Well done all you getting your pumps, it's so exciting!!!! I've been on an Animas Vibe for nearly a year and am seriously in love with it. I was given choice of any available pumps but chose the Vibe because of its very large, easy to read screen and its small neat size (though as such it has the smaller sized reservoir of 200ml so if your insulin needs are on the high side it may not be the best choice, but for most people 200ml is perfectly fine). I mostly wear mine on a SpiBelt (available from funkypumpers) around my waist and so the tubing is hidden inside my clothes & doesn't get caught up, and I feel is easily accessible - just reach to the belt & pull it out - and also doesn't get caught when I erm go to the loo as everything is above waist level!! You don't really need to access the pump that frequently anyway, only when giving a bolus each time you eat, the rest of the time it just chugs along doing its life-saving stuff
I also find it pretty easy to detach and reattach the pump for short periods, like when getting dressed or showering.
I liked the idea of having a remote hand device to access a pump but felt the hand held bluetooth device of the Accu Chek was big & heavy, and I could easily imagine never being able to find it when I needed it, though at least you can still use the Combo pump directly in this case, unlike the Omnipod, which if you misplace or lose the handset leaves you unable to bolus or adjust doses or check blood sugars! Depends on your personal needs really, if you're the sort of person who misplaces things easily, or like me, already hates having to carry so many gadgets around and doesn't want to have yet another. My little Vibe is always there on my body, no need to fumble around in my bag to find a handset. Well, that was important to me, but may not be to others.
I also do yoga and wanted a pump I could detach for short periods, which you can't with the Omnipod, if you remove it, you have to put a completely new one on, which seems a waste to me (of NHS £££) if it's something you'd do on a regular basis.
All the pros & cons of different pumps...still soooooo much better than all the cons of MDI and you (hopefully) will get much better control and have a better quality of life on a pump. I wouldn't go back for anything. And in the end, the pumps are mostly very similar, it's unlikely you'll feel you made a 'wrong' choice, I agree that getting the right infusion set for you is more important and often not addressed sufficiently at some clinics - I'm experimenting with different ones right now, having had to take initiative and fight a bit to get other sets to try. But get used to the pump first I'd say!
I've learned a lot from the Insulin Pumpers UK forum - recommend joining that too, as well as here of course!
And an organisation called INPUT exist specifically to further pump access in UK, including choice of pump if that's an issue, though it is still too much a post code lottery. But they're good for advice too on pump access.
Hope some of that helps!
I feel so lucky to have a pump
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