At Home With Dad A glipse into true joy and madness

I’ve been with Animas for about 6 years now and have enjoyed using their insulin pump, but got an itch to see what else was on the market these days. As a result, I found the very exciting OmniPod. Why is it exciting? Well, it is tubeless! Nice.  Also, it does the canula insertion automatically. So, for folks that don’t like needles and/or poking themselves, it does all the dirty work for you.

The part I don’t care for is that you have to carry around a PDM, which looks a lot like a Blackberry or Palm Pilot. This little fella controls the Omnipod telling it when to bolus insulin or change your basal rate. Without it, your Omnipod just continues delivering the insulin via the programmed basal rates. Pretty cool! Until… you forget your PDM. Don’t even think about losing the thing… Then you are really out of luck. (about $700 to replace by the way).

Nonetheless, I was excited about the Omnipod. Thinking about swimming in the pool without destroying my swimming trunk’s pockets was a wonderful thought. Not waking with my insulin pump’s tubing wrapped around a body part is even better. And, as for intimacy, well… I’m sure you can see the benefit.

Next step… How does the ownership costs of the OmniPod compare with my Animas 2020? Well, a little insurance info is necessary. I have a $500 annual deductible and then an 80/20 plan – meaning I cover 20% of the contacted rate of the supplies. I called OmniPod and had them run the numbers and here is what I found. First, my Animas pump is only about 2 years old so they were worried about my insurance covering a new system. But, they had good news. They have a “Cut the Cord” program (great name!) that allows you to buy the PDM out-of-pocket for $200 and then use your insurance to cover the supplies on a monthly basis. Nice! Second, the monthly costs are what I was most concerned about since that is going to be the real issue. Looks like 30 ‘pods’ would run me about $166. One pod should last 3 days, so this is considered a 3 month supply. I took some issue with this number because it doesn’t allow for any “errors” or replacing a funky pod. But, let’s work with that number for a bit.

To contrast with my Animas pump, I pay $167 for a 3 month supply. Looks pretty similar, doesn’t it? Well, if you did a little deeper you’ll find that the Animas $166 buys me 50 site changes where the Omnipod $166 only gets me 30 site changes. I don’t know if these numbers could be adjusted with a different prescription, but I don’t think it would change your bottom line spending. I could be wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time.

To break it down even further… Each Animas site change cost me $3.34. Each OmniPod site change would cost me $5.53. Pretty small potatoes I realize, but over the course of a month Animas costs $33.40 versus $55 with OmniPod equating to a monthly difference of $21.60 or $259.20 a year. Not terrible, but still quite a bit more expensive. Again, all numbers are based on a 20% co-pay.

So, I’m still pretty interested at this point in making the change with some reservations. What reservations? (1) Losing or forgetting the PDM could really ruin a day, (2) the cost is quite a bit more, (3) when you have a faulty pod you lose any unused insulin still in it, and (4) my Animas works well so why change.

One last step, checking with my physician. What has he seen? Does he have  an opinion on the OmniPod? Well, yes he does and he hates it. He has had several patients use the system with poor results leading to DKA episodes – sometimes requiring hospitalization. Ut oh! He states that the canula just isn’t long enough and can’t be seen so you’re never really certain if it is in your skin properly. Bottom Line: he highly recommends not going this direction. Of all his patients who tried OmniPod, only 1 remains on the system.

Well, I was already on the fence and trust my physician’s thoughts. So, Animas 2020 welcome back into my good graces. Being tethered to you is cheaper, more reliable, and an overall better option for me know. Never will I find myself at the mall unable to deliver a bolus because I forgot my PDM.

I do hope that a tubeless system does come along in the future that might fit my needs better, but for now it just doesn’t seem to be worthy of the change. I’m sure, and have read about, many who love their OmniPod and I’m glad that it is working well for them. For me, there simply is not enough to prompt the change. For you, check out the system and see if it fits for you. There are several great choices out there.

My seven day trail with the Dexcom Seven Plus CGM is over. It was a sad day for me to turn over the demo unit. As I walked away, I felt a little naked. A little vulnerable. No longer could I just look down and see my current blood sugar. Each finger stick didn’t bring comfort, but rather a series of questions. Is my blood sugar heading up? Is my blood sugar plummeting down? If so, how quickly?

So as I walked out to my car, I knew that I had to get a Dexcom Seven Plus on a more permanent basis for myself.

My experiences with CGMs began with a bad office visit late last year. My A1C was continuing to drift higher for the fourth time and I was concerned. I knew someone with a Minimed CGM and thought I would give it a whirl for a few weeks to get things settled out. The experience was frustrating, but I was able to get my basal rates set-up perfectly. But the constant alarms and sensor issues, had me thinking I wouldn’t consider buying this device. The annoyance just wasn’t worth it. Then, I began to research other CGMs and found the Seven Plus.

After seven days with the Seven Plus, I have to say I can’t wait until my own unit arrives in the mail.

During the trial, the Seven Plus was very accurate when compared to my finger sticks. During exercise, it was able to alert me when my blood sugar was low and allowed me to make the necessary corrections before trouble hit. At night, it alerted me two high periods that didn’t result in me being high for 8+ hours, but rather be normal upon waking.

But to be honest, at the doctor’s office this week I saw a chart of my blood sugar readings spread out over the course of the week using the Dexcom software and was a little embarrassed. If I could design a roller coaster ride using my data as a template, I could make millions. The highs (340+) soaring to incredible heights and the terrifying lows (40s). What an incredible ride it would be if only I could construct it. I’ll never construct this structure, but I do live it every day.

(As a quick side note, when using the Minimed CGM it seemed to level out, or smooth over, a lot of the highs and lows. So when looking at the charts, they never really showed the true highs and lows, but rather seemed to average them to a more palatable (yet inaccurate) level. When viewing the same type of data on the Dexcom, I was shocked. Any way, back to my experiences…)

Living with diabetes day after day, you know there are highs you are treating and lows that you have to correct – and quick! You are very aware that some days are truly miserable. But in the end, you think you’re doing a pretty good job of managing your diabetes. But when I  looked at that chart from the past week on the Seven Plus I could easily see why things needed to improve – and hopefully very quickly!

Things I really enjoyed about the Seven Plus include:

• Accuracy – the lows were brought to my attention in time to make the corrections. During exercise, the Seven Plus brought let me know that I was heading too low before I got there.
• Comfort – the sensor is low profile and didn’t constantly remind of its presence on my body.
• Sensor Duration – I liked being able to keep the sensor in for 7 days rather than 3 or 4. There are reports on line of folks wearing them for 14 days fairly regularly, which is even better.

Things I didn’t really enjoy about the Seven Plus include:

• Bulky Receiver – Carrying around the receiver was tedious. A couple of times I forgot the receiver when I moved around the house. I chose not to carry the receiver on my belt due to its bulk. Instead,  I would slip it into a pocket fairly well, but I just had to remember to keep it with me.
• Charging the Receiver – Every three days or so I had to charge the receiver. This is a simple enough procedure, but it did require me to stay close to the receiver while charging or lose data. While told not to, I charged it overnight with the receiver on my nightstand. I was told it would affect the RF signal, but I didn’t notice any issues.
• Giving it Back – The worst part of my seven day trail was just giving back the demo unit.

Yep, needless to say I have my insurance company figuring out my benefits to pick up one of these for myself. The process takes a little longer than I would care for, but that is pretty normal for insurance companies, right? All that aside, I’m eager for my own.

Other blog posts about my seven day trial are here: Part One & Part Two.