This post is very overdue. I have felt disconnected to my diabetes as of the past month or so, and have been one slack lady in updating. I have, however, suddenly felt the mood to write, and set up a bunch of automatic post updates over the next few weeks :)
I give to you, my very overdue thoughts on the new 640G:
640G - Part One - It's all about the Looks
On first glance, I was still not sold on the new design. But I'm being superficial here, and I was used to my pretty MiniMed. Then my Educator pulled a pink silicone case from her bag of diabetes tricks, so now it looks 'happier' at the same time as giving more protection against the drops and whacks my pump is subjected to. I'm hoping that they will soon release customised skins like with the MiniMeds, but I'm not sure if the design lends itself towards that. In the meantime I have busied myself with obsessively searching for one of those 'Lenny the Lion' silicone cases, which you can get at the UK Medtronic shop.
ITS A LION. ON YOUR PUMP. As a mature, responsible adult who has a mature, responsible adult job and does mature, responsible adult things with my life; finding and wearing one of these is now my biggest goal. Just incidentally, they have these amazing exercise t-shirts on the UK website that have 4 different pockets for your pump, and I don't know why we don't have these here.
After pulling my silicone case on, I immediately began the size comparisons. The 640G has only been released in 300ml reservoirs here in Aus, and I was used to the smaller 180ml MiniMed. The silicone case also seemed to add some bulk when I put it on. I have seen photos of another 640G user comparing it to his 300ml MiniMed and it is the same size. Obviously, bigger reservoir = bigger pump.
The fact that it only comes in 300ml is a bit of an issue I have with the new pump. I was a big fan of
sticking my pump into the groove at my hip/thigh area under my underwear band when I wore tighter dresses, but the 640G creates just a little bit too much of a bulge to do this anymore without things looking a little suss. So I've had to adjust a little and I just put up with the pump obviously stuck to my chest now. I've only had one query about why my boobs looked so boxy from a lady at a coffee stall. Unfortunately I was in a bad mood, so I just grumbled 'Insulin pump' and walked away. Hopefully she googled it.
I love the 640G screen. Its bright and colourful and auto-adjusts to light. Read: never squinting in the sun or in the middle of night again.
Everything is also right there on the screen for you to see, including your CGM graph. It is also coloured for a quick-glance check. Green means full or close to full for battery, insulin and CGM time indicators, yellow means about mid and red means its running out of whichever one is in red. The screen is also set up so you can access whatever you need quickly.
One of the weird pluses to the new design is that I no longer get any 'pager' comments, which is good, because I seriously wouldn't be this poor if I was a doctor. I'd be living in rich people town with all the rich people and their many, many tables, and their really weird fashion choices, and not next to a block of housing commission. Not a pager guys, sorry. Instead I now get the "That's a really old MP3 player" statements. Which yeah, it does. It reminds me a lot of my Creative Zen that I had when I was 15.
So mostly pros, some cons with the new design - biggest being that as a previous 180ml reservoir user, I'm just not used to the size. All-in-all, looks don't really make a difference to what the pump does and does not do. I am really loving the screen though.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Reason why I'm Hypo: I was on 21 (shhhh) and gave myself a 2 unit correction.
I give to you, my very overdue thoughts on the new 640G:
640G - Part One - It's all about the Looks
On first glance, I was still not sold on the new design. But I'm being superficial here, and I was used to my pretty MiniMed. Then my Educator pulled a pink silicone case from her bag of diabetes tricks, so now it looks 'happier' at the same time as giving more protection against the drops and whacks my pump is subjected to. I'm hoping that they will soon release customised skins like with the MiniMeds, but I'm not sure if the design lends itself towards that. In the meantime I have busied myself with obsessively searching for one of those 'Lenny the Lion' silicone cases, which you can get at the UK Medtronic shop.
ITS A LION. ON YOUR PUMP. As a mature, responsible adult who has a mature, responsible adult job and does mature, responsible adult things with my life; finding and wearing one of these is now my biggest goal. Just incidentally, they have these amazing exercise t-shirts on the UK website that have 4 different pockets for your pump, and I don't know why we don't have these here.
