Chalky1983
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Just wondered if anyone was on the Medtronic Insulin Pumps (one with the continous blood glucose monitoring) just looking for opinions on it
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Medtronic Insulin Pumps
- Thread starter Chalky1983
- Start Date
I switched from the Accu Chek Spirit to the Medtronic Paradigm pump in December. I am using CGM (though not all the time as I have to fund that part of it myself).
The CGM is helpful to work out what is going wrong with my control, which is why I managed to persuade my Doctor to change me to it (and fund the change when I wasn't due a new pump).
The CGM is not all that accurate all the time. Sometimes it is spot on (0.0-0.3% difference to finger prick test), other times is can be 100% out - one example: CGM = 4.5%, finger prick 9.3%.
There is a lag between the CGM reading and real blood glucose, so if your BG is changing rapidly, the CGM will be about 15 minutes behind, so it's not that quick to pick up hypos if they're quick onset.
You can change the alerts so that the pump gives predictive alerts for upcoming hypos or highs or not at all, and the level at which is gives low/high alerts. You can change this acording to the time of day too, so. for example I set my low alter for 4.2 during the day & 4.5 at night.
It has 48 possible basal rates (each rate can start on the hour or half hour). The basal increments are 0.025 (below 1u/hr) and 0.5 over 1u/hr, so it's pretty flexible.
You can set the rate at which is delivers your bolus, so if you tend to get stinging at the cannula site, you can set it to deliver pretty slowly. (It delivers more slowly than my accu check pump did, even at maximum delivery rate.)
It tends to read low during the night, so often tells me that I'm hypo, or bordering hypo, when I'm not.
The bolus wizard is great (I never had this on the Spirit, though most pumps have it now).
The remote control is useful when I'm out at a restaurant or party and don't want to drag the pump out to bolus. The remote is only a basic one, it doesn't do the wizard from it, just delivers insulin according to the number of times you press the button.
It takes more button presses than the Accu Chek to deliver any sort of bolus, even the 'easy bolus' which is the short-cut type of bolus. You have to press the button (either on the pump or the remote control) for the number of units you want (variable from 0.5 to 2.0 per press I think) and then press 'Act', wait for it to vibrate back the number of presses that you made to confirm that it's right, then press 'Act' again. This is more complex than the Accu Check quick-bolus feature.
The battery lasts ages. it takes 1x AAA (I'm only on my third battery & I've had the pump 2 months).
It comes in two sizes, 1.8ml & 3ml. I have the smaller one as my insulin requirements are pretty small & chnage the cartridge every 3-4 days.
it comes in black, clear, pink & blue (if that sort of thing is important to you).
The reservoir change is quick and easy. The reservoir is far less prone to getting bubbles in it than the Accu Chek reservoir. The reservoir comes with a neat connection to connect it to the insulin vial which makes crawing up the insulin easy.
The CGM inserter doesn't hurt (I've used 6 so far & only had a tiny bit of pain from one of them at the time of insertion).
I use Cavillon spray under the sensor & dressing as my skin is quite sensitive, this helps prevent a few days of redness where the dressing went following removal of the sensor.
The sensors last 6 days. I swim with mine and, though the pump & sensor don't talk during the swim of course, the sensor downloads up to 40 mins of data to the pump when I get out of the pool & back to the locker where my pump has been stored during my swim.
The transmitter is about the size of a 50p piece, overall with the sensor, it's about 3.5 cm x 2.5cm by 5mm thick.
My plan has been to blitz the CGM for a few months (while I can afford it) to try & work out why my BGs swing from 2 to 16 every day then settle down to use the pump without CGM. I do miss it in between sensors though, already. Perhaps, if it sorts out my problems, I'll persuade the hospital to lobby for funding of the CGM later on.
I was given a Bayer Contour Link glucose meter with the pump which automatically transmits my BG reading to the pump to inform the first step in the bolus wizard. You can also input your BG readins manually if you prefer. You can also input meal markers and exercise markers into the pump to help you get the complete picture.
You can register online to use the Medtronic carelink software and upload the pump to the internet using the supplied Bluetooth USB stick. You can then access this form any computer with your account name and password. Apparently you can give your HCPs access to the data too, though iIve not tried to do this. The software prints all sorts of reports for you to help you manage your own care.
