Hey Timothy I'm excited to see that "Bridge." Curious so see if it's something I can make, I love a good challenge.
I've resigned myself to the idea of a pump with tubing.
How exactly do the pumps work with the CGMs?
Will the pump temporarily increase the bolus if the CGM says the bs is tooooo high?
Or is it a matter of the pump just acting as a receiver for the CGM so that you don't need to carry so many devices?
You enter the BG into the pump (the Medtronic has a "wizard", with editable parameters...) and it figures out if you're high or low, how much to buzz off of the bolus. In the AM, I bolus .3U to "cover" a shower but it comes off a bolus later as the pump also cuts IOB. The general recommendation is to use the CGM to watch "trends" but, if you have questions about BG, use the meter, as it's more precise. If my BG is flat and I have a high degree of confidence in the CGM (which I do ost of the time...) I'll occasionally just bolus off the CGM but, most of the time, I'm trying to kick ■■■ so I want the best #s I can use! The pump doesn't adjust itself based on readings. That'd be the artificial pancreas.
The Medtronic pump has the CGM and pump in a single unit but the Animas doesn't. The Dexcom is supposed to be integrated with the Omnipod soon so you'd have a pod, the sensor and a controller unit to run both. I think that it might also have a BG gizmo in it too but am not totally sure about that.
Karen;
Almost everyone agrees with you about the Medtronics pumps being good and their CGMs being bad. That was even stated to a CEO at one of the conventions, Medtronics has never put much time or money into their CGM products.
My Endo tried pushing the MM CGM on me; I refused because it got such bad reviews. Now he's pushing their pump and I might go with that.....
I don't have many problems with the Medtronics CGM at all. Mine works very accurately maybe 13/14 days. Every once in a while, it will have a day where it reads off but, a lot of times, it seems to be related to carbadventurism and/or gonzo exercising on calibration day. One of my friends has a dexcom and I've observed it being way off so I'm not sure I'd totally buy that it's all that much better. Plus the annoying extra gizmo.
THE OMNIPOD IS THE WORST PUMP ON THE MARKET- I reccomend not even considering it-don't get it! It should never have been FDA approved. Don't make the mistake I did- My first pump was the Omnipod it was the worst repeat worst decision of my life. Medtronic is the best-period. 90% of all insulin pump users use Minimed. Animas is a great pump! The screen is great, the wireless feature is great, it is relatively trustworthy, the company is pretty trustworthy. If you want to be sure that you will have very few if any at all go with Minimed you won't regret it!
The Omnipod auto-insertion is a cool feature but I've often wondered if this battery-powered method sometimes fails to insert the cannula with sufficient force. Users report pod fail rates up to 20% when an acceptable fail rate would be 5%, imo. The part I really don't like about Omnipod's fail rate and occlusions, etc, is the lack of clarity why the problems occur. Hopefully the redesigned gen 2 pods will improve upon these problems.
My video basically explains all the problems with the pods-They have been talking about the new pods for over 3 years now
Gabby;
Where do I find the video?
The link above is my video about my personal experience With the pod. It explains the poor design the failing rates and more. Check it out!
The reason I am so strong with my negative opinion about the pod is because I don’t want anyone to go through what I have been through. It nearly took my life on too many occasions.
Actually watched the whole thing. Since you put it out there...
1) Pod is the size of an iPod.
False.
2) Have to fill it up with 100 units.
False.
3) Cannula insertion hurts pretty bad...
False.
It's snappy, like getting flicked by a finger most of the time. I've had one hurt pretty badly, but that's the way it goes when you have to stick foreign objects into your skin.
4) Cannula may insert at 90 degrees depending on pod...
False.
5) Wobbling causes many occlusions very easily
False. Never had an occlusion caused by excess movement of the pod.
Don't like the way the Omnipod moves? Tape it down with 10 cents worth of Opsite. I like the freedom of movement most of the time, but if I am active, I'll tape it down.
6) One time, a few times, too many times, window filled up with blood.
?
I've drawn blood exactly twice in over 2 years of use.
7) Chances of alarming with failure, very small.
False.
Haven't actually had any failures recently, but the occasional times I did, the pod alarmed. I've had one pod occlude without alarming and I have to imagine that was becasue the insulin leaked out from another spot instead of going through the cannula. The smell of insulin and the moisture from the leaking tipped me off to what was going on pretty quickly.
8) Have to constantly worry about pod working.
False.
My failure rate has been on a steady decline over that last two years. I started out at around 20% for my first shipment, which was a lot of lost pods over a 3 month period.
