Choice of Pump - Omnipod Dash or Medtrum A6

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Lizzy78

Lizzy78

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi everyone.

Got the call from my DSN this morning about making a choice for Insulin Pump. Currently on MDI and will be first time using a pump. There's a lot of information out there. Anyway, there are 5 insulin pumps currently on the list that I can choose from. These are

Medtronic 780G - tethered /tubed pump
Tandem Tslim X2 - tethered / tube pump
My Life Ypsopump - tethered / tube pump
Omnipod Dash - patch pump
Medtrum A6 - patch pump

I'm pretty active and i'm thinking that my preference would be to have a tubeless pump, which narrows things down to the Omnipod or the Medtrum. I was hoping anyone could give me some feedback on these devices, how they have found them, and how they have found the switch over to pump therapy in general. As always, would much rather here feedback from people who use them.

Thank you in advance.
 
I wouldn’t rule out the other pumps yet @Lizzy78 especially as you’re new to pumps. Tubed pumps are fine for activities. In fact, I prefer them as the site is tiny and low profile so less likely to get knocked off by accident. Also, tubed pumps can be disconnected in a second or two. I do this when I go ice-skating because I’m rubbish and crash over!

What I’d do in your position is think about your lifestyle, your job, your hobbies, then look at all the pumps initially, jotting down a few details, eg is the pump loopable, with what CGM, reservoir size, can you use whatever insulin you like in it, cannula choice (this is extremely important). I use different cannulas for different body areas. Some people find angled cannulas work best, some need straight-in, some need steel rather than Teflon. Having a good choice of lengths is important too, not just for comfort but also efficiency.

I’ve been using pumps for almost 20 years. I found the swap-over from injections fairly straightforward. The worrying about it beforehand was much worse than the actual pump day, which was exciting and interesting. I went straight onto insulin in my pump (no saline). The initial basal rates were pretty close to what I needed. The first thing I noticed was how much better I slept. I then noticed how useful it was to be able to set temporary basal rates for exercise and illness, and how weird it was at first not to have to do injections. That was great!

I was aware of the cannula for the first day or two, more from paranoia than anything else, but once I realised it was ok, I forgot all about it.

Good luck 🙂
 
Well @Inka has summed up what I would have said.

The switch from MDI to a pump made a massive difference for me, reducing night hypos, increasing TIR and also giving me a lot more flexibility when exercising With the temporary changes to basal that are possible.

Like Inka I don’t notice my cannula once it is in, and when people ask how things work Inhave to hunt around to find it. I also having a tubed pump for its quick disconnect facility and being able to move the pump around. Having said that I have never tried a patch pump, so will leave that to others who do.

Well worth looking at which pumps are ‘loopable’. I switched to this 2 1/2 years ago and it makes life so much easier And I have large portions of the day when I simply ignore my diabetes, and it behaves very well without my intervention, as the pump and sensor check in every 5 min and adjust my basal as necessary. I know that the sensors needed are not generally available on the NHS as yet but then I never thought Libre would become accessible.

Whichever Pump you choose you are likely to love the change in your management that becomes possible. Let us know how you get on.
 
Inka said:
I wouldn’t rule out the other pumps yet @Lizzy78 especially as you’re new to pumps. Tubed pumps are fine for activities. In fact, I prefer them as the site is tiny and low profile so less likely to get knocked off by accident. Also, tubed pumps can be disconnected in a second or two. I do this when I go ice-skating because I’m rubbish and crash over!

What I’d do in your position is think about your lifestyle, your job, your hobbies, then look at all the pumps initially, jotting down a few details, eg is the pump loopable, with what CGM, reservoir size, can you use whatever insulin you like in it, cannula choice (this is extremely important). I use different cannulas for different body areas. Some people find angled cannulas work best, some need straight-in, some need steel rather than Teflon. Having a good choice of lengths is important too, not just for comfort but also efficiency.

I’ve been using pumps for almost 20 years. I found the swap-over from injections fairly straightforward. The worrying about it beforehand was much worse than the actual pump day, which was exciting and interesting. I went straight onto insulin in my pump (no saline). The initial basal rates were pretty close to what I needed. The first thing I noticed was how much better I slept. I then noticed how useful it was to be able to set temporary basal rates for exercise and illness, and how weird it was at first not to have to do injections. That was great!

I was aware of the cannula for the first day or two, more from paranoia than anything else, but once I realised it was ok, I forgot all about it.

Good luck 🙂
Click to expand...
Thank you for this. Very good advice. I'll have a good look at all 5.
 
SB2015 said:
Well @Inka has summed up what I would have said.

The switch from MDI to a pump made a massive difference for me, reducing night hypos, increasing TIR and also giving me a lot more flexibility when exercising With the temporary changes to basal that are possible.

Like Inka I don’t notice my cannula once it is in, and when people ask how things work Inhave to hunt around to find it. I also having a tubed pump for its quick disconnect facility and being able to move the pump around. Having said that I have never tried a patch pump, so will leave that to others who do.

Well worth looking at which pumps are ‘loopable’. I switched to this 2 1/2 years ago and it makes life so much easier And I have large portions of the day when I simply ignore my diabetes, and it behaves very well without my intervention, as the pump and sensor check in every 5 min and adjust my basal as necessary. I know that the sensors needed are not generally available on the NHS as yet but then I never thought Libre would become accessible.

