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Have a chosen the right pump. 4 years is a long time

J

Jkm2010

Well-Known Member
Messages
49
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Jkmiller2010 aka jkm2010
R
Hi, I am due to start a pump next month and was given the choice of medtronic, animas and accu check. Blinded by science, technology and gadgets I made went for the accu check. The main reason was the fact I can hide it and control it from the remote. I'm aware animas and medtronic are now also supplied with remotes but they appear to be just a bolus switch. Being a bloke, I don't want to have to keep fishing it out to change the bolus. I hope I have made the right choice, who knows. Any one got any thoughts. I'm not fussed about CGM as I don't mid testing. The other accu check benefit to me is the lancets, I'm fed up of housing thousands of lancets and I love the cartridges. What worries me is the medtronic seams to be the better pump, in terms of air bubbles etc.

They ally seam to do the same, but any insight would be great. I'm sure there are lots of people having to make the same choice.

I have gone for a pump as I am stringent on checking my BG's and don't want any long term illness. Although my sugars are stable I want to get them better. My doc said given the chance 9 out of 10 healthcare professions would treat type 1 with a pump.

The question is, have I made the right choice, 4 years is a long time!
 
I never had a choice - but on same pump as you. The control remotely is brilliant and I would not swap now.

Downsides are
a) CGM is not integrated (but I now have a Dexcom G4),
b) Combo is not really fully waterproof but have overcome that with either taking it off or putting it in a dry phone type case made for a pump.
 
Diiffuclt to judge as I have only ever had a medtronic pump from day 1. The only thing I will say about the pump, which confirms what you allude to above, I never have problems with air bubbles - I think if I did I would find it very frustrating and it would worry me. I'm sure though there are pros and cons to them all. Brilliant devices on the whole and I certainly wouldn't go back to a MDI. :thumbup:
 

Hi Chas, have you ever had an issue with air bubbles in the combo? Also, where do you tend to wear your pump?
 
Hi

As far as I have been told, the pump that I have which is the Accu chek Combo, will only be updated to something more wonderful (once the warrantly expires) if it malfunctions or if there is a need for me to have another pump which the Combo pump doesn't have. I have a feeling therefore that I could have the pump for anything from 4 - 7 years but who knows..... insulin pumps and the consumables cost an awful lot of money and the NHS hasn't got a bottom less pocket of money to finance these things.
 

When I first got my Combo pump the pump rep filled up a cartridge for me and got an air bubble !! Just said to take my time and read the manual and that was it basically.... So everytime I filled a cartridge, I tried following the manual and literally dreaded doing it as it took loads of attempts to remove the vial from the blue cartridge adaptor without getting loads of insulin pouring out the end of the needle as I was just twisting the blue adaptor off the cartridge first with the vial still attached, so in the end I just cut a small V nick with a pair of scissors in the blue collar so that I could take the vial off the blue adaptor first and then remove the adaptor from the cartridge and that helped a lot. I also fill the cartridge with insulin straight from the fridge as its easier to fill them with cold liquid than it is to fill with room temperature... If you read all the msgs on the forum about air bubbles you will see how we all go about dealing with bubbles.
 

I wear my pump on a lanyard from my neck so its suspended upside-down - so air bubbles rise upwards away from the tubing. I sometimes wear it around my chest on an elastic harness and also upside-down.

As for large air bubbles, the day after I've changed the cartridge I normally have to purge/prime it but its so easy to do - not sure what all the fuss is about. It takes about 90 secs at the most. After that I normally don't get any more.
 
Thanks chas, useful to know. I get mine on the 14 th feb so sure it will be a learning curve. Sounds like you like yours though. I wear a suite everyday, so being able to tuck it away will be useful. Sure the air bubbles will work themselves out. Interestingly I found a website showing air bubble problems with the other makes of pumps too, so it's not just accu chek. Thanks for your help


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Hi

I agree, That's why I can't see that CGM will be free for all in the next four years, especially when there will be further cuts. It's a big choice, 4 years is a Long time, and its an odd choice to make when you have 4 pumps to choose from and very little knowledge. It's a stab in the dark!


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Well I've been on the Accuchek pump now for three months and am still delighted with it. As for the air bubbles, I find that drawing the insulin up slowly helps and like another contributor turning the pump upside down so bubbles go to the top, then when you do the change infusion bit, bubbles go. Another suggestion that someone made was filling the cartridge with insulin straight from the fridge, this I also found useful.

