Hi Nilvest,
On another note, would appreciate any insight or thoughts you have / share about pumps and among them TNDM vs PODD vs Medtronix products. Whether you use them or learnt about it from others.
And if you prefer to use Dexcom CGM over Medtronix, would TNDM pump become automatic choice?
I don’t use a pump yet, so no personal experience here. Every day, though, there are people on the boards asking for help on which way to go and MANY, sometimes over 100, people respond every time. It’s a supportive community. But it’s all opinion-based and there are definite pros/cons to each pump.
I’d say that right now most respondents seem to favor either Insulet’s Omnipod’s tubeless pump or the Tandem’s T-slim right now. Biggest issues: the tubes can occlude (bend/compress,no insulin pass-through, glucose skyrockets) and many people just don’t want a tube hanging off of them. Pods, which are little storage tanks, can leak (and there goes all your insulin). A lot of people moved away from Medtronix, apparently having trouble with it, but there are still fans…When somethings works, you’re grateful! I don’t think anybody on my boards is using the Roche Acu-check pump …I’ve never heard it mentioned and didn’t even know they made a pump til recently. And I use their very-accurate tester.
But … Closed-loop is coming!
https://asweetlife.org/new-diabetes-tech-to-look-out-for-in-…
If the newer systems are more user-flexible and work properly, this will be huge for T1s. Note that the Omnipod solution will also connect to the Dex G6. It would be great if all the pumps could connect to any cgm.
The existing Medtronic 670G closed-loop system has not been a hit so far with my boards. There was one set glucose target of 120 for everybody. I shoot for low-to-mid 90s myself. Dr Bernstein followers shoot for 83. Many would be a-ok with 120 though; for them, it would be a huge improvement. There have been technical problems causing disuse though and that’s talked about in the above article too. I read somewhere that it kept users in-range 10% more than user-directed pumps. <meh, they’ll have to do better than that for me to be impressed>
CGMs
Everyone is waiting for the new Dex G7. It’ll be smaller and hopefully stay in longer than 10 days…and I hope generate less trash. Current applicator is large and non-recyclable. They are not going to, but should, work on their algorithms. The Dex is preferred for their alarms and less need to fingerstab. The article says Dex will refocus use of the G6. Bet they’ll really push to have T2s use them…enormous market…they’ll have to convince more insurance companies and Medicare. Doctors already want their patients to have them so no convincing there. Some insurance companies make you submit several months of dietary logs to show that you’re trying to control. Then turn that around…some board members got denied because their logs showed they were pretty controlled already!!! (It pisses me off just typing that…it’s outrageous…it’s really hard to stay controlled, especially at night, and that’s when people really rely on the alarms. T1s die in their sleep a lot, apparently. Oh boy.)
ABT’s Libre works for a lot of people, lasts 14 days now, is already small, is cheaper, but doesn’t give alarms. There are 3rd-party apps to get around that though and one will even call you or your backup person when you’re having a severe low. Newer versions will alarm, I’m sure. So they’re not out of the running.
If I had to choose between a cgm and a pump, I’d pick the cgm. You can always give yourself shots. Most T1 diabetics lose the ability to tell when their glucose is low. It’s just, bam, you’re incoherent and on the floor all of a sudden. That’s how crucial the cgms are.
PS: Only heard from one more person about LVGO and she too liked the free tester/strips and mentioned that there’s a good report to give your doctor, but didn’t mention whether she liked the nudges. I doubt there will be more responses at this point.