No News

 

A couple of days ago, my daughter's Dexcom stopped sending data to her phone. So therefore her phone has stopped sending data to my phone.

 

Because we have a Dexcom G4 model with a receiver she keeps with her at all times, and because this receiver is still streaming her data, this is really no big deal. She never looks at her data on her phone, only on the receiver she wears on her person, so she was unaware, until I informed her, that the phone communication piece had stopped working.

 

Interestingly, I also did not notice for over 24 hours.

 

We know how to fix this problem. It's a glitch which happens occasionally and is repaired by disconnecting and reconnecting the Bluetooth connection between the receiver and my daughter's phone. It takes several minutes and sometimes a couple of tries, but it's not a big deal.

 

Yet now it is Friday and I still have "NO DATA." This is not a surprise, since everything about the past two days is a complete blur. In addition to the usual school schedule there have been 3 or 4 hour evening band rehearsals, a stage crew meeting for the fall play, the usual mountain of homework, and I think she managed to eat and sleep.

 

Having NO DATA at my immediate disposal has been interesting. I don't miss the alarms and the concurrent worry. I am not feeling anxious about missing the highs and lows, trusting that my daughter is handling any issues on her own, and knowing that she would have informed me had there been any major problems requiring multiple juice boxes or site replacements. We're still using the receiver in our bedroom at night to alert us to any nighttime blood sugar excursions, so I would have been involved in any overnight issues anyway.

 

No news is not all good news, though. What I do miss is being able to look at the big picture. One peek a day (or noticing alarms at the same time every day) provides an opportunity to fix problems in a timely manner. And, while I'm the third string back-up for any marching band emergency, I do miss being alerted to any significant blood sugars while she's at those nighttime rehearsals.

 

My daughter has a quiet evening tonight before the last big weekend of marching band. She'll need to get some homework done and practice the piano, but she'll get to eat dinner without homework in front of her, and maybe even watch a favorite t.v. show.

 

And she'll find a few minutes to reconnect her Dexcom to her phone, just in time for what promises to be a chaotic weekend diabetes-wise.

 

Cue the alarms.

 

 

Too Much Trouble

 

I wanted a loaf of the homemade bread.

 

Probably the apple crumb, but there was also a blueberry strudel one.

 

I looked them over, picked them up, read about where they were made.

 

They were rather expensive, but they looked amazing.

 

I imagined having a slice with my coffee the next morning, or maybe for dessert that very night with tea.

 

If I bought it, though, I would have to share it.

 

Then I'd have to help figure out how many carbs were in it.

 

I'd have to wonder all night, or all morning, whether I'd guessed right.

 

I might be up giving juice at 2 a.m., or distracted every few minutes by Dexcom alerts all morning.

Chances are the bread would be good enough that my daughter would want another slice.

 

The whole guess/wonder/deal with the outcome process would begin again.

 

We'd already had cider donuts as an afternoon treat. We'd all enjoyed random but delicious treats the night before at a marching band event.

 

I was tired of guessing carbs and dealing with the aftermath.

 

I did not bring home any bread.

 

It was too much trouble.

 

Our Options Can't Include Going Down With the Ship

Sooner or later we'll be contacted by Medtronic and offered a Minimed 630G to replace our Animas Ping. Under the Medtronic/Animas agreement, this pump will be at no cost to us since our Ping is under warranty until March 2021. Any other option will, even with the other pump companies' enticements for former Animas customers, come with expense.

The other two automated insulin delivery systems on the U.S. market (besides Medtronic) have their draws. They're both working with Dexcom, and we have a high degree of confidence it the Dexcom CGM system we currently use. Tandem's user-friendly touch screen, new technology and small size are appealing. Ominpod is the only waterproof system left on the market, and it has (by definition) remote control bolus programming, which is one of our favorite features of the Animas Ping especially when the pump is under a dress or buried under layers of a marching band uniform.

Tandem and Omnipod have their downsides too.

