Over the last few months I have been trying to decide which new pump and sensor I wanted to go with. My warranty expired in November and I am now free to pick something new or upgrade. I have always been a loyal Medtronic user. I have worked for them for years and trained patients how to use both the pump and the sensors. I have toured their amazing facility in California and seen the awesome display of pumps through history. When their 670g pump came out a year or so ago I was beyond excited. I wanted this pump so badly, however, my blasphemous insurance company denied my pleas and my letters of necessity to get the pump prior to the end of my warranty (despite the fact that it was a new insurance company who never paid for a pump for me). For the first time in my life Medtronic let me down. I feel like they did not fight to help me. Despite all my contacts and loyalty and work for and with them, they did not help me, so I stayed with my 630g pump and just went about my life.
This summer I was able to attend the TCOYD Conference in San Diego for the first time. I was able to talk to so many type one patients, a lot of who, are educated and very up to date on the pumps. I went with a friend of mine who has the Tandem pump and had just gotten the upgrade to start using the Dexcom G6 with the low glucose suspend. She was really excited and kept showing me her tracings, nice flat lines overnight. She said not only did it keep her from having lows, but it also seemed to impact her higher numbers. My theory on this is when we are not afraid of going low, we are more willing to be a bit more aggressive with our boluses. I was not convinced but I did talk to the Tandem reps who were out at that conference and gave them my information to reach out to me once my warranty was up. I was also able to try the omnipod, which I do like, however, it is not yet up to any form of a low glucose suspend or hybrid closed loop system yet.
While at the conference, I got a lot of mixed reviews about Medtronic. I think the issues they had with the release of their 670g and issues with sensor production and distribution and with the support (mind you I am sure they were overwhelmed with the hurricane damage), however, it left a bad feeling in a lot of patients. I still had every intention of staying with Medtronic, because to me they had always been at the forefront of diabetes world. I have defended their sensors, even work both DEXCOM and Medtronic together to prove they were equally as accurate. To me they were anyway. I still recommend Medtronic to friends and at my job I discuss all 3 pumps with my patients and if they ask I tell them what I do and do not like about each. (amazingly they all have some short-comings).
So last month, I was able to try the new Tandem X2 with the low glucose suspend and the DEXCOM G6 sensor. I was willing to try it and give them my feedback. As I wore it I was pleasantly surprised. I loved seeing how many times it auto suspended me and then turned right back on as soon as it realized I was coming back up. As I am sure most of us have experienced our insulin and food don’t always match up, I started to see with some of the foods that seem to break down slower, how the pump would keep me from going low, until the food hit. I too noticed my highs were decreasing and I am sure that in my case, it was because I was more willing to take some extra at mealtime if I was unsure of the exact carbohydrate count. My best night of all was one where it suspended me 6 times throughout the night and I woke up at 79. I mean, the whole night I was running like 80-90, it was beautiful and it never beeped once to wake me up saying I was low because the pump kept that from happening, all by itself, all while I slept like a baby. I was sad to give it back, however, I did have a couple of complaints. The first was that I couldn’t auto bolus (I often have my pump tucked into my bra if I am wearing a dress and it can be awkward to fish the pump out). With Medtronic I can just push the auto-bolus button and count the beeps til I have the number of units I need. My other issues was the case, I had such a hard time getting that battery changed and the case inhibited my clip use a bit. Luckily when I turned it back over, I was shown that both of these had an easy fix. They do in fact have auto-bolus and there is a different and newer, better case.
After a great deal of thinking and pondering and pros and cons, I thought maybe I should just wait and get a new pump after the new year, I have a few older pumps that still work so not having a warranty to me is not a huge issue. However, going back on the Medtronic after a few days made me sad and I realized, it was a new year and it was time for a new beginning. So for the first time in my 22 years of using a pump, I am changing to the Tandem T2 with Dexcom. I love the DEXCOM share ap. I love the no calibrations. And I love the low glucose suspend. I am excited to see their closed loop system, set to come out later this year and excited that the pump I already own just needs a code to use that new system. I mean how cool is that? Your pump features are upgradable from your own home (I hear there may be a fee but hopefully it is not too bad).