My Purple Pancreas

Yesterday I promised I would disclose the reason why a 28 year old male chose a purple Minimed pump over a more subdued color. But first I have to praise my pump to no end. The worst part of my day, every day, for the past few months has been that stinging shot of lantus. Having the lantus at room temperature took a bit of the sting out but I was still never comfortable with it and to never have to do that again brings a huge smile to my face. After 24 hours I feel so much freer, I don't have to rush to the bathroom at work to bolus before lunch, I don't have to worry about having some chips and salsa while playing Wii with a friend and am comforted by the fact that I now have even better control of my diabetes. Best of all I know that the chemical that is keeping me alive is constantly attached to me and can be altered to better fit my activity alot of weight was lifted off my shoulders yesterday and I can't express how happy I am to be pumping.

Why purple, you ask (not that anyone asked). My life is greatly defined by my past and my past includes three amazing years at Hobart College. As the starting center on the Hobart College football team for the 1999 and 2000 seasons I gained amazing friends, tremendous leadership experience and learned alot about myself. I've been able to take the dedication and commitment that it took to succeed as a college athlete and apply it to almost every facet of my life. Most importantly the adversity that I faced on the field, countless hours of preparation and sacrifices I had to make have allowed me to deal with diabetes running head first and taking it on. When it came time to choosing a pump and I saw that purple was available I had to go with it. Hobart's colors are purple and orange - I raise those colors high whenever I can; be it on my golf bag or shirt, a hat and now my insulin pump. Now each time I face a challenge with diabetes I can look down at my pump, remind myself of the dedication it took to succeed in a sport I loved and apply that same intensity to controlling this illness.

It's Like Christmas

The day I've been waiting for has finally arrived - I received my Minimed Pump in the mail! The box arrived at 6 pm on Friday but since my company has the worst mail room in the history of offices, I didn't receive it until about noon Monday.

I could barely contain my excitement when our mail guy approached me with this box:

Never before has a cardboard box with a logo that is the bastard child of Cirque Du Soleil and Leondardi daVinci brought me so much joy.

Opening the box filled me with excitement and anticipation:


But it was still a tease as I had to dig through 5 lbs of popcorn and countless packages of reservoirs and infusion sets to find what I was truly searching for :


Which contained my brand new purple pancreas:



My excitement is tempered by the fact that I can't get into see my diabetic educator at the Berrie Center until the 28th. However, this will give me a chance to take the online "pump school" offered by minimed and read all the instruction manuals. Once I get used to the square wave bolus I may just have to break my no Chinatown in the summer rule to have the dim sum feast I've been craving.

Picked a Pump!

After countless hours of research and loosing way too many minutes of sleep stressing about which pump to pick I finally came to a decision. I'm going with the Minimed Paradigm 522 pump, contrary to what I had earlier stated. After exhausting every possible shred of information I came to the conclusion that the 522 was the best pump for me.

During my trial of the 522 I absolutely loved that I could access the bolus wizard by simply hitting the "B" button on the pump - this took about 3 less steps than the Animas 2020 would have. Also, I felt the way the bolus wizard worked was more intuitive and provided better information than the Animas 2020.

After reading some awful reviews of the OneTouch meters on Six Until Me I came to the realization that Minimed puts out a better overall product than the Animas/ J&J team does. I have to base my future expectations on the past performance of the Animas family of products; the glucowatch has proven to be unreliable and OneTouch meters don't seem to be as accurate as the competition. Also, I expect a company that is just 6 years old to have been more innovative than they have been to date. While the 2020 has a better design and a great color screen I just don't think it stacks up against the functionality of the Minimed. I'm trying to live a healthy life not win a fashion contest so I went with the practical decision.

I'll have the full tale of the tape to more fully illustrate my decision but I wanted to share my excitement with the rest of the blogosphere! I can't wait to get on the pump and start experiencing some of its benefits.

In The Name Of Research!

I did proclaim my love of the Animas pump after my brief trial but in the interest of fairness and information I have decided to go on a similar saline trial with the Minimed 522 pump. After this trial I will be able to report on the pluses and minuses of each pump and really make an informed decision about which device will help me best control my blood sugars. Next Wednesday I'm also meeting with a rep from Deltec, the makers of the Cozmo pump. The Cozmo pump has been getting some good publicity on the internets and I wanted to check them out as well. Unfortunately, Deltec has a policy of not allowing saline trials so I'll have to really check that pump out during the sales pitch.

I'd love to hear the experience of some pump users out there!