Advice from users about choosing a Veo or Combo?

sicko666

Well-Known Member
Messages
51
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Textbook medical profesionals! Narrow minded people.
Hi, first off after years of trying to get my diabetic team to give me a pump they decided after just a week!
I am needle phobic, but my nurse gave me a CGM for week to see what my BG were doing.....After seeing her again and her looking at the results AND the look of shock and horror on her face...Apparently i have average of 20+ BG before bed, a 2 hour period between 4-6am of only 2 BG, then a dawn rise to 30 BG, this is every night! Considering i am Epileptic too which is triggered by low BG, and i am using DAFNE with quick acting insulin,and long acting Instulatard which i already inject twice a day to spread any insulin highs....She told me i should choose a make of pump and submit it to her so i could get it by Oct...Until then lower my Insulatard and just have to deal with the extremly high BG in the mornings.....

So as i at last will be getting a pump ( and have the printed out CGM results as proof of what i have told medical pros all my life but they never believed me! )....Its a quick decision to make...

The Accu-Chek Combo sounds the best as it can be remotly operated via its BG machine, this sounds ideal as it would mean i would just place the pump and not touch it!

BUT......

The Medtronic comes with future ready CGM ability which in my case i hope NICE will not take too long over deciding diabetics with night lows need! AND its injector looks the most needle free ( ie it hides it the most when inserting, again remember my needle phobia! BUT it dosent have a BG machine remote just a BG transmitter...Worse of all the canuliaurs are NOT usable in each others devices, so i cant use the medtronic one with the accu-chek pump...

Sorry if its a bit complicated but i have been frying my brain over what one i should ask for and really need others hopefully users ,opinions......It would be so much easier if i could see the reps from each company together and handle the things but it seems that is not possible, havent a clue why?!!!!!
 

novorapidboi26

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,828
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
I use the Veo and love it..........

the cannula insertion is really simple and pain free and as you say, the actual needle is hidden away to the last minute........

the Veo can actually be controlled by a remote control fob type thing if you felt this was required, I don't know how it works though as there is no LCD screen on the fob, so you would still need to look at the pump screen to confirm the bolus etc.....

I assume your needle phobia also includes blood sugar testing.......if that cant be overcome then a CGM would be a good solution, although its not a a complete solution as you still need to test with a lancet from time to time I believe just to confirm blood sugars and to calibrate sensors etc..

has your poor control so far been down to the needle phobia, ie lack of testing.......

just for information, I had no choice of the pump I was to get, separate government funding payed for all the pumps, and to make it easier for training staff and future pumpers, one pump was chosen.......so you might get a recommendation of something other than the ones you have mentioned that ma suit your needs better....and you can still ask for it............;)
 

sicko666

Well-Known Member
Messages
51
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Textbook medical profesionals! Narrow minded people.
Thanks for answering, as usual theres total confusion here in the UK when it comes to what you can get or not...
CGM's = I live in Havering,Essex and apparently in this county there is NO funding for any CGM of any type for any purpose. The CGM i had for the week was a loned one (and the only one) that the diabetic team has and they lone it out to its patients with wierd blood results or conditions,lol yep thats me, but they only loan it to you and only for a week total time, if you need one full time then its bad luck if you live in Havering because you wont get one. I cant afford to buy one myself ( i would if i could after using that one for a week) as the yearly supplies come to over £3,000+ thats just a bit less than i get to live of off for the entire year in total.

Blood testing itself i now do using the accu-cheks Mobile BG machine, it contains 50 tests on a drum inside and has a finger pricker that has a drum that holds 6 lancets, you never see any lancets so i have been able to fool my mind into thinking its using something else other that metal shards,lol ie like plastic or glass shards instead, dont ask me how this is working but so far it has made it possible for me to test...( there was a 30 year period with NO BG testing before this meter! ). I alsouse a jet injector at the moment to inject with, the "Insujet" so the hidden needles on the BG machine are the only needles i use at all at the moment....I cant stand seeing them,guns or knifes no worries but needles eck!!!!!