Whichever Pump you choose you are likely to love the change in your management that becomes possible. Let us know how you get on.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Very good advice and great to hear the difference the pump made to your day to day life.
 
Make sure you do your research re the medrum. My Clinic has withdrawn it due to so many issues with it.
 
There again, I think @helli has a Medtrum and really likes it... Apologies if I am wrong on that.
Afraid I can't help with your choice as I am happy on MDI but wish you lots of luck and hope you get on well with whichever one you eventually choose.
 
Hi, I thought I would add a bit from my own experiences. Where I am in Northern Ireland, I didn't have a choice of pumps and was put on the Medtronic 780g. I have loved it so far and find it to have made a massive improvement in my Diabetes. With this pump, you can use their Smartguard feature which automatically adjusts your Basel insulin and can also give correction doses. So far, I have been over 80% in range due to this feature. All I have to worry about is counting carbs at meals and entering this data into the pump, and with the Bolus Wizard, this calculates how much insulin I need. It has really taken the burden away, and has made me less anxious about my diabetes and about hypos. I would add that I am currently self funding the Guardian 4 sensor which must be used with the Medtronic pump. I have found this sensor to be very accurate and convenient.

I think it would be wise to be very well informed on every aspect of each pump. Ask questions like what features are available and what are they capable off. One thing I have had an issue with is the infusion sets. I currently use the Medtronic extended set. In the hot weather this has come off multiple times and is a frequent problem. I bought skin tac wipes and this has really solved the problem, but I would make the effort to research infusion sets for each pump and determine what is best for you. As has been said, this really can make or break a pump.

It might be interesting for you to know the Omnipod can give you a dummy version of their patch pump for you to try. Maybe it would be worth trying it to see how you like it? I wish you well as you begin this journey and hope it leads to you have good control over your Diabetes.
 
Your clinic may run a pump event where the reps from the different compaines bring their pumps and give a short talk about them then you can chat to them , pick the pumps up, look at the cannulas etc. My clinic held one in February for people starting or whose pump warranties were expiring this year. Well worth asking about. If not, there's a lot you can find out from the individual websites of the pump companies.

As said above Omnipod have a request dummy pod link on their website, someone from Omnipod rang me after I requested the dummy pod and talked about the pump to me and I also got a link to an online talk about it where you could see how it worked up close and ask questions. Really useful.

The TSlim- the pump I changed to last week - has an tSimulator App where you can 'try' the pump in an app and see how the controls are laid out.

There's also an Ypso Pump explorer app so you can have a look at it and see what menus/controls there are.

I expect the other pumps offer similiar ways to try the pumps out online or in an app.
 
I have experience of both tubed and tubeless pumps.
Whilst I did not notice the cannula and loved being able to disconnect, I found it a challenge to find somewhere to place the pump. Partially, this was an issue that I had to bolus direct through the pump so could not hide it away entirely. More pumps now have PDMs or phone apps which help with this.
Unlike @Inka, I have been lucky with the cannula and not had any issues (apart from making sure it did not go in too deep - I needed the 30 degree cannula).

I now use the Medtrum Nano pump. OmniPod was not available to me - my choice was Medtronic or Medtrum only.
I chose the Medtrum because I was fed up with having my diabetes on show with my previous pump and I thought the Medtronic was quite big (at least as big as my previous pump).
Medtrum have updated their pump since then (and replaced the one I had even though I was not end of contract) so I am now using the Medtrum Nano which is even smaller.
What I like is
- small. I think the Nano is the smallest pump available in the UK so it is very discrete. The amount of pump attached to my body is about twice the size of a cannula if I was using a tubed pump.
- controlled via a phone app. I am one of those people who is rarely separated from their phone. I use it for banking, navigating, emails, news, ... so adding a pump to it was a no brainer. And much better than carrying (and losing) a separate PDM.
- I also use self fund the Medtrum CGM. Currently, Medtrum do not offer full closed loop functionality (they say this is due at the end of summer). However, it does provide auto-suspend which is fantastic - when it detects my levels are getting low it will suspend my basal.
- Medtrum support is fantastic. As I mentioned, they will upgrade my pump when a new version is available and are proactive at keeping me informed.
- I find the pump easy to apply/change and it has relatively little waste.
- Whilst I never accidentally pulled out the cannula when I had a tubed pump, I found it was always getting in the way. I had to tether it to my leg in bed, if I was sitting watching the television, I could not get comfortable with it. This idea that I could attach and forget was not me. With my patch pump, I do forget about it as it never moves once attached.
- I can keep my pump on in a shower. I experience FoTF when I get up. This is the time when I jump into a shower so had to remove my tubed pump. So I was without basal when I most needed.

It is not perfect. This is what I do not like
- it fails more often than I would like. The pump comes in two parts: the base and the patch. The patch is replaced every 3 days and the base is supposed to last the lifetime. In reality, the base lasts about 6 months and then starts reporting lots of errors - 2 or 3 in a day. A new base is sent out the next day and everything is fine again but it is frustrating.
- I am sensitive to the glue. I now us Hyperfix tape underneath the pump.
- I cannot temporarily remove it. For sport, I can suspend the basal but I cannot go into a sauna without completely removing the pump, for example. And then I have to apply a new one.
 
Use Dash pump, can't fault it so far, screen can be hard to read outdoors on bright day but so can mobile phones.
 
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