The Medtronic 530G Trial - Part 1

Back in January I attended the Medtronic Diabetes Advocate Summit here in Southern California. It was a great time and very informative.

One thing that we learned a lot about was the new pump, the 530G with Enlite. This pump is the first step in an artificial pancreas system because their CGM talks to the pump and will suspend delivery of insulin if your bg drops below a certain number. Cool huh?

I was able to get my little ninja paws on one to check out for a while and I want to tell you all about it. Probably in a few installments.

First I should say that I have been using a Medtronic insulin pump for my entire pumping life. I started with the 722 and then upgraded to the 723 a few years ago. I love my pump. It changed my life for the better and I really love Medtronic and how helpful they have always been.

The 723, better known as the Revel, was super ultra cool because it worked with their CGM. So if you use the Revel pump and the Medtronic CGM the one device would run both things. So you could see your CGM graph on your pump! Now as cool as this was it did not have any sort of control over your pump like the low glucose suspend on the new 530G but it was the first step towards the artificial pancreas.

So I went for it! I got the pump, I got the sensors, I got the training, and I hated it. The pump will still just as great as the 722 was but the CGM was not working for me. And there were three big things that ultimately made me stop using the CGM.

1. Insertion hurt. Like heck it hurt and heck hurts a heck of a lot let me tell you.
2. Poor Accuracy. For some reason my CGM numbers would be way WAY off. So much so that I wondered if I didn’t put the sensor in correctly. Until I noticed that all of them seemed to be off no matter what I tried.
3. Loss of Signal. This was by far the most annoying thing of all. I know I am a big guy. But I am not a planet. If I have the pump in my right pocket and the sensor is on my left side it would lose signal. I don’t wear iron body suits or anything so it makes no sense to me. I made a joke that there needs to be a Medtronic personal satellite orbiting around my fat ass so maybe the signal would get to the pump. Sorry for being so sarcastic but getting a “lost signal” alarm every night is pretty annoying.

So I used Dexcom. And it was great. And it is great. I love it actually. All three of those issues I had with Medtronic were non issues with Dexcom. I know it is another device in my pocket but I figured it was like the reason I buy shampoo AND conditioner. Maybe an “all in one” is not for me right now. No biggie.

There I was pumping away and CGMing with my Medtronic Pump and Dexcom CGM. All was going fine and now this new pump with a new sensor and the low glucose suspend. Would this be a better pump? Would the CGM be less painful, more accurate, and not lose signal? Could this step closer to the artificial pancreas benefit little ole me?

I had to know so I sent in my info to get started on a trial. 

to be continued...