I’m thinking of getting a pump and I know the endo can recommend a good one but she is not wearing it everyday. I would love input on what you like and what you don’t like. I’m a very active person so I need to take this into consideration
I’m new to pumping (since September 2013) and I chose the Tandem T-slim. I LOVE it! No scrolling for the right numbers…touch screen with bright colors and easy to see. Touch the numbers in and you’re done. Fast and it’s modern looking too…looks like an iPod. Every 3 days it takes me about 15 minutes to change cartridge and infusion set. I haven’t had any trouble with mine. Good luck!
I am on the Medtronic Minimed Paradigm, which they just released a new one! I LOVE mine though. It speaks to my blood testing meter, so I don't have to input my tests. It reminds me to do tests, or take insulin if I haven't yet (which I sometimes do at work). The new, upgraded version has a suspend feature, so it's the closest thing we have to an artificial pancreas. When you are too low, your pump turns off automatically--as opposed to mine, where I have to suspend it. I really do love it though, it's changed the way I manage my diabetes!
That’s great info. Thanks. Is yours water proof ? Also if not,when I go kayaking would I take the pump off for the day and just use shots.
Ronda thanks. That’s helpful info.
It's water resistant. I wore mine kayaking when I was in Florida. You can also get waterproof cases, but honestly, unless you are 100% submerged for long periods, you should be fine.
Ok , that helps thanks again
I just started the omnipod a couple of months ago. I started down the minimed path at the recommendation of my endo, but then discovered that it is not waterproof. This was a deal killer for me as I do lots of raft guiding in the summer months, which would mean that I would have to go back to mdi for significant periods of time, which kind of defeats the purpose in my mind. The pod works great for this as it is completely waterproof. I keep the PDM controller (and the dexcom cgm receiver) in a small pelican case I can access easily, but the pod and the cgm sensor keep doing their thing even when I'm swimming. I also like that I can hide the pod on my upper butt or inner thigh under a pair of swim trunks, or on my upper arm with a compression band to both hide and secure it.
I was also very interested in the tslim as it (and the minimed) has some cool features that the pod just doesn't, but for my active water-borne lifestyle, the omnipod was really the only viable choice. The lack of tubing is a huge plus for me, not so important to others, so take my input fwiw!
Hi Hummingbird, I have a medtronic( due to being on medicare, it's the only one they cover at present. I love it but there are many out there. Being so active you might like the omnipod caue it has no tubing to get in the way. Goole insulin pumps & you will find a bunch that you can look at. Good Luck at whatever you choose.Pick one and get started, like yesterday. LOL You'll be glad you did
Minimed's line is only water-resistant to a point and only for so long.... I used a couple different models of Minimed's Paradigm series over the course of 8 years, and although in the early days I had managed to flip a kayak accidentally, completely submerging my pump for 10 minutes or so and it turned out okay, my final straw with them was that I ran a marathon in the rain and that was enough to kill it!
I think for most people Minimed works fine, but in my last three years with them I managed to kill two pumps from sweat (shoved in my bra during a run), one from "static" (which I thought was a really lousy answer) after a wiping it down on my bike shorts following a long sticky hot dusty ride, one from the rainy marathon, in addition to the very much my fault instance where I forgot to disconnect before hopping in the lake with the kids. To their credit, they replaced each one under warranty and with minimal questions asked, but by default a pump always dies late Friday night so it can't be overnighted and it took 2-3 days at each instance to get the replacement. Maybe the newer version is more water-resistant the the older variations were, or maybe I just had horrible luck, but I urge anyone who spends regular time in and around the water to strongly consider a pump that's waterproof. For a day or two of kayaking on vacation once a year, not a big deal, but if you play in the water all summer, I'd give the waterproof rating a much bigger consideration.
Officially only the Omnipod and the Ping are waterproof, although the T-slim is watertight (a few steps above water resistant, but not officially waterproof yet).
I traded my years with Minimed for a t-slim 16 months ago, and so far I'd say I don't have a favorite pump. There's points I like about the operation of each, but I'm not actually sold on either.
Yes, the T-slim is "cooler" looking, but clearly judging something just by how it looks isn't a great idea! The menu system is clean and easy to use and pretty intuitive, but the much-talked-about touchscreen is just a different way to tell it what to do. I don't see it as any more or less useful than the standard button scrolling system, and unlike another poster, I think 15 minutes every three days is about 12 too many... I dread site changes because they take so long now!
