It’s been mixed for me and I am still making my mind up.
I started in December with the freestyle libre 2 plus, I had been on the 2 / plus and the dash for about 18 months and I had pretty good control on that and HB1Ac again the best it’s been. My issues on that where around my menstrual cycle and rugby match days, the plan was moving to this would fix those issues. I loved the set up with the dash as I had worked out different backgrounds settings for those times, I had ovulation, menstruation and rugby match day settings plus my normal days, so I swap those when I needed, which worked great for me.
I had so many issues with the libre 2+ connecting with the O5 that it was basically just the same system as before. Until I switched over to Dexcom G6 I was in manual mode at least 40% of the time.
Since G6 connection has been great, I’ve had 1 funny sensor but that’s it since Feb and it worked for 8/10 days so fine. And I believe my DSN have moved a few other patients to G6 as the 2+ did the same for them too. So much so that they have now set up a standard process (not approval each time / each patient from the consultants) for easier switch over.
I don’t find the pods very good quality, either O5 or the dash, only last week I had another leaky one. I think they are cheaply made, same as Omnipod. Their customer service is pants. But they have replaced all faulty. I’d say I’ve had at least 10% faults across the time using any Omnipod.
So standard days (not menstrual or rugby matches) it’s great, anything none standard it’s slow, it’s not worked out my menstrual cycle and rugby matches I am still working out what to tell it. And think I might go back into maunal mode for matches this season. You can’t tell it like won’t the dash that you need a different background set up, well you could change all the insulin reaction, correction and target glucose settings but actually it’s a faff and it would take a lot of effort, time and calculations
It takes about 3 days to work any new trends which is slower than it would take me, I don’t think it’s as a smart as a person. And you can’t tell it about faults so if you’ve had one that’s leaky or a wayward sensor with faulty readings you can’t tell it to ignore those few days, where we would know as people that all that extra insulin wasn’t in my system so I shouldn’t count that in my daily insulin calculation. It’s slow, it doesn’t feel very clever, I am not sure it’s getting any smarter.
Sleep is loads better though. I think since I've moved over to G6 so now in my 4th month I’ve only had 1 or maybe 2 diabetes impacted nights. Which is incredible and actually a huge win, I would say the weighting of this win is high. First time I’ve slept well in nearly 20 years consistently.
I said I would give it 6 months (now it’s working fully) this will be August and then compare the results, data, blood and other factors and decide if I stay HCL or go back to dash.
My TIR is about the same as it was on the dash, some days I don’t even think my diabetes and I only need to tell it my carbs, exercise and it stays in range and other days it’s all consuming and takes up loads of effort and is all over the place.
This is my first HCL and I was on the dash before that so I can’t compare to another HCL.
I like the patch pump element for me, which I think impacts noticing the cannula or blocked issue, you can’t tell quickly, and they are cheap as they are only made to last 3 days and cheaply. So that’s a down side but I didn’t fancy tubes, or cannulas, and I like being able to wear it when I play rugby.
Some diabetes teams allow the O5 set up very flexibly so that if it’s doesn’t work there’s other options where I know the other options can come with time commitments. So that’s a factor too. A lot of people have been able to test HCL with the O5.
I suggest you work out what you like about your current set up, negatives and compare.
