Will I ever go back to my Animas pump?

Anna's Blog
By: FatCatAnna

The Roller Coaster Ride of Diabetes! Whoo! Whoo!

I am a Type 1 diabetic diagnosed back in the early 60's as a child. I am living in Montreal, Canada and enjoy scribbling about diabetes from time to time. I’ve had my ups / downs just like any person would experience with going through life - diabetic or not. My motto in life? Diabetes does not control me – I control it!!

You can find more posts/discussions at my Facebook page called "The Roller Coaster Ride of Diabetes" and also on Twitter under the name of FatCatAnna. Feel free to follow me at both places or send me a private message!

<< March 2013 >>

	Blog Entries
The joys of having Bowie my CGMS – Chapter 1 - Sep 02 Okay, for those of you who have never read my #dblogs before, I give names to all my little gizmos that I use for controlling my diabetes. What we have today, ... more
In a slump and scared - Jul 21 It’s rare for me to compose a #dblog that is not all “chirpy chirpy” … I think the last time I did one that was kind of down was at Diabetes1.org ... more
Surviving the Holocaust with Type 1 diabetes - Mar 27 " To the best of my knowledge, I am the only diabetic who survived years of imprisonment in German concentration camps. This is my story " The above words ... more
Sugar and Your Health - Mar 06 The other day I emptied out a 4 kg (about 10 lbs) of white sugar that I had dated a year ago when I opened it. I use white sugar purely for cooking (I make my own ... more
Eating from the ground - Yuca Fries - Feb 20 I am home now from a working holiday, in the Bahamas and Miami. Despite the weather being abit cooler then normal (they only get 2 weeks of winter - we were there in ... more

Posted: Mar 3, 2013 16:31	2 Comments.
Will I ever go back to my Animas pump?

Well, so far, no reply from the big wigs at Animas Corporation / Animas Canada on my email that was sent in reply to their's over a week ago. I'm actually hesitating on calling Animas Canada, since they seem to have wiped their hands clean of me - but have promised some Animas users - that I will see this thru' to the very end. I've sort of lost faith in big corporations like Johnson & Johnson - but I'm trying my best to be patient - and see what the end result is with my pump - that was under warranty when they "discovered" the issue with the internal s/w date killing the pump (and now it appears to be in all their pumps pre-2020). Which still makes me wonder .... why it was never corrected in the 2020?

I've been back on dry land now for a few weeks since my holidays. I'm still doing the ol' MDI (multiple dosage injections). I'm actually not minding it. Yes, my tummy that takes all the NovoRapid shots during the day for meals and corrections to my blood glucose (BG) looks abit bruised. That's from the occasional blood vessel being poked with the pen needle - despite it's 32 gauge sleekness. My DH noticed my tummy the other day - and I said - get used to it - my bikini modelling days are over.

I'm actually not missing the pump at the moment - I can't believe I'm saying this in public. The pump is great for some occasions - e.g. where accessing areas of your body for a shot make things difficult or you have a change in activity that requires less basal insulin. Other than that - I'm getting used to it again. I'm trying not to be so OCD over the fact that my BG's are not as well balanced as they are with the pump, but with more BG testing and adjusting of basal and/or bolus insulins - I am getting the hang of it.

My god daughter who is coming with me to Toronto this w/e for the Children With Diabetes event (3 days of education / fun for kids & parents / etc.) - can't imagine putting her 13 year old onto shots. His diagnosis was at 6 (like myself) and I think he was put onto a pump right away. She said she'd have no idea what to do if he was on MDI. That is a bit scary - andI think if I was an endocronologist or educator (CDE) - I would have newly diagnosed patients hating my gutts - since I would insist that they at least learn how to control their diabetes by the old fashioned system of frequent injections. I'd be like Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest .

I also am still looking into the Roche ACCU-CHEK Combo pump as a possible replacement to Animas. I'd heard thru' the grapevine that it DOES have an end date - that it only works for 7 years, but after I contacted the rep at Roche that I had met last summer - they told me in their older pumps, this was the case, but not with the pumps now sold (phew). The one great thing about the Roche pump is that it was $1K less and had a 5-year warranty. Good for those of us who are paying out of pocket for a pump. **UPDATE** - see comment below dated March 6th.

Again, until I have some sort of closure with Animas Corporation/Animas Canada it's sort of put me off of any pump manufacturer at the moment. So, for now, I'm standing on the edge, waiting in ancipation for an answer that is honest and not legally formatted with their reply (e.g. please write in easy to understant terms).

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By: FatCatAnna: Mar, 06, 2013 00:40 AM

Many thanks Natsera!

I did find out one thing today - from a rep at Roche - that the 5 year warranty only applies to those users of their pumps that are in Ontario. The jist of their comment was the warranty applies for anyone that participates in the Ontario Assistive device program, and a 4 year warranty for all others (like myself - I would be paying out of pocket). I had asked them about the program we have here in Quebec if the 5 year warranty would apply like Ontario (ours is for under 18 year old T1D's). From my understanding, it would be something that Roche would have to make a decision on. Which makes sense. Though I'm abit disappointed that I wouldn't have a 5 year warranty - that sort of sold me on the pump when I first met up with the Roche rep at a JDRF walk last summer - along with the $1K less cost of other pump manufacturers currently on the market here in Canada.

I have heard so many great stories from Medtronic users - despite my aversion to them due to my first experience with them when I had done a trial run with their MM522 - along with the parents I interviewed whose son Stephen had died of his MM pump priming the full cartridge into his body during his sleep. You can see other similar stories in the forum post here at Diabetes1.org. My only thing with MM - is that they do not use the luer lock type of infusion set - I don't like being locked into one company for the purchase of my infusion sets (I like to experiment with different ones ).

The Tandem t:slim - I'm like you - still waiting for it to be on the market abit longer. I look at it like a new model of a car - give it a few years - for the bugs to work out. Now, we'd all like to think that what we purchase will have no problems - especially with medical devices like ours - but problems do occur - and hopefully not to the extreme - where they cause the death of the user.

By: natsera: Mar, 04, 2013 12:51 PM

Hi, Anna!
I don't know anything about the Roche pump -- I've never seen one. They must be a small company for pumps, although not for meters.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I have NEVER, in 14 years, come this St. Patrick's Day, had ANY trouble with the Medtronic. While it's true that they only have a 4 year warranty (and Medicare insists on not replacing the pump until 5 years are up), other than that, they have been splendid.

The t:slim is too new to know what exactly will come up, but the size is attractive, as is the color touch screen. I'm hoping they will be as good as Medtronic. I like the color screen, because the Medtronic can be hard to see.

So anyway, I commend you for seeing the Animas issue through (and I'm glad I never got one), and wishing you best of luck with whatever you decide to do!

Hugs!

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