About a year into my switch from Medtronic to Animas and I'm really starting to regret the decision. Today's incident may have finally pushed me over the top. Previously it took me 4 days to reach someone to find out how to connect with my new endo to fill my pump supply order, no one ever replied to my questions about patient assistance when I was unemployed and overall the entire experience with them hasn't been all that stellar.
I've been having some blood sugar issues lately; since I've refocused my management efforts most of the time my blood sugar is really spot on but there are times where my blood sugar simply doesn't make sense. Those occurrences seem to be happening more frequently so I've seriously begun to doubt the quality of my pump. Most recently I went out to see the Avengers on Monday night. Prior to dinner my blood sugar was an awesome and stable 105. I had organic coos coos for dinner with vegetables and then had a small popcorn during the movie. All in I took in 5 units of insulin for dinner and another 4 units of insluin for the small popcorn (which I split with Katie). By the end of the movie my blood sugar was a shocking 451!
Today I woke up with a blood sugar of 303, I took in 2 units of insulin to correct, had a very light breakfast and went for a 4 mile run. Post run I was down to 150 and then took the 5 mile ride into work. After being at work for an hour and having no additional food my bs had climbed to 195. 2 units of insulin later my blood sugar was sticking around 175. For lunch I had a romanie hearts salad with a small amount of cheese, a ton of veggies, balsamic vinaigrette dressing and a small piece of whole wheat bread took in 4.55 units of insulin for the meal and had climbed to 353 an hour and 1/2 after lunch! I did 2 corrections for that 2 hours apart and finally my blood sugar has come below 250.
So with that final bit I decided to give Animas a call to see if we could go through a diagnostic test on my pump. But first the tech rep asked me some pretty standard questions, but kept interjecting how many fabulous self corrections and tests the pump does (which began to annoy me). Then she asked "how frequently do you change your infusion set?" My response, "um I don't keep total track of it but usually every 3 - 4 days." Well good God you could have thought I just told her I'm drowning myself in a cocktail of drugs and booze every night while playing Russian Roulette and clubbing baby seals. The tech rep then went on a 10 minute lecture about how insulin is like rain and when it rains too much and the ground can't absorb anymore the ground floods. After she went on her rant for 10 minutes I politely said, "thanks for that but I don't really need a lecture right now can we just do the pump diagnositc?" To which she replied something else about the GD rain so then I said "ya know what why don't you just pass me along to a supervisor." Sadly a supervisor was not available so I have to wait for Animas to call me back but when she offered to go through the diagnostic with me I told her I'd rather just wait for the supervisor. Sorry lady I'd rather deal with high blood sugars and feeling like sh*t than get a lecture from you again.
So yeah right now I'm kind of thinking Animas sucks and I really miss Medtronic.
3 comments:
I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I always felt like Animas customer service was one of the reasons I used their pump.
Sometimes it can be instructive to go back on injections to remove all doubt (insulin vs pump vs your own physiology), or as much doubt as can be possible with diabetes. I have had periods where I just need more insulin. I may not know the cause but the answer for me is to just take more (basal, carb:insulin, correction factors).
Of course the pump could be having problems, so it's good to get it checked out. Do you notice worsening control on day 3/4 of your infusion set?
-anne
Nice Blog, thanks for sharing the valuable information.
I have been ordering supplies from Animas for 3 years. The supply reorder customer service has steadily deteriorated. Animas seems to have gone to an automated system which does little to communicate issues affecting a reorder. My recent reorder has taken in excess of 30 days to complete. I had to transition off the pump because I ran out of supplies. It turns out I have more control over my own health when I don't need to rely on a corporation to provide me with non-medications to treat my diabetes and I have decided to stick with lantus and humalog.
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