WHAT PUMP IS THE ONE!?!?!
Holy Crap, how does someone go about this process? A dinner and a movie, a few causal phone calls, meeting the family, a slow and growing relationship that one day I will look back and realize we could not do this with out it. Or will I get that butterfly's in my tummy when it enters the room, and it will be love at first sight?
We just finished our first pre-pumping class and now we are taking the next steps to finding the ONE and phoning the pump reps in my area to scheduling a meeting.
But really how do we KNOW what is the best for Cara...How do we know it is "THE ONE"?
I have read many, many blogs about how In LOVE some D mama's are with their childs/childrens pumps I really hope I can find the ONE just as Tracy from My life with The Superhero and The Princess (The Ping) did and Hallie from The Princess and The Pump (One Touch Ping) or Meri from Our Diabetic Life (Medtronic) did or Laura from Houston We Have A Problem! (Omnipod) or Reyna from Beta Buddies (Animas) and of course Wendy from Candy Hearts (One Touch Ping)or Donna from The Sugar Kids Blog (Medtronic)I really hope it is that easy for us because I really can't add anything else to my running list of things to worry about in the middle of the night.
Here are our choices:
The MiniMed Paradigm Veo Insulin Pump and Continuous Glucose Monitoring System. The first insulin pump and continuous glucose monitoring system with automatic low glucose suspend. "Live More, Worry Less" :) We have already used the minimed for 2 weeks. It was the cgm system that we were using when Cara was having her very scary lows at night. So I know that we will feel a little more comfortable with it already and it may just be at the top of our list.
The Animas One Touch Ping The ping offers the smallest basal increments available...nice, it is water proof...nice and uses a remote for wireless unique capabilities...really nice. I really like the wireless option, Cara is go go go all the time and the one thing I hate is to have to stop her to inject insulin. So I know I will LOVE the wireless feature and it is a Very, VERY close second!!
Roche Accu-Chek Combo. The combo uses blue tooth technology giving you remote control over pump functionality just like the ping. However I honestly have not heard many people using the Combo. So as of right now it is at the end of our list but we will still be meeting with the rep because you never know. What works for one person may not work for another!!
Now the Omnipod This pump is the world's first tubing free insulin pump and is also marketed as water proof. The only problem with this system is that is not available in Canada...YET! I have hear through the D mama blogging grape vine that they are scheduled to launch in Canada by the end of march. Now I have sent an email to Omnipod because I'm unsure if I want to put my decisions on hold just for a while to wait for them to enter Canada? We have waited 2 years to pump and I don't want to rush into it without viewing ALL my/Cara's options. I would hate to have jumped into something and in the end wishing I had something else...does this sound familiar for any of you married ladies? :)
So next step is to call and schedule something with ALL the reps and hope that we FIND THE ONE without any struggle. I'm a love at first sight kinda girl!!
BTW all the links at the top are a great resource to read, learn and explore the different pumps. So go ahead start clicking!!
18 comments:
Minimed and Animas now offer the same low doses. animas only having the smallest dose is only true if you don't go with MM newest pump. I know where we live, Ohio, the accu-chek is not even supported by our hospital. We only had a choice of the 3. We have MM with CGM and would not trade it for anything! Having all the information on one device is great for us. Plus I really like carelinks software.
Which ever pump you do decide on I think you will love it better then shots. For us anyway it was the best decision EVER!! Good luck :)
Kelly Harp
I wish you all he best of luck in this very important decision!
I'm sure you'll find just the perfect pump for Cara.
Good luck with your decision... we STILL haven't made one, mostly because we've been way too busy to think about it! Hope you find the pump that's right for you!
Good luck with your choice! Having been in your position just a few months ago, I have to say that I am very happy with our Animas Ping. Adam is so 'on the go' that I LOVE having the meter remote to bolus him. Like when we're in the car! Or he's playing at the park! I don't have to stop him, pull out his pump and dose him. It's wonderful. :)
I was just going to say that minimed has the smaller increments too!
Good luck on your decision! You can't go wrong with the pump!
How timely. This press release is from today and addresses the Canadian availability of OmniPod:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=209336&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1534840&highlight=
I think Alexis/Justice had the Accu-Chek. Not sure if its the same one. I know she wasn't a huge fan... maybe you can find some info on her blog.
Having used both the Animas Ping (though we didn't activate the Ping part of the pump and are using more like the old Animas sine it's now our backup pump) and the Minimed Revel, you can't go wrong with either. The Revel does give .025 increments, as well as more options re bolus adjustments ICR can go down in .1 increments, as in 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 etc. (very handy) plus hold more insulin than Animas, which comes in handy in puberty. I am surprised VEO also does not use .025 increments; I would check this. We greately prefer Dexcom to MM cgms (and that is an understatement). But comfort sensor will be out in another year and by that time Animas should have integrated with Dexcom. You would have to upgrade to the new Animas pump in order to use Dexcom. It's hard to choose between these two and really, you will love either.
Thanks for all the info. I'm about to go to my first pump class and have been trying to learn all I can about the different ones. Right now I'm leanging toward the Omnipod but only because I know more about it than the others.
Will be interest to see which one you choose :)
Julie
The ONLY thing I wish our medtronic pump had was a remote. That would be NICE.
