Who's got one - AccuChek Combo Pump?

sallymac65 said:

HI All, thanks to those who responded to my previous post a few months back on asking for information on the Accu-Chek combo pump. Well despite your comments I did say "yes", however it has not worked out well. A long story of catastrophes - running from appalling bluetooth connection (yes I know you warned me but), blimey its bad and annoying alarms plus only a 10% temp basal reduction which is useless for me.

BTW, I am not saying that the Acci Chek is not a good pump, but it seems to be you have to be more for the "professional diabetic" - as for instance you cannot really give a dose unless you have tested recently. This could be a good /not so good thing. Testing 8 or 9 times a day aint funny in my book and not reasonable either with everything else going on.

Who else is using one of these, am I missing something vitally important here?

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Hi Sally, if you can only get a 10% reduction on basal then that's either down to you as in you have the pump set up wrong or the pump is faulty.
Alarms! that's down to you, you have not set the pump up correctly. The pump enables you to turn the alarms off or on.

As to only being able to bolus if you test, I do find that odd as haven't had that problem with either of my pumps (Animas and Cozmo)
Testing .........
I would test at a bare minimum 9 times a day. If basal testing a lot more.

It sounds to me as if you have had very little help or support in setting up the pump and how to use it properly which is a great shame and a complete waste of a pump.
Have you phone Roche to complain about the blue tooth connection, you could have a faulty handset?

I have the accuchek spirit, which is the previous model to the combo. I posted a thread asking questions about similar issues to the ones you mention as I also thought that you could only bolus after doing a test, but I was reliably informed this is not the case and that you can manually set the dose. I'm sure the pump has the same buttons that mine has, so you could always use those, although it sort of defeats the object of having a remote.

I am dismayed about the poor bluetooth connection though - as that is one of the things I was looking forward to when I eventually get my new pump (not for two years yet!). Hopefully in 2 years they will have sorted it out!

I dont know if you have worked through the online tutorial for the combo but it maybe of use?
http://www.accu-chek.co.uk/microsites/CAT/index.html

sallymac65 said:

Hi Ivinghoe, actually what I meant about the 10% reduction in basal came out the wrong way. What I meant to say is that I can reduce it by 10% to wherever it needs to be, but on my old medtronic I could say reduce the temporary basal to say 75% or 5% etc for when I am doing zumba. 10% for zumba is too much and stopping it altogether doesnt work either, so only being able to reduce it by 10% at a time is pretty useless to me. I think I have now sorted out the alarms, thank goodness. The bluetooth is just not reliable for me, sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt. I have talked to the accu chek helpline and whilst they are very good, they dont seem to have any answer to the loss of bluetooth. I am hoping to return to a medtronic, this accu chek is too much hassle for me!

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Perhaps you need to think out of the box a bit more
The Animas only does a temp basal in 10% incriments as well. So all you need to do is either have a few carbs, instead of a two hour temp basal have one, or even look at the actual basal pattern it's self and set a new pattern Zumba days!

I'm not exactly that fond of my Animas pump as it has a lot of short comings compared to my Cozmo, saying that though things can be worked around it, brain just has to be put into gear to find the best aproach.

As to going back to a medtronic, are you going to pay for it? I doubt your PCT will be willing to chuck away nearly £3000 just because you don't like the pump you have. The pump wont be given to anyone else as the warranty is not transferable.
So you would have a choice of put up with it and get used to it or go back to MDI.

Hi Sally

My daughter started using the combo last Monday so i have limited experience but spent many months reading and doing training beforehand so can offer a limited opinion.

Bluetooth - we haven't had any problems so far! I can correct her overnight fine using the handset even if she is wrapped up in the quilt with her back to me, she wears the pump in a bag on her tummy. I was told by Roche to only use Lithium batteries and to change them every 30 days even if the low battery warning hasn't come up to avoid any potential power or bluetooth problems.

Temp basal reduction we haven't used yet but if you need 5% for 2 hours could you try 0% for 1 hour and then 10% for 1 hour or maybe a small snack?

We can give a bolus easily using the handset without having done a blood test so not sure why you can't? We have to do this do 'fill the gap' when she does a cannula change.

Testing - were you not warned how much you would need to test? We used to test 7 times a day on MDI and are currently still testing 2 hourly day and night to get the basal rates set right. I agree it isn't much fun!

I've had my Accu-Check Combo now for almost 2 years (before that I had the Spirit pump)

And I really don't know what your grip is all about..

Bluetooth is problematic at all, unless you want to have your pump 20ft away from you, or your battery power is getting low! But if it gives you a failed to communicate warning, the all you do is press cancel and start again, your BG reading with be retained by the wizard and all you do is move the remote nearer to the pump location...

The Bluetooth used is a different frequency to other devices such as mobiles, using a much shorter wave length so it doesn't travel as far, this is a safety feature, that prevents our pumps being picked up by other devices and also clashing etc with them, including other pumps..

Bolus, yes you can bolus when ever you like, the only time that the remote won't allow you is because according to it's calculations (from the perimeters you've set) you have enough insulin on board to maintain BG levels and to bolus more will cause a hypo either by over dosing or stacking your insulin...

So if you eat more carbs, it will recalculate from a bg reading, using all the data you've set the wizard up with, and if necessary give you the amount to bolus if you need...

At times I find that the wizard says that I don't need to correct but I know that I do, so all I do is tell it I'm eating a very small amount of carbs, normally 2g or 3g's then bolus and don't eat the carbs!

As to working around the TBR increments pretty easy really

If you dancing regularly then set up another Basal profile with a 5% increase, then all you have to do is flick profile... If another activity/illness comes a long that requires a TBR of an something and 5% then you just use the dance profile to adjust from...


As to BG testing, well you won't know nor will your wizard know if or what adjustments need to be made without a BG reading to work form...

Invinghoe, you are a diamond. This is just what I've been looking for. I should be fitted with said Combo Pump on 21st November and although Accu-Chek have been very helpful with all my ridiculous questions, they mostly have been redirecting me back to my diabetes nurses. Haven't got quite to the end of the tutorial, but from what I've seen so far, it looks like they have included every eventuality. Am avidly looking through the forum to see what the comments are, so although I don't have anything helpful to say, apart from thank you all.