Hi everyone! I just found this page & am very thankful to have a support group that helps with questions!
I have only been a type 1 diabetic for a little over 2 years now. I have hashimotos which caused the type 1 DM randomly. I had the omnipod for a little, but it was super expensive and I didn’t feel like I liked it enough to be paying that much for it. The pump covered under my insurance is the Tandem TSlim. I am very scared of having tubing and it connected to me, but I know I need to make some serious changes in my life. My A1C, cholesterol, BP, and weight keep climbing. I am a nurse in a cardiac ICU and unfortunately see many of the effects patients with diabetes, HTN, obesity, and cholesterol have. I do not want to get myself to that point. I know I have to make a change and I need to do it now while I am young. I currently take about 8 shots a day to regulate my BG.
Does anyone have the TSlim and even if you don’t have that specific pump, how did you manage going from no pump to a pump with tubing you are constantly attatched to? I would really appreciate any comments or feedback. Thank you!
hi @tylerank611 please please don’t worry too much about the tubing. it has never been an issue for me for 12 years. it allows you to use site locations such as the belly or top of the butt and you wont have a huge bump to worry about. i stick the pump in my pocket about 90% of the time, clip it to my pants the rest of the time.
all the pumps in this configuration have a permanent pump with a display and buttons, and you only switch the little infusion set and reservoir every 2-3 days. t-slim requires a recharge because it has a permanent battery, other pumps have a replaceable battery.
these pumps have options for infusion sets such as straight or angled, teflon or steel. I don’t have a t-slim but I read their specs and it seems reasonable. good luck!
The pump looks fancy but the rechargeable battery cooked my insulin (Humalog) after 2 days! When I called to complain I was told to replace my infusion site every 2 days. If it explained this flaw on their site somewhere, I would have saved myself a lot of time and trouble.
Tandem is not customer friendly and should be ashamed of themselves.
hi @jennagrant, hey just curious, you are saying the pump got hot while in use or while recharging?
The pump gets warm when recharging, like a cell phone.
My results would be normal the first few days, then by day 3 my blood sugars would be 300 no matter how much insulin I took. tSlim is aware of this flaw… the regional sales manager said the solution was to change my site every 2 days.
I used a Medtronic pump 15 years without ever experiencing anything like this.
sorry to hear that @jennagrant, that kind of stinks. any way to charge between set changes? heck I would consider charging in the refrigerator if it gets that hot! I am assuming you are coming back to minimed then?
or charge in a frio pack or frozen peas. did they say that this is common?
Taping a bag of frozen peas to my pump sort of takes away from it looking more modern, which was the main reason I switched to a tSlim.
Others online complained about their insulin getting cooked and I thought they were exaggerating. People make such a big deal about keeping insulin cool, and I’ve never had an issue with it at the beach or on extended backpacking trips.
Going back to Medtronic. Feels like the dating game where I’m choosing the less attractive, but super reliable one.
Sales guy said FDA approved it for 3 days of use. He didn’t specify the type of insulin FDA tested.
He was quick to tell me the solution was replacing my site every 2 days. Think he’s fielded the question a lot.
I’ve used a t-slim pump for the past 4 years and never had any issues with excessive warming while recharging the battery. I use the charger that came with the pump. The rechargeable battery was one of the features I love about this pump. Someone posted a YouTube video a few years ago and saw little change in pump temperature after charging: Tandem T:Slim pump charging hot or not? - YouTube
Although package inserts suggest replacing insulin exposed to temperatures higher than 98.6F, these recommendations are largely for liability reasons. I’m sure my insulin pump has exceeded 98.6F many times when I’m bike riding on a hot day and I’ve never noticed any problems. Not to get too technical here but human insulin is a fairly rugged protein especially when small amounts of zinc are included in the formulation. A study published by Huss et al. [Biochemistry (2005), 44: 11171-11177] found that insulin was thermally stable until ~70C (158F) which is much higher than 98.6F. Therefore, I suspect the small bit of heat generated by recharging the battery will have little impact on the insulin activity. If this truly was a issue, the FDA would have required Tandem address this by now.
My 8 yr old daughter has used a tslim for over a year now. We have had no issues with the insulin getting to hot while charging. She loves her tslim and we do too.
As far as the customer service, I have found them very helpful when I called. We had a pump malfunction while sleeping and the pump would not turn back on. I called the cs# and they quickly troubleshot and ended up sending us a new pump which we received in less than 24 hours.
I have a tslim x2 pump and so far it’s been great! No complaints or issues 
The t:slim pump is awesome. So much better than Medtronic. This pump has changed the game for me. It is easy to use, and I forget that it is even there. This pump with a Dexcom G5 CGM has helped me get down to a 6.3 A1C. I would rather have the pump attached to me than going back to shots again. The pump is really awesome.