Monday, July 5, 2010

One Decision Down, One to Go...

    When I got back from the JDRF Canada AGM a couple weeks ago I let the world know that I had finally been turned.  I was heading in the direction already, but that trip was the last straw, it's on, we're getting Jonathan a pump.  So that pretty much seals the deal on MDIs.  Now on to the other big question: which pump?

    I guess a possible blessing in disguise is that we really only have three options (short of paying 100% out of pocket) Animas, Minimed, or Disetronic... and yes they are listed in their current running order in my head.  Actually, until today, I hadn't even heard of Disetronic (Roche), but they were on the list of three that we reviewed with Jonathan's team at the hospital.

    As with pretty much any big decision in my life (or in this case my son's), I end up walking in with a pretty good idea of what I want and how this is going to go down.  I've already leaked my infatuation with the ping, but in all fairness to the other fine products out there I am going to sit down with their reps and see what they have to offer.  With that being said though, the Spirit is pretty much already out of the running: 1) Apparently the rep doesn't have voice mail (or it's not currently working) and 2) We would be the only Roche family in the city that our clinic is aware of and they know very little about that product so support may be challenging.

    So, barring a brutal disappointment  by either the fine people at Johnson & Johnson or Medtronics, our final decision is to either Ping or go Mini.  I've got call into both reps asking for a meeting to review their products and hopefully within the next few weeks we will have one on order.  In the mean time, I'd love to hear from both camps out there as to why you love your particular pump and what made you got to it, stay with it or if you switched and why.  Please be assured that this is more for personal curiosity and to help generate questions for the reps and not the poll that knocks the runner-up out of the race.

    Some of the reasons I'm leaning towards the Animas are:

Luer lock connection - more options for sets.

Finer basil increment (1/2 that of mini)

Four basil profiles (1 more than mini)

Finer bolus increments (but both WAY smaller than syringe)

CalorieKing in the remote

And the biggies.....

The meter is the remote

It's water-proof (12' for 24 hours) and Jonathan loves to swim

On board calculators



What say you?