Medtronic 780g + Guardian 4

[Mance]

The cartridge filling is a bit of a faff but you soon get used to it. Takes me less than 5 minutes to do a set change. Dexcom sensors is the main reason I went for the Tandem and I haven't been disappointed. 85% TIR with relative ease.

Thank you - it's really helpful to have specific user feedback on these aspects

 

[Lukah]

Hi Shell. I haven’t posted for a long time but I went from a 640 to a 780 with CGM in June and I’m in the 0.01% which can call it a nightmare! I loved my 640 which was my first pump and couldn’t believe how smooth running it was after 22 years on MDI after getting all my basal patterns set. So when I was due for a new pump I immediately went with the 780 and the CGM smart guard mode I’d been waiting for for so long. Since June, I’ve had: 4 nights where it hasn’t woken me for calibration, 0 times the CGM has lasted for the full 7 days, 6 times it hasn’t even lasted the minimum 5 days and I’ve had to get a warranty replacement, 50 phone calls from Medtronic people trying to piece it together because it works for everyone and not sure why it doesn’t for me…. My endo is about ready to put me back into manual mode because my control was so much better then. Just in that clinic there is two others that Smartguard mode doesn’t work for so it’s not for everyone. To me it is life controlling every waking minute and the 85% less decisions that Medtronic claim Smartguard eliminates is so wrong it’s not funny. You may be better off with G4 as it doesn’t require calibration but don’t expect it to be set and forget, the CGM is way behind libre in my opinion. Sorry, I hope my reply hasn’t burst your bubble too much! But honest is honest….

I am in the US and switched from the 670 and the Dexcom G7 to the 780 and the Guardian 4 and just wanted to let you know that I am having the same issues as Justin. I wish I hadn't switched to this system!

 

[smc4761]

I moved from 640 to 780 about 18 months ago. However my health board will not fund me for guardian 4 Smartguard and i still have to use the 780 in conjunction with Freestyle Libre.

Reading the comments above it seems that I may be better off not getting the Smartguard function.

Also I find the features of the 640 and 780 very similar apart from Smartguard, but the 640 is slightly smaller and lighter

 

[Prancy]

I moved from 640 to 780 about 18 months ago. However my health board will not fund me for guardian 4 Smartguard and i still have to use the 780 in conjunction with Freestyle Libre.

Reading the comments above it seems that I may be better off not getting the Smartguard function.

Also I find the features of the 640 and 780 very similar apart from Smartguard, but the 640 is slightly smaller and lighter

I highly recommend G4 with 780 with Smartguard. For me, it’s considerably better than G3. I haven’t used Libre.

 

[Justin04]

Sorry @JohnRos I didn’t ever follow this post, from way back then the G4 never really improved. Even now here at 1am I’m getting a sensor updating warning, the fifth one in 12 hours on a 4 day old sensor. I guess I gave up looking for answers and am patiently counting down the next 18 months where I get a new pump. Which will absolutely be a Tandem T slim!!! Mainly for the dexcom sensor, but also as a shift worker I think the choice to not have it learning the last 7 days (which is my roster, so it has always learnt the wrong time of day), as well as being able to have different basal rates for nights and days. Nothing is perfect and the cons that have me worried are the pump itself, not sure if the Tandem can cop a beating like my 780g, looks a bit softer, also the fact the Tandem will only correct once an hour, not every 5 minutes. If you’re having a rough day, it happens, and it will take far too long to bring you down at once per hour without phantom dosing yourself.

 

[Justin04]

And yes it must’ve heard me talking bad of it because the sensor just failed

 

[CazJaAk]

Hi

Ive been approved funding to have the 780g with the Guardian 4. All the gear is actually sitting in my spare room waiting for an appointment with the Rep to set me all up... It's like tangling a carrot!!

I've been looking for some genuine/honest experiences and advice when first going onto this set up (I'm already a Medtronic pump user with the 640g) but can't seem to find anything but Medtronics advertising and people who are clearly affiliated with them.

Can anyone offer anything? I worried I've bigged it's capabilities up and really, experience should tell me that with diabetes technology there is always a catch or something that's not quite good enough.

TiA
Shell x

Hi Shell I have been on the Medtronic 780 CGM with Guardian 4 for 7 months. I have posted a thread about the fact that it has become very dominating in my life. If algorithms don’t calculate properly it wakes me in the night, i was in Norfolk recently with no coverage and even my pump and sensor did not communicate till I got home! That was very stressful. It bleeps at me a lot which I don’t like as it might not be a place where I want say I have a pump! On a positive note I have had better Time in Range for longish periods than before, but this is informed over a 24hr hr period so changes regularly if you get a high b/s or low b/s and when all is working well it’s quiet and does its job! Also another thing I stress out every week when I have to change the sensor! Sometimes this does not work straight away and if you get timings wrong in doing this that can be a problem as you have to wait 2 hrs for it to warm up as you may have to calibrate! You need to always take your blood. Testing kit as it regularly ask you to che k BG and if you don’t have it it goes out of smartguard and your stuck. All in all I do feel like a guinea pig and I feel it had dominated my life with diabetes which never happened before! I’m not sure whether to return to old system with Libre2 until it can be worked to be more discreet!