medtronic 640G!

[Paul]

OK.

I’ve been attached to my new shiny pump since weds & so far i haven’t died!

(I still miss my old pump though but am slowly getting used to the change)

So one of my reasons for dropping Accu-check for the 1st time in 21yrs was that they’d shrunk the cartridge size (pre-filled for convenience & NHS expense) but it’d mean changing cartridge & tubing more than once a week..

So imagine my annoyance when the rep told me the plastic cartridge & tubing used by Medtronic requires it to be changed every 2 days, more than you need to change sites!

Has this always been a Medtronic thing?
Does anyone do this?

(My only other grumble is cannulas.. Apparently they’re not universal (I know they never used to be but by now you’d think we could have a standard) & the Medtronic ones are scary the living **** out of me as someone who doesn’t like auto-inserters.

[Tim]

I’m still on the old Medtronic Veo (moving to 640G next week) and I change my infusion set and vial every third day. Don’t know if the advice has changed for the new pump. As always, I guess you can ignore said advice if that works for you.

[Dave]

2 days?

You can set the alarm for set-change on the 640G to 3 days so your rep is being a little sneaky there. Always been 3 days (minimum) for me.

Now I wonder why a rep of the company that charges handsomly for the disposable components wants you to use more than you need? It’s a tricky one!

[Tim]

Dave – such cynicism for one so young!

[dianamaynard]

Set change and changing / refilling the reservoir and tubing are two completely different things. You should change the set every 3 days max, but you can change the reservoir whenever you want, just wait until the insulin has run out! Same for the tubing, change with the reservoir if you prefer. Only caveat is that if you take longer than a week to use a full reservoir, you should probably change it then to be on the safe side (in practice it’s fine, but there are some issues about insulin deterioration after a week or so in the reservoir).

As for the Medtronic sets, try the Silhouette sets. No auto-inserter needed, and they’re actually far less prone to problem than the auto-inserted sets such as QuickSets. Furthermore, if you want to use non-Medtronic sets (ie those with a luer Lock) with a Medtronic pump, you can get a converter. The only issue may be persuading your CCG to fund you supplies from two different manufacturers, depending how picky they are about such things. But in this case you just need to give them evidence of why you need to do so.

[Paul]

Cynicism about the number of consumables (reservoirs & tubing) that they were expecting the NHS to buy was the first thought that crossed my mind!

I’ve had a low insulin alarm so I’ve got to do a refill today, I’m planning on putting my normal weeks worth of insulin in & seeing if I die by the end of the week – I tend to think I won’t.

Thanks Diana, good to know about the adapter & the possibility of having a safety net, I’ve had less problems with the Mio than I thought I would so once I’ve worked up a bit of courage I’m going to give it a second go this morning.

So far I’m rather impressed with the 640g & for some strange reason my insulin needs seem to have diminished a little which I guess could be the new set.

[Author]

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