Insulin Pumps

Hello Malc and welcome to the forum. All I can say is Wow at the 60 years well done you.

Pumps.......... All pumps have their merits obviously we all like and dislike different functions of our pumps.
No matter what pump you choose or are offered you will love it as nothing to compare it with.

Do buy the book pumping insulin by John walsh (Amazon) It's known as the pumpers bible and worth it's weight in gold.

I have an Animas Vibe, only dislike for me is not enough basal slots.
Love the CGM capability with it though. All pumps do the same thing just in different ways. At the moment only two pumps have CGM capability The vibe and the Medtronic pump.

Hi Malc congratulations on 60 years.I started on a pump 6 months ago after being diabetic for over 53 years,I chose the Medtronic 640g on the advice of my DSN and I love the pump,but I think whatever pump I had got I would have been happy with.Would I change back to MDI,not a chance.My advice to you is to research all the pumps that are available to you.Good Luck.

Hi Malc, congratulations! I got a pump about 4 1/2 months ago and have had type 1 for 32 years. I use a meditronic 640g. I don't think it makes much difference unless you have some special requirements. Mine was that I wanted to continue using porcine insulin and animas for some reason refused to permit this although I know other people on here who use animas with porcine insulin. The Pumping with Insulin book is very good particularly if your hospital isn't too communicative (mine hasn't been). I'm not a convert yet but it's definitely worth giving a go and seeing if you get on with it. Good luck!

tigger said:

Mine was that I wanted to continue using porcine insulin and animas for some reason refused to permit this although I know other people on here who use animas with porcine insulin.

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Animas have no say what insulin you choose to use in your pump. I use an Animas pump with bovine neutral as my insulin of choice.

Malc1485 said:

It is interesting about the Medtronic being suggested since my consultant has told me that most people go for the Accu-Chek Insight pump.

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There is a lot of problems with this pump at the moment with supplies, so if it were me I would not go for that one. Besides it only takes novalog in a prefilled cartridge with a very limited choice of infusion sets, so it a case of like it or lump it if you go for that pump.
Should have made this a bit clearer I was referring to the insight pump.

60 years of living with type 1 is some achievement @Malc1485.

All I would say is read up on each pump offered and then decide which one would suit you best, also do try and get your pump DSN's input.

I started pumping 8 months ago and opted for the Omnipod as it was a tubeless pump, to date I can't think of any downsides which are worth mentioning, pumps are life-changing and I'm sure you'll enjoy using one having injected for the last 6 decades. Best wishes and hope all goes well.

It's possible to get funding for a CGM from your PCT it took me best part of a year and the backing of Endocrinologist and a very forceful DSN and the reason being that I no 'Hypo' awareness whatsoever,I can assure you it was quite a battle.

Hi Malc,

I don't have any problems getting supplies from medtronic (now the delivery man has got the message that if I'm not in leave it with my neighbour!). However, I did get a cgm with funding as I'm pregnant and have this until I'm 3 months post birth. Sadly I've found it so inaccurate that I've stopped using it. I had one sensor that worked for the whole 6 days accurately. The rest were so far off they were useless and frustrating. People seem to have better luck with the dexcom. It could just be me......

tigger said:

Hi Malc, congratulations! I got a pump about 4 1/2 months ago and have had type 1 for 32 years. I use a meditronic 640g. I don't think it makes much difference unless you have some special requirements. Mine was that I wanted to continue using porcine insulin and animas for some reason refused to permit this although I know other people on here who use animas with porcine insulin. The Pumping with Insulin book is very good particularly if your hospital isn't too communicative (mine hasn't been). I'm not a convert yet but it's definitely worth giving a go and seeing if you get on with it. Good luck!

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Yep, I use an Animas pump with porcine Aminas didn't ask what insulin I used and my consultant didn't seem to think it was any of their business. I've never had any problems with porcine insulin - not in this pump or my previous AccuChek one.

I chose the Animas Vibe because it's simple and intuitive. When I'm doing something on it I hardly ever have to look at the manual as its all pretty self-explanatory on the pump. I also like the fact it doesn't have proprietary sets. It's served me very well so far and I'm very happy with my choice. I could choose between this, the Insight (hated that one!) or the Medtronic.

Another reason I went with the Animas pump was the associated CGM seemed better, cheaper and more reliable than the Medtronic. Not that I've been able to afford that yet!

For me, the advantages of a pump far outweigh the disadvantages.

Good luck whatever you choose

Malc1485 said:

I believe that the Medtronic is slightly bigger but the fact that it also does CGM, which I consider fairly important, seems to be the best bet. It is not possible to get a CGM meter on the NHS, which to me seems somewhat absurd, however they will pay for a Medtronic 640 which combines CGM and insulin pump.

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It depends on how you look at it. My perspective is that while the Medtronic 640G includes the capability to be used with Medtronic's CGM, getting the 640G does not imply that you will be using Medtronic's CGM.

Since I do not live in the UK I don't know anything about how the funding works there. But I have gotten the impression from what other people have posted here that the funding for the pump and any possible funding for the CGM are treated as separate.

Another possible approach is to use the Dexcom CGM with the Medtronic (or anyone else's pump). The Animas Vibe includes the ability to monitor the Dexcom CGM which parallels how the Medtronic pump will monitor the Medtronic CGM.

Either way, CGM is expensive to pay for out of your pocket which what I think many people end up having to do. For whatever it's worth, I think people have said that if you use the Animas Vibe then the cost of the Dexcom CGM sensors & transmitter purchased through Animas is less than what they would pay if they bought the Dexcom monitor & sensors directly.