As for whats causing the hypo lows in the middle of the night even though i am high before bed i havent got a clue, and neither it seems does my diabetic nurse hense her agreeing to get me a pump as different ratios can be set up during the night. Personally i believe i have always had this condition as all my life, even when in hospitals no-one could stop my night time hypos even when under exact carb input and hourly BG testing but then there was never a CGM thats showed graphs of the exact times and periods of the drops so precislly as there is now. I cant recomend it enough, every diabetic should have one atleast for a week it reveals such detail normal BG testing misses.

The pump choices i have are limited too, i could either have the:
Medtronic Paradigm.
Roche-Accu-chek.
Advanced Theurapetics - Dana.
Aminas.

That was all the info she gave me, when i asked what specific models she said she didnt exactly know, but none with any CGM capability just the cheapest ones they make. I am just assuming its the Veo or Combo models as there the ones pushed the most on the sites and the ones people here talk about having. The Veo one is the one my sister got so i am guessing it would be the same one as her, thats the non CGM one, i contacted Medtronic and they said it would probably be the non CGM Veo one too. Like i said its such a postcode lottery when it comes to healthcare nobody really seems to know anything for sure and finding that info out is almost impossible! Lol heck i have my consultants recomendation, my diabetic nure ( whos in charge of pump assignment in havering ) recommendation but it still has to go in frount of a nameless and faceless funding board before i even get the thing, if i get the thing!

She told me to choose one from out of the four makers ( the cheapest one possible ) but as they dont tell you the prices i am just going to submit my prefference...I dont really care, they all do exactly the same thing, i just want one,lol, any one...If it happens to be one most people who use them would choose it just means it would probably be the better one of the bunch and i should request that one.

Thanks for answering
novorapidboi26 :)

Ps should also add i have retinopaphy ( spelt that wrong! ) and trigger finger nerve damage, hence my rush to get a pump before anything else drops off! These are expected after nearly 40 years of type 1 but i want to try and slow the deteriation, after all i was told i wouldnt make it past 20 so!!!!!!!!!!!! lol ;)
 

mentat

Well-Known Member
Messages
419
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Just my 2 cents... I have a Dexcom G4 (that integrates with my Animas Vibe pump) and although the sensors are approved to be used for one week, they sometimes give useful readings even into the 3rd week. (They noticeably deteriorate at some point but I wear most for 2 weeks and some for 3 weeks.) So, if you stretch out the sensors for a few weeks the annual price drops quite a bit. Plus, you don't need to wear it all the time; put one on whenever things are really out of control to help stabilise. I have never tried the Medtronic ones but I have HEARD they deteriorate more quickly. If you want to get the Dexcom G4, try to get an Animas Vibe.

By the way, pumps are FANTASTIC especially when your sugar does strange things. Three weeks ago all of a sudden I started having highs every evening long after dinner, and lows overnight. It took several days for me to work it out, but I realised that my dinner was digesting slower than usual so I set my pump to release insulin over a longer period (this is a "combo bolus" on Animas or "dual wave bolus" on Medtronic), and also set the pump to deliver less insulin in the middle of the night when I was going low. Bingo! Nice sugars again for two weeks. Then I started digesting dinner more quickly and stopped doing the combo bolus, but retained the new overnight delivery settings, and this seems to work quite well at the moment.

My advice: GET A PUMP. Spend a few weeks learning to use it then GET A CGM LOANED TO YOU AGAIN and use it to calibrate your overnight insulin delivery so that you don't have to go to bed high to avoid overnight lows. Hopefully you'll find some settings that will keep working for you indefinitely, but if things change, GET A CGM LOANED TO YOU AGAIN.

Chances are you'll be able to get blood sugars better than you've ever seen! Yes there will be a learning curve but your body will thank you.
 

sicko666

Well-Known Member
Messages
51
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Textbook medical profesionals! Narrow minded people.
Again brilliant, this helps a lot to hear from people who have experianced them first hand, thank you!
Lol i dont have any control about getting the loan of the CGM, it took three weeks wait to actually get the thing once the nurse said i should get it, then only because someone who was getting it dropped out i was told it wouldnt be avaliable till Dec!
As for the getting the CGM to set the pump levels right that was what i was hoping i would be able to do,i got lows between 4-6am every night the week i had the CGM so that time of night i would set the insulin dose really low, perhaps this will get rid of these dam morning "Dawn phenonemoun" things which throw the rest of my days readings way off. Plus once i get the pump no more need for night highs either. I do have it planned, it just depends on me getting the pump request passed the funding board, i cant really do anything at all until then......I will let everyone know as soon as i get one, in the mean time, please any one elses experiance will also be apprechiated, like i said before its good to know from peoples own experiances rather than any spin from makers websites.

