When I first got there I figured I had wasted my time even going because everything seemed so irrelevant. They had lots of cookbooks, overpriced stuffed animals for sale, and diabetic shoes, and socks. Who wants that stuff? Well, I certainly did not. I wanted to check out the new technology. Look at the new pumps. So, I wandered around a little trying to see what was there.
I accidentally ran into the Dexcom CGM booth and display. Ah! Now that's something worth looking at. So I stopped, talked to the rep. for a while, and I was pretty amazed at how cool that thing is. I've blogged about wearing the Mini Med CGM before. I think the guy asked me if I had ever worn one before. I told him I had and he knew it had to have been the Medtronic one. I saw the insertion site of this CGM and was TOTALLY blown away. I had NO IDEA those things had gotten so small! My Medtronic CGM was so large and it really hurt sometimes. By 7 days I had to rip that thing out! Anyway, so he launches into an infomercial of all the great features of the Dexcom CGM. It was pretty neat. It all comes down to relevance for me though. Do I really need one? It would be great for control. But, my control is pretty good already. I know that if I wanted to get pregnant again, I would get one for sure! I don't really see that in my future though.
As I was wrapping it up, this young girl walks up. She wears the CGM, and has an Omni Pod insulin pump. Saddest thing of all, this girl is not at all excited about having diabetes. And I don't know why anyone would be. But I just felt bad that she seemed so bitter about it already and she couldn't have been more than 10 years old. So I hear her dad say that he keeps hearing that "any day now" they're going to get the Dexcom and the pump communicating. I thought that Dexcom had a pump, or was a pump. So. I set out to find the Omni Pod table.
I walked all the way around the ADA Expo floor like three times (it wasn't very big) before I finally found them. Omni Pod was taking up just a corner of one table. I couldn't believe how small their display was. But, there was a crowd and I had to wait for quite a while to talk to the representative. He asked if I had a quick question, "No, I have a lot of questions." I responded.
The Expo closed at 4:00pm and I was at his booth probably at 3:45. So he and his guys were packing up but he's the representative, so of course he's going to take the time to talk to an intelligent "potential buyer" such as myself. This pump totally blew my mind. The part where he showed me how the needle works is where I was SOLD on this pump. So cool! Omni Pod is really, for me, a total mind-shift. I love that there is no tubing. I love that the pump and the meter are controlled on the same device. I love that it will soon be integrated with the CGM. And, I love that it's totally water proof.
There were a few draw-backs for me. First, it doesn't hold as much insulin as my Revel. My Medtronic Revel holds 300mL of insulin. The OmiPod only holds 200. My body requires an average of 75 units per day of insulin so I'd go through that every 2.5 days, that would be annoying. Second, I just got a new pump so my insurance won't cover a new one for a few more years. And third, I'd really have to take some time to get used to the larger site. They say they are decreasing the size of the pod, which is good. But I'd really like to see it in a larger vial capacity too. Having such a large pod would definitely take some adjustment. At the same time though, NOT having to wear a pump on my belt every day could be pretty amazing. Hey, I could maybe even wear a DRESS again! Wow.
Anyway, I think that when my insurance is ready to cover a new pump, I'm going to do some more research and most likely, I'll be switching to the newer and better technology. Just way too cool! Those are the kinds of things I CAN get excited about.
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