I think this pump is great and like you, the Bluetooth device and the fact that you can hide the pump is so cool. Good luck.
 
Hi

I would see your GP soon and tell him/her that you are going to use a pump and that you will need your insulin prescribed in vials and also sufficient bg teststrips which as a rough estimate to be safe will be about 300 per month. The lancets for the Accu chek Multiclix were expensive years ago so not sure if your GP will be happy to prescribe them or not.

I would think that you will be offered the Flexlink as a starter infusion set as that is easy to put in with the inserter device. Make sure you shave your stomach if you have hair as infusion sets stick really well. Also, get yourself some LiftPlus medical adhesive removal spray as that will make removal of the set a bit easier.

Another thing that will help your dsn select a correct starting basal rate for you will be for you to get up in the night and test your bg levels every 2hrs and write down the results. Some people need very little insulin in the early hours like midnight to 4am and others need more. The first night I had my pump I was going hypo all night long and constantly treating them with lucozade. So I had to reduce my basal rate from 0.50u/hr to 0.25u/hr from midnight to 3am and then slowly increase them. If I had bothered to test my bg levels before I got my pump my dsn would have been able to use my bg results to determine a safer basal rate for me overnight but because I didn't, I just started on 0.50u/hour for 24hrs.....and so the hypos....

There are many things that I like about the Combo pump but there are many things that I dont like too. Treat it as your 'learning pump'. The Combo bg meter/remote has its problems, the bluetooth at times can take a while to connect to the pump, the buttons stick a bit and the worst one is when the meter wont switch on at all. The BSD is well known as other pumpers have also mentioned their frustration and annoyance with dealing with it. Taking the batteries out and re inserting them usually fixes the problem but not always... Accu chek are fairly good though and will replace them if they go faulty. The other thing that I didnt realise until I got the pump was that I could not use another bg meter and insert the bg readings manually into the bolus wizard. The pump's bolus wizard will only work correctly with Accu chek Aviva strips... so if the Combo meter doesnt work..... you are in trouble and will have to use guesswork to calculate the bolus.. The pump will also only deliver insulin in 0.01u increments and not 0.001u. For some people this can make a huge difference to their control.
 


Thanks for the comprehensive reply, I'm going to go head with the accu chek and go for it. At the moment I can only deliver insulin of 1.0 on my pen, so being able to reduce this by 10 will be great and allow some fine tuning. Thanks for all your posts.


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Thanks Trina,


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Hi all, I started my accu check pump today, and I have a very silly question to ask!! ( I was told this today, but with all the info, I have forgotten the answer.

I am using the flexlink, when I take a shower, I press stop on the remote and disconnect the tube from the cannula. Once showered, I reconnect the the pump THEN WHAT!! Do I just press start, or do I press start and then prime with 1 unit?

Hope someone can help



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Hi

When I have a shower, all I do is unclip the flexlink tube from the infusion set and then remove pump, leave it in the bedroom in run mode still, have my shower, get dressed and then re connect the tube and pump again. Leaving the pump in run mode will make insulin come out the end of the tube just like it would do if it was connected to you.

Unless you are using a large hourly basal rate (over 1u per hour) there is no need really to put pump in stop mode. But if you do want to put it in stop mode, then before you start it again, activate the prime mode and then just prime a couple of units to make sure that insulin comes out the end of tube and into the clip needle , press stop and then start and then just re connect the tube to the set again.

Does that help to put your mind at rest
 
Its ok.... you are welcome.

You'll get used to everything as you go along.

Wait till you start filling the cartridges :lol:
 
Love my accu check but would love to have cgm integrated. I always leave it
in run mode when I disconnect for shower bath or swimming.


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Hi again......

Ok, so second day on pump went well, left it running as advised for a shower when re connected. my BG's at 4.5 to 8.1 all day so far so good, but if I needed to stop a bolus, for example, I did not eat all my dinner and had already given myself a multiwave, how do I do it? Do I press stop pump and I guess it will return to the standard basal.......anyone shed any light on this!!

I'm sure there will be a third stupid question for my third day.

By the way, if anyone is wondering about having an accu chek combo, get one, they are great! You have no idea your wearing it!



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