks they can do whatever they want since they were the only pump company that Canadians could go to. Well not no more!!!

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Does anybody know if Tandem will be extending their offer for people to switch to their pump? As far as I know now it expires at the end of June.

@Dee_Meloche

As I presume you are specifically asking about the Canada program that Tandem is running, your best information is probably a Canadian Tandem rep.

I have not even seen the offer you mention anywhere online.

Except for the discussion between yourself and @Jimi63.

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@Dee_Meloche - I can send you the name(s) & email addresses for the 2 Tandem reps I’ve been talking with

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Yes that is the offer I was talking about. You can send me the reps you have been speaking with. After medtronic emails me that letter I am going to set up a date for training and get the process moving.

I would ask the tandem rep right away to help you secure what you need from Medtronics. They may have faced this before. As @Tim35 pointed out, they have had an offer in the US for a while. I’m sure Medtronics is using similar tactics here.

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I was just about to jump in to say reach out to your Canada Tandem reps. Yeah, teamwork as I’ve seen someone from Canada chime in!

The Canada-based reps, I’m sure, have seen this before and should know what the deal is there regarding switching.

Good luck!

I’m in a holding pattern right now as I’m still wearing the G5. I’m cleared to get the G6, but I’m back in job hunt mode.

I do wish Tandem could have it so folks wearing the G5 could get their readings on the pump too. I’m getting tired of carrying the Dexcom transmitter around because I’m also in a clinical trial for the Eversense implantable CGM by Senseonics, so I’ve got just too many things to carry around right now.

However, big picture: it’s better to have it than not.

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@Regina - The software update prior to the Basal-IQ update allowed the G5 reading on the X2. The Basal-IQ update removed the G5 communication and replaced it with the G6 communication.

The G5 comms to the X2 really were not good however. The comm drops were pretty bad. The upside is the BLE communications were significantly improved upon for the G6 / X2 communications.

Would you be interested in creating a new thread about that?

I certainly would find anything you had to say about your experience with the Eversense to be very interesting. I assume many others as well. That is not something which we can practically try out so I can only learn about that from others.

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I know that before you could use the G5, but that doesn’t help me now.

Re the Eversense - I’d think there would already be threads on it as it’s approved here in the USA for the 3-month transmitter. (I’ll search and jump in those if it makes sense.)

I’m in a clinical trial for the 6-month one. There really isn’t much to share, to be honest. They’re pretty much in it for the data to get approved for 6-month one. It’s already approved in the EU, I believe.

Hi Blondy, I am a past customer of animas. I got switched over to medtronic’s 630 insulin pump for the remaining warranty of my Vibe. I used a dexcom g4 with it but then upgraded to a g5. I stopped using dexcom in order for my cgm readings to go through my 630 using the enlite sensors. I did that for a few months and decided I didn’ t like them. Too expensive, couldn’t restart them, and only a 6 day wear with the 5th day being inaccurate. I have read with interest about the tslim with g5 integration and am considering to get a Tandem pump. I have had some inaccurate numbers on the g6 especially on the low side. When I go low it sometimes says I am in an urgent low. Will the g6 do the same? I am thinking about opting out of my warranty to get the tslim pump. I am worried that the control iq won’t work for me. Can you please give me your input on this?

Careful. The X2s are shipped with the Basal-IQ software, so you can’t roll it back to work with the G5s. In fact, that’s one thing that really annoys me. They have G5 compatible X2s. Those are the ones that go to Canada. Also, there are people on Medicare who, as far as I know, can’t even get a G6. That means there are a bunch of G5 users that are SOL until they upgrade. I’m one of them right now.

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As annoyed as I am with Tandem not being clear that G5 users are SOL if they get the current software and the LONG hold/callback times for their support, when things go bad, they get it done.

My new pump basically died on me yesterday. I went to the gym, took a shower, and I guess that was too much moisture for it. It’s also really hot here, so the temperature and moisture I’m sure didn’t help. Anyway, my pump died. I called, finally got a call back after 90 minutes. However, they were on it and ordered a replacement pump for me right away. It arrived TODAY. That’s FAST. I was expecting to not get it for a couple of days.

They did that well. Thank goodness!

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@Regina I have had a similar experience when my pump crashed. Less than 18 hours from call to delivery. I was impressed.

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Yep. I forgot to add that my pump died Saturday afternoon. I didn’t make the call until about 5:30pm, so that’s less than 24 hours on a weekend. I got a call from my neighbor today that he’d signed for it around 12:30 or 1pm. Very impressive.

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The X2 / G5 integration was not great. I promise you are not missing anything.

The best thing about the integration was the real world field testing that let both Tandem and Dexcom know there were communication problems. The problems were addressed and the X2 / G6 communications are substantially improved.

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