Minimed was pretty sturdy-looking, aside from the frequent death-by-water issues, and I think still they have the lion's share of the market which means you have a bigger peer-support network. Thats actually what I miss most in giving up my Minimed paradigm was that I lost the local community I had, and the dozen people I could call to borrow emergency supplies from in case of a lost shipment, or what-have-you. We don't have a company rep for T-slim up here, nor do we have an official trainer either so that made the first few weeks more challenging by far for me than they needed to be.
Many of the pumps have "integrated" glucometers now, but thats only useful if you're going to use it. My driving force is that everything needs to be smaller, so I'm not going to use the included meter because it doesn't fit in my pocket, and since I'm not going to use it, its not a selling point at all for me, although some people rave about it!
There's rumors out there that the T-slim and Ping will be soon be integrated with Dexcom's CGM, but currently Minimed offers the only pump with an integrated CGM although again, integration is only a selling point if you like what it offers. I used the minimed CGM system integrated with my pump for years (which just means the readout shows on your pump screen and you enter calibrations on your pump) for years, and one of the things I found out after switching pumps and having to give up the Minimed CGM was that I greatly prefer that my CGM is a stand alone device! Not what most people ask for, but it turns out my Other Half sleeps better when he can check the CGM and make sure I'm okay, and he wouldn't do that when it was built in to my pump for fear of pushing the wrong button. At least at my house, the lack of integration opened up space for me to share some of the awareness of the day to day variations in what happens and that was actually a really nice change that I never in a hundred years could have predicted.
I've only used Minimed and the T-slim so far, but here's what I've learned are the most important questions to consider, because while there are variations in the operations of the different makes and models, for sure most of them do more or less the same thing- they pump insulin.
My list of things to consider next time I'm in the market:
Is there a local expert on this particular pump in my community?
What limitations does my insurance put on pump supplies, accessories, etc and do they have a preferred supplier or pump provider?
Will your endo/phsyician/CDE tolerate this version? (My Dr. can't download the t-slim with any of his standard programs, so I have to download and bring all my own reports to appointments now.)
On that note, what kind of download software does the pump come with, and can it talk to your other d-gear also (glucometer, CGM, etc)?
What is the average units held in the reservoir AFTER PRIMING IT? (The t-slim claims a 300 unit capacity, but it takes 20 units to prime a set and there always seems to be another 10-20 units that aren't accounted for... leaving it with a usable fill of 260 units or so. Not a big deal if you're using 50 units a day, but if you're counting on closer to 100 units, this will be an annoyance.)
Does the pump come with a return policy? Can you use it for 30 days and return it, or does the 30-day countdown start when they ship it out?
Do they offer an upgrade program? If you buy a pump now and a newer version comes out in 6 months how can you get your hands on a new one?,
In case of regular travel, does the pump company offer a vacation loaner program, and if so what are the terms and conditions?
What kind of accessories can you get with the pump? Skins, cases, clips, waterproof cases, and so forth.
In my opinion, the things they put on their shiny colorful brochures aren't generally the things that make a difference in the long run, and everyone is going to have different non-negotiable wants and needs anyway. The first few weeks/months are sort of challenging regardless of which you pick, so just be prepared for some trial and error and I bet whichever you pick will work out just fine!
90Duck- I’m not in the water half as much as you but it sounds like a good work out or a long day in the garden sweeting might not be good for some pumps that are not rated waterproof. I was looking at the omni pod just for that reason . The bounces is my insurance will cover that one 100%. Happy for that. Thanks for taking the time to help me figure this out.
Betts - yes yesterday would have been a good starting point. Lol. I just finished radiation treatment for breast cancer and am on anti cancer drugs and it seems to be messing with my controlling my numbers so the endo thought the pump would be best. I think the LADA honeymoon is over and I need to re evaluate how I’m going to keep my a1c under 7. Thanks for the info.
Sky- thank you for all of that great information ,I can’t believe how much time and thought you put into your reply for me . You answered a lot of my questions I had about using pumps. It’s good to get info from someone who is as active as I am and to know it’s going to improve my control . 
Skye, Thank you for this wonderful info. Much time & effort you contributed. I actually did an all day hands on research project on the t-slim pump. A lot of details to learn compared to my medtronic.Didn't realize it wasted so much insulin for priming. Hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I was hoping medicare would cover it, but no dice. The man said they're working on it, but not holding my breath! In May my warranty will be up & Medtronics will contract with Medicare & they will send me a new one.Hopefully an improvement over my paradigm 722.Thanks again for your very informative, interesting post. I sure had a fun morning reading it.