Our insurance company now has an exclusive contract with Medtronic for tubed pumps. A switch to Tandem could still be possible, as was sticking with Animas, since my daughter is still in the 'pediatric' category, but by 2021 she'll be considered an adult. Not only do I worry about the insurance coverage, the newness of Tandem is a double-edged sword in my book. While I hope they're on strong footing, I worry they're not yet established enough and I would hate to repeat our current scenario with a company going out of business.

OmniPod's relative stability in the market would make me less nervous, and they do contract with our insurer. We'd still have to pay to switch, since our warranty will be Medtronic's until 2021. But all of that's irrelevant since my kid doesn't like the idea of wearing something as big as a pod on her body and so she will not consider Omnipod, no matter what other features it may offer. It's the only option we've ever had real conversations about switching to, and the answer has always been the same. She likes the potential for invisibility a tubed pump offers. She's concerned not just about the obviousness of the pod, but also the awkwardness under clothing, knocking it off walking through doors, and how it would feel to sleep on it, all of which people get used to but which is still no small concern.

Theoretically we could also include multiple daily injections in the list of options. Or rigging up our own system #wearenotwaiting style. These are not, however, part of our family's conversation.

So, while we have at least the illusion of a choice here, I'm not sure it's much more than that. Financially, Medtronic makes sense. In terms of long-term corporate stability, they also seem like our safest bet. Their product feels the most similar to what we're using now. And in terms of leading the charge towards the artificial pancreas? They're in the front of the race so far.

When we ordered our Animas earlier this year, there were rumors the company might not make it. We certainly knew they weren't likely to release the next big technological innovation. But our warranty was up, and there was nothing compelling enough about what was on the market last winter  to convince us to switch to a new system. We stuck with what we knew, knowing that in 2021 we'd likely be jumping ship to join whatever company was closest to an artificial pancreas by then.

We're going to be thrown overboard instead, and for now it looks like our most viable life raft is Medtronic. We'll hold onto our tried and true Animas as long as we can but we can't go down with the ship, so change is coming whether we like it or not.

Animas No Mas

I poured my second cup of coffee this morning and opened Facebook.  There were pictures of a friend's new kittens and links to political commentary. And then this:

As the parent of a person who will, on Saturday, have been infusing insulin via an Animas pump for exactly 13 years, I have layers of concerns which range from the personal to the way this company's closure shapes the marketplace.

Today we'll begin at the beginning and consider the announcement itself. I learned the news on Facebook. Because I follow 'Children With Diabetes.' They posted a link to an undated, legalese-y notice posted on Animas' website.

We, as I mentioned, have been this company's customers for 13 years. Animas has our email, phone numbers and home address. We have not yet been directly notified in any way. Johnson & Johnson is a huge company. Surely they have a communications arm which could have handled this better? Direct mail timed to arrive today? A call or even a robo-call? Even something as simple as emailing the notice currently on their website. Not only does this feel unprofessional it feels a little like a bad teenage break up... Maybe if I tell enough people I'm gonna break up with her somebody'll put it on Instagram and I won't have to tell her.

Animas' notice includes the following cryptic lines for people in our family's particular situation:  If you are on a pump with a warranty that expires on or after September 30, 2019, you or your pump supplier will be contacted by a member of the Medtronic transition team concerning the option to transfer to a Medtronic 630G insulin delivery system at no cost. This sentence left me with more questions than I had to begin with.

Medtronic, it seems, has a better communications team. I found a link on Twitter to a clearer, kinder explanation. There was a nice line acknowledging that the transition will be "tough." There was also a very well laid out timeline chart which reassured me that customer support will continue to be provided for in-warranty Animas pumps through September 2019 and that we'll be contacted that May to discuss switching over.

But, according to the tiny bit of information I've gleaned so far, we'll be required to switch to Medtronic since we got a brand new Animas Ping system in March of this year, with a 4 year warranty.

Not only have we been broken up with terribly inconsiderately, we now have no choice over who to date next...

More on that next time.