The only real con that I have found is that it only has 3 basal programmes. I use one for work days, one for days off and then I want one for post-exercise and one for pre-menstrual, but I can only have one of the two. The only other option if you want to change your basal is to use a temporary basal rate. That sounds fine (and is what I used to do for post -exercise on the Accu Chek pump), but the Paradigm pump vibrates three times on the hour, every hour, to remind you that a temporary basal rate is in force. You can't stop it giving this reminder, so if you're running the temp basal overnight, it's likely to wake you up every hour which is hardly ideal.
Overall, I like it a lot and it is a big step up from the old Accu Chek Spirit, though I haven't used any of the more modern pumps such as the Accu Chek Spirit Combo or the Animas Vibe (which also has CGM capability) to compare.
I hope that this helps.
The CGM is helpful to work out what is going wrong with my control, which is why I managed to persuade my Doctor to change me to it (and fund the change when I wasn't due a new pump).
The CGM is not all that accurate all the time. Sometimes it is spot on (0.0-0.3% difference to finger prick test), other times is can be 100% out - one example: CGM = 4.5%, finger prick 9.3%.
There is a lag between the CGM reading and real blood glucose, so if your BG is changing rapidly, the CGM will be about 15 minutes behind, so it's not that quick to pick up hypos if they're quick onset.
You can change the alerts so that the pump gives predictive alerts for upcoming hypos or highs or not at all, and the level at which is gives low/high alerts. You can change this acording to the time of day too, so. for example I set my low alter for 4.2 during the day & 4.5 at night.
It has 48 possible basal rates (each rate can start on the hour or half hour). The basal increments are 0.025 (below 1u/hr) and 0.5 over 1u/hr, so it's pretty flexible.
You can set the rate at which is delivers your bolus, so if you tend to get stinging at the cannula site, you can set it to deliver pretty slowly. (It delivers more slowly than my accu check pump did, even at maximum delivery rate.)
It tends to read low during the night, so often tells me that I'm hypo, or bordering hypo, when I'm not.
The bolus wizard is great (I never had this on the Spirit, though most pumps have it now).
The remote control is useful when I'm out at a restaurant or party and don't want to drag the pump out to bolus. The remote is only a basic one, it doesn't do the wizard from it, just delivers insulin according to the number of times you press the button.
It takes more button presses than the Accu Chek to deliver any sort of bolus, even the 'easy bolus' which is the short-cut type of bolus. You have to press the button (either on the pump or the remote control) for the number of units you want (variable from 0.5 to 2.0 per press I think) and then press 'Act', wait for it to vibrate back the number of presses that you made to confirm that it's right, then press 'Act' again. This is more complex than the Accu Check quick-bolus feature.
The battery lasts ages. it takes 1x AAA (I'm only on my third battery & I've had the pump 2 months).
It comes in two sizes, 1.8ml & 3ml. I have the smaller one as my insulin requirements are pretty small & chnage the cartridge every 3-4 days.
it comes in black, clear, pink & blue (if that sort of thing is important to you).
The reservoir change is quick and easy. The reservoir is far less prone to getting bubbles in it than the Accu Chek reservoir. The reservoir comes with a neat connection to connect it to the insulin vial which makes crawing up the insulin easy.
The CGM inserter doesn't hurt (I've used 6 so far & only had a tiny bit of pain from one of them at the time of insertion).
I use Cavillon spray under the sensor & dressing as my skin is quite sensitive, this helps prevent a few days of redness where the dressing went following removal of the sensor.
The sensors last 6 days. I swim with mine and, though the pump & sensor don't talk during the swim of course, the sensor downloads up to 40 mins of data to the pump when I get out of the pool & back to the locker where my pump has been stored during my swim.
The transmitter is about the size of a 50p piece, overall with the sensor, it's about 3.5 cm x 2.5cm by 5mm thick.
My plan has been to blitz the CGM for a few months (while I can afford it) to try & work out why my BGs swing from 2 to 16 every day then settle down to use the pump without CGM. I do miss it in between sensors though, already. Perhaps, if it sorts out my problems, I'll persuade the hospital to lobby for funding of the CGM later on.
I was given a Bayer Contour Link glucose meter with the pump which automatically transmits my BG reading to the pump to inform the first step in the bolus wizard. You can also input your BG readins manually if you prefer. You can also input meal markers and exercise markers into the pump to help you get the complete picture.