BUT I have to say... having the pump and CGM combined.... is GREAT!
For us, its worth it to not have the remote.
Good luck!!!
We have Lenny on the Animas Ping pump and we LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it! The fact that pre-pump, when he was on shots, he was getting 0.5u increment shots, we were very concerned about that with pumps, so that was a HUGE plus in our decision making mode. I love that he can be up to like 7 or 9 (i forget exactly) feet away from me and I can still bolus him. The cgm options really weren't much of a concern with us honestly, so we really didnt think much of it. We figured, if we get to the point where we want to get a cgm, I can just get him an individual cgm instead of a combo cgm/pump. I know they say that some pumps are waterproof, including the Ping, but the CDE we spoke with about this feature said that while it is waterproof, she wouldnt recommend going swimming or taking a shower with it (where it would be submerged underwater for long periods of time), but, that was fine with us anyway because we do the site changes after bathtime anyhow so we'd be disconnecting him anyway (while hes in the shower/bath, we disconnect him and do all the cartridge filling and all that jazz. saves some time lol).
We did consider the omnipod, but when we seen how far it stuck out from the skin, we thought it would look quite huge on him (not to mention, i was picturing him having it on the top of his butt and pullin his britches up and bumping it and it fallin in the toilet! HAHA!), plus we were told that not all insurances will cover the Pod, so we ruled that one out.
The minimed.. his head start teacher's son (who is also type 1!) said that that is what her son had. After telling her we were considering a pump and all the options available, she started telling us about her experiences. They were all good comments about it, but what got me and my husband about it was the device thing she was telling us that her son has to use to attach his site to his skin. It sounded so complicated LOL! The sites we get with Lenny's ping is SUPER easy to do! They are called insets, and the tubing and site are all attached in the package (the cartridge is seperate though) so all we gotta do is fill the cartridge with the insulin, twist on the tubing to the cartridge at one end, pull back on the center part of the inset, clean the skin and place the circular part of the inset on his skin then squeeze two ends of the circular part of the inset, and tada! its done! (may sound more difficult in text than it actually is. LOL!) Tomorrow is his next site change day, so maybe if I remember to, I'll take a video or pictures of us doing his next site change and post a blog post about it for ya so ya see what I mean.
I know its a hard decision to make, but I'm sure once you decide on a pump, you will fall in love with it! Some companies, some reps, allow the families to have a pump to "try out" and play around with. When we first got Lenny's pump, we did a week of saline in it to play around with it some before actually putting insulin in it. Some reps also let the families "try out" two pumps, one for the d-child, one for the parent to wear. Could always ask about that!
Good luck hun!! And sorry this was so long-winded haha!
Ok first..yay!!
We love our Animas but I wont lie, that suspend option sounds kick ass!!
We used (thanks Laura!) The Accu Chek Spirit. Not combo, I was told its the same except you can bolus from remote, and enter carbs into pump.
It was a nightmare. The basals were done by .1 increments which is very large and caused either insane lows or insane highs. So Id definitely ask if the rates are the same as Spirit.
I blogged about it alot...
With that said Animas has been a dream, I love the remote, and smaller basals and Justice LOVES that he can get it wet!
For us that was important.
Good luck!!
Such a BIG decision! I can't wait to see what you choose.
Thanks for the link-love! No matter what you choose...I don't think you can go wrong...esp between Omnipod, Medtronic, and Animas. They are all fantastic products to support you as a fantastic pancreas!!!
Thanks for the linky love . . . although we love the OmniPod I think that all of these pumps are so great. You will know which one is right for your family and hopefully move forward with no regrets.
I'm so excited about the press release today about the OP coming to Canada. It gives you another option to look at so that you can make the best decision for your beautiful little girl.
XOXO
LOVE LOVE LOVE our Ping.
LOVE THE REMOTE!... those few times our remote died and we were waiting for a replacement, having to bolus via the pump SUCKED...but I am so glad we have that option (apparently that isn't an option with Omnipod.)
LOVE that it is WATERPROOF! Bryce has gone swimming with it on. Usually we disconnect but there were a few times he was too high so we didn't want to take it off.
LOVE their CUSTOMER SERVICE! The trainers and reps in our area are amazing but even the phone reps are great. Anytime we have had a problem with the pump or remote, they quickly send us out a new one. When we had questions about different infusion sets, our trainer brought us out a bunch to try.
No matter what you choose, you will love the freedom a pump will give you. Good luck on choosing!
Woo hoo for pumping! Ally uses the MM Revel and CGM. We love it! I think that someone mentioned it already, but the new MM pump - Revel does have the smaller increments. We love love love that the CGM and pump are all in one. That was a big factor for us. My biggest disappointment with MM is that we do not have a remote - yet! I hear that one is coming, I just don't know how soon. We use a Mio infusion set for our MM pump and it is super easy! I think Meri did a video of a MM site change once.
Whichever you choose...I know that you will love it! Good luck in making this decision :)
There are wonderful features of all! Wish we could pick and choose, Huh? We do love our ping!! Love the remote! And love Dex!! I would probably look closer at the pod if I was choosing now... But we are very happy!! Good luck! You really can't go wrong!
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