Thanks again, i now know a bit more about:

1. Veo. (thanks
novorapidboi26 ).

2. Animas Vibe & the Dexcom G4 CGM.
(thanks mentat )

:)
 

CarbsRok

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,688
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
pasta ice cream and chocolate
I have an Animas Vibe, which has the receiver for the Dexcom integrated into it so you just need the sensors and transceiver to add to it. Animas do a starter kit of 4 sensors and a transceiver for £500. The sensors last a lot longer than a week though. I have one in now which has been going along very nicely for 4 weeks :)
As Mentat says though best option is borrow the CGM again from the hospital to help set up your basals :)
 

Flowerpot

Well-Known Member
Messages
424
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
I've used a Veo and CGM for three years and used a pump for about 13 years.

I've found the Veo a great pump, it has a similar array of features to the other makes. Not having to use long acting insulin was one of the best things to happen to my control as I was going unconscious in my sleep when on MDI. A pump only uses short acting insulin so I have found my hypos less long and less severe. The flexibility a pump gives you to set tiny basal amounts through the night makes getting control so much easier.

I use Medtronic Enlite sensors and haven't had any problems with the quality and accuracy of the readings. I have only managed to make each sensor last for 7 days as the transmitter needs recharging at this point. I know users of Dexcom can get a longer period of use out of each sensor.

I hope you find the change to a pump gives you much better control through the night and evens out the swings you are getting in blood sugar. Being able to set different basal rates in increments of 0.025 units over specific time periods is a much more delicate way of controlling blood sugar than one injection of long acting insulin. I know MDI works for many but if you are facing problems especially through the night a pump is a brilliant thing to use.

I didn't have a choice to make as my clinic only use Medtronic. I'm more than happy with it. Make a decision about which make of pump to go for and get the ball rolling, I'm sure you won't look back once you have got it set up and are confident with all the features. Good luck with it all.
 
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sicko666

Well-Known Member
Messages
51
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Textbook medical profesionals! Narrow minded people.
Hi everyone thanks for the info its helped a lot, it seems virtually everyone has a CGM wish my pct funded them i really do! BUT as they dont i ended up telling them i have decided for the Accu-Chek Combo with the FlexLink PLUS infusion sets and LinkAssist PLUS Insertion Device. Mainly after looking over my sisters Veo pump i didnt really like the idea of having to handle it everytime i needed to adjust the dose,lol, once its attached to my body it will be held down with superglue! So the combo's coloured remote seemed the best option for me ( my eyes are not that good so colour remote seemed best), it was a very close decision though. The Veo has CGM ready ( and my sister has one ) so it was my first choice but then because i could never afford CGM and my health team dosent fund them i decided a pump with remote might be better to see, handle.
Then the DANA it looked good but i have a lot of insulin so thought it would be a little too small.
The Animas fantastic looking little pump i liked it a lot, but between the combo with colour screen and the Animas gray one i thought the combo would be easier to see...It also has a very low increment dose ajustment which i think i really will need to control the shifts at night.
In all it was a really,really hard decision, if the Veo had a coloured remote it would have won hands down, equally if the Combo had a CGM ready feature it would have won easilly, and if the vibe had coloured screen it would have resulted in a coin toss. They ALL sound great but not a single one has got it all....Lol what we all need is one that has a CGM built in AND is controlled by a big colour screened remote ( preferbly with strips casste and lancet drum built in! )....Lol now where do i sign up for these companies design teams!!!!!

Seriously thank you all for the input, it really,really was a hard decision perhaps if Havering funding board decides to give me a pump i will let people know how easy and effective the Combo actually is?!
 

CarbsRok

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,688
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
pasta ice cream and chocolate
The animas has a full colour screen :) you can also change the contrast on it.