Haben't lost a pod yet in this last shipment. New shipment will be here in two weeks, so theres still time for one to fail I suppose. I lost one pod the previous shipment for a failure rate of 3.33%.
It has a pretty steep learning curve, no doubt, and that's the big drawback. I've never had another pump, so I can't compare experiences.
Sounds like you had a really bad experience with the pod. Nobody wants to go into DKA because of the device that is supposed to save their life and I can't express enough sympathy for anybody having to go through something like that.
I'm glad you found a pump that works for you.
For a lot of us out there, the Omnipod works like a dream.
The force of the auto-insertions is very consistent. Like I said earlier, I did have a failure rate of around 20% for my first shipment, but nothing close to that in subseequent shipments. My last shipment has been more typical, where I lost 1 out of 30 pods to an occlusion. Most of my pods that did fail, failed during priming, never were applied, and were replaced by Insulet as a result
The wildcard variable is application site. I can tell you that my personal experience has been that site selection is everything. If I choose a bad site, I will get an occlusion, period. Early on, when most of the sites that I was trying out were new, I had more occlusions and lost more pods. Over the months, I have been able to identify many sites that are usable and, from what I understand, that is a big advantage of the auto-insertion.
Conversly, I have identified many additional sites that are completely unusable. I don't even bother trying sites that cause any amount of pain on insertion because I have so many others that cause minimal discomfort to choose from.
I have to believe that this is largely a issue that will vary a lot from user to user. Omnipod has a list of preferred sites and I'm sure those come out of the period of study that the pod underwent. I don't think any site is guaranteed to work for everybody and I'm sure there are people out there for which the Omnipod is completely unusable.
There is a small percentage compared to the minimed that the omnipod actuall does work for my sister is one of them. When it works its great. You are very lucky it works for you. About the statements you said we’re false- other than the minimum requirement that that pod has to be filled with 80 units not 100 they actually are TRUE. I know they are true because they happened to
Me with the pod. He video is based of my friends, campers, sisters and other diabetics I know personally experiences with the omnipod. They may not have happened to you they they have happened to many other people.
Also yes as shown in the video the pod is almost the size of an iPod touch.
No doubt, Minimed has many many more users than the Omnipod, and like I said, I'm terribly sorry that you had such a bad experience with the pod and I'm very happy you have had such a great experience with Minimed.
I've met plenty of other happy Omnipod users, not including the satisfied users who post on the Omnipod forum here. If you think about the small number of insulin pump users, and the comparatively small number of pod users, it's amazing I've even met other real live people who even use the pod at all and every person I've met who is using the pod is a satisfied user.
The "truth" doesn't depend on who's more motivated to make a Youtube of their experience and I have no doubt your experience was bad enough to motivate you.
I just leave my pump in bed with me, too. It does wander around during the night, and has fallen off the bed many times (I've been pumping for 13 years), but not once has it pulled the site out. So it doesn't matter if you sleep naked. So does the pump, LOL!
Karen, I agree that the Medtronic CGM is not accurate enough, even though it has some good features, like being able to see the history of your BGs. I just got a Dex, and it is MUCH more accurate for me. I just wish it was integrated with a pump, and I really don't like the Omnipod, and wasn't particularly impressed with the Ping, either. And I don't know if they're going to integrate with the t:slim, which is the pump I'm leaning toward at the moment. Mostly because I KNOW they won't be integrating with the Medtronic!
Timothy, I'd like some clarification on what you're saying, because I'm not quite getting the picture. I'd get the MM Revel in a moment if it would work with my Dexcom.
Anyway, what I don't understand is what do you mean by the transmitter of the MM to the sensor? Do you mean the little clamshell MM transmitter can be attached to the recharge port of the Dex? Is there a device that does that? I wonder if you can post a picture of what you're doing, along with info on how to get the device.
Thanks!
Don’t get me wrong I am very glad the omnipod works for you. I wish it worked for me. Trust me you are very lucky.
There are some positive reviews of the omnipod. The only way to know is to test a pump for oneself. The “truth” is based on what works for each individual person them self or majority of the users. Majority of pump users use minimed or animas to me that speaks a lot.
Nothing personal Gabby, but if I did trust you, I never would have tried the Omnipod in the first place. I would have believed that the auto-insert function hurts too much, the pod wobbles too much causing occlusions, I’d bleed on insertion, I wouldn’t be able to trust the pod, and every other misforttune you experiened. I wouldn’t have the freedom of the tubeless design, I probably wouldn’t have switched from MDI in the first place, and my life wouldn’t be changed for the better, if only marginally given that having diabetes is the real misfortune.
If I were really lucky, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.