You can register online to use the Medtronic carelink software and upload the pump to the internet using the supplied Bluetooth USB stick. You can then access this form any computer with your account name and password. Apparently you can give your HCPs access to the data too, though iIve not tried to do this. The software prints all sorts of reports for you to help you manage your own care.
The only real con that I have found is that it only has 3 basal programmes. I use one for work days, one for days off and then I want one for post-exercise and one for pre-menstrual, but I can only have one of the two. The only other option if you want to change your basal is to use a temporary basal rate. That sounds fine (and is what I used to do for post -exercise on the Accu Chek pump), but the Paradigm pump vibrates three times on the hour, every hour, to remind you that a temporary basal rate is in force. You can't stop it giving this reminder, so if you're running the temp basal overnight, it's likely to wake you up every hour which is hardly ideal.
Overall, I like it a lot and it is a big step up from the old Accu Chek Spirit, though I haven't used any of the more modern pumps such as the Accu Chek Spirit Combo or the Animas Vibe (which also has CGM capability) to compare.
I hope that this helps.
Riri
Well-Known Member
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Brilliant review Cheryl and I agree with your comments re: the medtronic pump. It is a relief to find that I have not had an issue with reservoir changes in over 3 months so it's extremely good on that front - I'm now touching wood as I have a set change tonight!
With me, they worked out how much insulin I had in total on an average day, divided it by two then divided again by 24. Then it was a lot of skipping meals & checking blood glucose every hour to get it right. I have a very pronounced dawn phenomenon, my range after loads of basal testing is between 1.4u/hr to 0.25u/hr. The day I went on the pump, they set me at 0.5u/hr throughout the 24 hour period, so expect to spend a good deal of time before you get it right. Good luck.
Riri
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,174
- Location
- Mid Wales
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Pump
- Dislikes
- The conservative party, people who are cruel to animals and aggressive people
They did a very similar calculation when I switched to a Medtrnoic pump last November. I have now 8 different basal rates throughout the day varying from 0.50 to 0.85. I'm still not there yet. The one slighly annoying thing is that my DSN doesnt seem to change rates based on any fasting tests - she basically just advises me to change and see what happens (they are very small tweaks I have to say).
The more I learn from sites like this the more I know that to get the basal spot on I will need to fast and check bloods. Checking bloods for me is not an issue as I test often anyway as I dont have good hypo awareness and can be at 2.9 without knowing that I have low blood sugars. All the best Pan.
The more I learn from sites like this the more I know that to get the basal spot on I will need to fast and check bloods. Checking bloods for me is not an issue as I test often anyway as I dont have good hypo awareness and can be at 2.9 without knowing that I have low blood sugars. All the best Pan.
53 years type 1
got a Medtronic pump + sensor about 4 years the first 8 months had one on loan
lol I used to need get a bm of 1.2 or lower before I got warnings it's now about 2.1 but luckly I'm fully functional till about 1,1 and my blood sugars can change very rapidly which is why I got the funding for the Medtronic cgm and pump which the predictive warning are very helpful and only had 1 real hypo since having it and caught that at 1.2 the alarm catches about 3+ hypos per week but I need the predictive alarms and have just turned on the low suspend feature on the pump which stops the insulin when bm drops too low. and have not ended up in hospital for 4 years I have the pump and sensor as my blood sugar is very unpredictable due 2+ complication's. the sensor can get out of sync with blood sugars when they start changing rapidly so you need to check your bm more. you really need to take a calibration bm about every 6 hours as it can readings can start to drift if you a sharp rise or fall in bm's
got a Medtronic pump + sensor about 4 years the first 8 months had one on loan
lol I used to need get a bm of 1.2 or lower before I got warnings it's now about 2.1 but luckly I'm fully functional till about 1,1 and my blood sugars can change very rapidly which is why I got the funding for the Medtronic cgm and pump which the predictive warning are very helpful and only had 1 real hypo since having it and caught that at 1.2 the alarm catches about 3+ hypos per week but I need the predictive alarms and have just turned on the low suspend feature on the pump which stops the insulin when bm drops too low. and have not ended up in hospital for 4 years I have the pump and sensor as my blood sugar is very unpredictable due 2+ complication's. the sensor can get out of sync with blood sugars when they start changing rapidly so you need to check your bm more. you really need to take a calibration bm about every 6 hours as it can readings can start to drift if you a sharp rise or fall in bm's
