Hi! I am starting a pump soon and i am not sure which one is best for me. Please can you help me chose? I am between the T-slim with the Dexcon and the Medtronic 630G (with the upgrade to the 670G in the spring of 2017). The 630G does not send live BG updates to cellphones so my parents cannot check me at night if i have a low, and i am afraid i may not wake up with the pump alarm… But it has the automated features of a hybrid artificial pancreas that the T-slim doesn’t have. What shall I do?!
Hi Laura,
Congratulations on getting your first pump. I am on the Medtronic 530 and will upgrade to the 670G just as soon as possible. I understand your concern about low blood sugar because I have lived with that issue for years. My solution has been the Medtronic Enlite Sensor CGM. I was checking my sugar 17 + times a day. After 51-years as a diabetic I suffered from Hypoglycemic Unawareness. I can’t sing the praises of the Medtronic Pump loud enough. Over the past 30 years I have had several and have NEVER had a malfunction that caused an overdose of insulin. Their pumps are not the “coolest looking” although they are getting there. Their reliability makes up for it. You mentioned that your parents would be unable to know when you had a low. Have you checked into the accessory that is $99 I think. I would be surprised it is not compatible with the 630G pump, but I could be wrong. My newest pump is a little over a year old and before purchasing it I looked at both brands you mentioned. I ended up getting the Medtronic after reading the reviews for the other pumps. I simply do not have issues with mine. Again, if you have low blood sugars I would encourage you to try the Enlite Sensor until the 670G is available. I wish you much luck with the pump because it will change your life.
If I can answer any questions for you please do not hesitate to contact me. The very best of luck to you. Our quality of life is always up to us because we are our own doctor, nurse, and dietitian.
Nancy
I love my Medtronic. It is very reliable and let’s you give very exact doses for better glucose control. I do not, however, recommend the enlite sensor. it is uncomfortable and frequently inaccurate. You may end up getting an alarm saying your bg is 30(!!!) and it’s actually 120. I have heard the dexcom is a more accurate and comfortable sensor and have met people who just do both separately. Good luck!
We also love the Medtronic 530g for our son. He’s been on it for about a year+. It’s easy to use and, depending on how complex you want your bolus or basal, you have lots of options within the pump. It’s just a matter of learning it, and getting used to it. The only problem we have ever had with overdosing is on take-off and landing in a plane. The pressure of doing both of those will push insulin through the tubing, and my son will end up with a low. So, we just disconnect for a few minutes, during both of those times. We do have the elite sensor, and have struggled with it. After MUCH trial and error, we have been pretty successful within the last few weeks. We were ready to give up long ago on it but, if nothing else, it gives us great data for trends (which way his numbers are going, and how fast) But the sensor has been off by up to 200 points at times! That’s extremely unhelpful when it is off on the low side, and shuts off his pump. When that happens, we just turn off his sensor, let it sit for a few hours, and reconnect. We do have the extra “fob” that sends his sensor information to our phone - which is great a night. However, unlike NightScout for Dex, me (as the parent) can only see his sensor number on my phone, if I am within 20 feet of him. He can always check it on his own (on his pump) I was unhappy that they couldn’t make a sensor that could stream/report through the cloud, especially when he is at school. All in all, however, we really like Medtronic. And, as a company, they are extremely helpful and easy to work with.
Hi,
Our 11 year old has been on the tslim with dexcom for 3 years now, and we absolutely love it. With the Dexcom you parents could install an app (we have it on iphones, I’m not 100% sure if they have android too, probably) and we set threshholds so it wakes us up at night if he goes too low or high.
The tslim is incredibly easy to use and we’ve never had a problem with it malfunctioing. I have made mistakes on site changes and any time I’ve called, tech support has been excellent. I change his basal rate in seconds…if he passes 80 at night going down I put his basal on 0 for an hour in seconds.
The Dexcom is fantastic too…we use each sensor on average for two weeks (he did get sensitive to the adhesive, we put the sensor on a johnson & johnson toughpad and then use skintac too & he has no problems now). Sometimes we trust that more than the BG meter, which the FDA allows to be off by 20%. You definitely need to use both, but a few times we’ve had BG blood readings that were way different than the dexcom and we did a 2nd finger stick and it turned out to be way different (closer to the sensor) than the first. Any CGM can get behind when you are rising or falling rapidly, and there are some times we notice it will get behind on a very slow climb at night (cmg thinks 140 at wake up but BG shows more like 180) but I think the Dexcom is way better than Medtronics CGM and for us, the CGM is so important (he can go off with friends and we know as long as his phone is charged, we can keep track of his number).
Good luck with your decisions, I’m sure you’ll like either one!
I’ve been with Minimed for 16 years now and don’t plan on changing. Although I don’t use it, Minimed does offer a system called Minimed Connect that allows others to monitor your CGM. It costs extra on top of the pump package though and is not automatically included. Look into that for your parents if you really want the 630/670 pump.
Hi,
My daughter has been on the 530G and CGM for six months, and we love the Minimed Connect system that allows us to monitor her remotely when she is at school or on a sleepover (as long as she carries her phone and her uploader with her, we can view her BG trends on our phones from any distance). She will be upgrading to the 630G soon so that she will have priority for getting the 670G next year. Sadly the Minimed Connect will not work with either the 630G or the 670G. Both of these Medtronic pumps use new Bluetooth technology, and Minimed Connect is too old to be compatible with them. We are hoping that someone at NightScout (CGM in the cloud) will figure out a workaround for the Medtronic 630G pump. We’ve heard the alarm on the new pump is supposed to be twice as loud as on the 530G so we’re hoping that will be enough to wake our daughter up.
At the recent JDRF Summit we listened to a speaker who participated in the clinical trial of the 670G pump. She mentioned that she had to learn to trust the new technology, and that for parents, remote monitoring may become less important because of the ability of the pump to respond to data from the CGM and adjust the basal rate.
Sales reps from a variety of pump companies usually attend JDRF and ADA events and are a good resource for finding out about all the features that pumps offer when you are trying to make a decision about which one is right for you. The Medtronic reps are also great resources for finding out about the finer details of the upgrade programs for current Medtronic pump users.
I’ve been on a Medtronic pump since 1999 and am deciding to opt for the T-slim. Reason is due to the continuous glucose monitor change. I went from the Enlite (Medtronic’s integrated system) to the Dexcom. Dexcom is much more accurate and reliable and pairs with the new T-slim, which is also water-proof.
Had the Omnipod for a couple of months but didn’t like it at all. I was also petrified of losing the PDM.
Check out the Bigfoot Biomedical web site. They are soon coming out with a closed loop pump. I have been on the Medtronic 530g for about 2 years and its not a bad pump. Try looking at what animus pumps offers. I have been using the pump for about ten years and love it. You need to become a carb counter if your not already. My smart phone helps me a lot with finding out how much carbs are in food.