After pulling my silicone case on, I immediately began the size comparisons. The 640G has only been released in 300ml reservoirs here in Aus, and I was used to the smaller 180ml MiniMed. The silicone case also seemed to add some bulk when I put it on. I have seen photos of another 640G user comparing it to his 300ml MiniMed and it is the same size. Obviously, bigger reservoir = bigger pump.The fact that it only comes in 300ml is a bit of an issue I have with the new pump. I was a big fan of
sticking my pump into the groove at my hip/thigh area under my underwear band when I wore tighter dresses, but the 640G creates just a little bit too much of a bulge to do this anymore without things looking a little suss. So I've had to adjust a little and I just put up with the pump obviously stuck to my chest now. I've only had one query about why my boobs looked so boxy from a lady at a coffee stall. Unfortunately I was in a bad mood, so I just grumbled 'Insulin pump' and walked away. Hopefully she googled it.
Layout of the pump is different. I don't think it makes much difference either way. The 640G is faced upright instead of sideways like the MiniMed. I can understand the need for the upright position on the 640G because of its lovely new screen, but this does create a functional issue (read: issue for lazy people) in that I can't just twist the pump to the side to bolus.
I love the 640G screen. Its bright and colourful and auto-adjusts to light. Read: never squinting in the sun or in the middle of night again.
Everything is also right there on the screen for you to see, including your CGM graph. It is also coloured for a quick-glance check. Green means full or close to full for battery, insulin and CGM time indicators, yellow means about mid and red means its running out of whichever one is in red. The screen is also set up so you can access whatever you need quickly.
One of the weird pluses to the new design is that I no longer get any 'pager' comments, which is good, because I seriously wouldn't be this poor if I was a doctor. I'd be living in rich people town with all the rich people and their many, many tables, and their really weird fashion choices, and not next to a block of housing commission. Not a pager guys, sorry. Instead I now get the "That's a really old MP3 player" statements. Which yeah, it does. It reminds me a lot of my Creative Zen that I had when I was 15.
So mostly pros, some cons with the new design - biggest being that as a previous 180ml reservoir user, I'm just not used to the size. All-in-all, looks don't really make a difference to what the pump does and does not do. I am really loving the screen though.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Reason why I'm Hypo: I was on 21 (shhhh) and gave myself a 2 unit correction.
I forgot how easy the side-bolusing/pump controlling was on the paradigm! No awkward head turning to look at the screen.
ReplyDeleteAlso I need that lion case in my life. Does it come in purple?
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ReplyDeleteAs an Australian with the 640g I have got used to it but this pump reeks of cheap design, the least not being the fact it is literally made of TOY PLASTIC! I have seen toys made with more durable plastic, this plastic looks like the stuff in bon bons! It's too bad because medtronics CGM, despite what others say has been perfect for me, it is very accurate and i get to restart the sensors at a minimum three times for each sensor giving me at minimum 18 days straight for each sensor but often I get 20 plus days. The customer service is also very good at Medtronic but if a Billion dollar company is willing to take shortcuts on product quality it doesnt give me high hopes for the future. My first pump was back in 1998 and was a minimed 508, it was small and curved and could do things with minimal button presses plus you could do things blind and easily in your pocket, it was so light you could drop in on cement and it wouldn't break! But that was back in the day before mimimed an AMERICAN MANUFACTURING COMPANY made quality devices, it was also before Kissenger and the Jewish control of the US pushed all our jobs in western countries overseas ( that's right it was planned it wasn't organic or grass roots) to start to dismantle our social, economical, and moral cohesion ( but I digress thats another story for another time). Mimimed was bought out ( as is usual now) by a far bigger corporation called Medtronic who bought the company names, trademarks and well, the whole shebang. And as you can see Medtronic is half the company mimimed was. I tool a break from pumping in about 2002 and went back in 2016 and was horrified minimed was bought out but went with medtronic anyway and got myself a 640g (630g in the US), and as i have already mentioned, some things they do are fantastic, but the over all putting cheap and nasty products in front of quality medical devices is just too much. I dont expect companies to run altruistically, however they charge huge amounts for their products/services and if making quality stock costs more then raise the price again. But do NOT sell us $10,000 toys made of plastic with design flaws, it's depressing and gives little hope for the future. Anyway thats my political/rant. Hope you garnered some information and God bless to you all. Take care all.
ReplyDelete