The DANA Diabecare pump is another alternative from Sooil. They invented the first portable insulin pump in 1979. The are the only pump company in the world whose CEO is a practicing endocrinologist. Their website is http://www.sooilusa.com. It’s the smallest pump out there and is totally waterproof. I know they have an exchange program, but I have to check the details. I had a chance to play with it and it’s pretty cool.

Plus, they have a really awesome one with a remote that completely controls all functions of the pump AND has a built in BGM. It is supposed to be available in the US sometime soon.

I bought a BRAND NEW Minimed pump 4 years ago. In the first 14 days I had it, it failed 13 times. I spent hours on the phone with Medtronic, and was told that each failure of the pump was MY fault. Meanwhile, I was trying to balance diabetes after years of a successful regimen of Lantus and Novolog. At that time, Medtronic was interested in reducing their QUALIFIED support staff while selling more defective pumps.

I sent the pump back to Medtronic. They refused it and FedEx returned it. I called the CEO’s office and told his assistant of my problems with the pump, and with his company. I told them I would hand the pump to the CEO on the golf course the next time we golfed.

Within one hout, I received calls from the upper echelons of the headquarters in Minnesota, and from the pump hierarchy in California, all promising to do whatever it took to make me a “satisfied customer”. I told them that they had lost that opportunity forever.

They sent me a letter of apology and a FREE PUMP!!!

I sent the pump back to them. It took them months to understand that I couldn’t be bought with a cheaply-made, unreliable insulin pump and a their sub-standard “support” people. They never seemed to understand that my life depended on their pump, and their people.

Medtronic/Minimed understands that making cheap, unreliable pumps and hiring unfortunate people who read from scripts, is the quickest way to make profit. What they never understood is that their business practices drove me away from EVER doing business with Medtronic/Minimed.

If I somehow got 100 new pumps for free, I would smash each one with a hammer and then recycle the parts. No one should ever have to live with Medtronic or their shoddy products and practices and people.

But yeah, no MM switcheroo for me. My CDE also warns that the most MM’d give me is a 2 year warranty in exchange for my 3+ years left on my Smiths warranty.

We tested three types narrowed down to two the other being MM and went with the Cosmo. I would have to say that we have had three units replaced one which needed new software upgrade (specific errors), one case cracked during baseball game and one because we got the blood glucose monitor sensor wet and it went out. What was important was that Cosmo had a replacement the next day FedEx’d. Service is only needed when it’s needed and one of those times was on vacation in OBX.

We are parents that heavily manage our sons diabetes and teaches him how too and the Cosmo features that Steven talked about before will be sorely missed if we can not find any comparison.
The various alarms, various basal settings, the food charts are the best especially for a growing and active boy. We also use the CoPilot software for the ease of reading use and to IR tool to download his numbers to his Endo’s office. My wife loves the ability to change all his settings online then just upload those to the pump and his is back off and running with little downtime.

We have talked with both Animas and MM about their deals and we are blessed to have great insurance and with two years left on the Cosmo we will ride it out for now and work with our Endo and our Diabetes Care Center team to again find the best for our son. Quality and functionality are the top two concerns right now.

Like before we will treat it like a project and first determine what our requirements are. I hope my comments help as much as yours did and remember that your health and management is most important until a cure is found. My son wants to be a scientist and doctor to find a cure. God bless that boy and steer him in the direction for your plan.

NOTE to Steven. We use the Accu-Check Rapid D infusion set instead of the Cleo with the Cosmo as it has a metal needle and stood up better to the intense activity of my son. For us the infusion set might have a heavy weight in decision making.

I can’t bring myself to say any pump “sucks”. Everyone is different and can only handle certain designs and pump configurations so as long as the pump keeps one alive and relatively healthy then that is a good thing.

It has been a good thing to get some many different views on the various popular pumps out there. Each company wants our business so they of course are going to say nothing but good about what they sell. So it has been good for me to hear about experiences from real users of these other options who are not connected with these companies. I had a MM person call me one evening and I was glad to talk to him and got a chance to tell him exactly why I went with Cosmo. There was no pressure on his part and he mostly listened to me asking probing questions now and then.

I chose the Cosmo because It had all the features I thought I could use. And I have been very pleased with its performance and the help I have gotten from customer support. I like the attachable meter that reads the test scores directly into the pump and will let me know whether I need to consume carbs (with a “suggestion” on how many carbs) to raise my BG up from being too low or a corrections bolus to lower. I had to have the meter replaced because of water damage and I got it replace with no hassle. I like the many alarm options and even have some custom alarms to remind me to take meds in the morning. Although I would say the meal planner isn’t absolutly essential it has been interesting to use and customize. And I have made a concerted effort to use it so I could pass a more qualified judgment on the feature. I like the way I can customize the pump programming on my home computer and upload it to the pump. I realize that is too much work for most people but at least I have the option to use it. I also like all the reports I can get off it. I actually like using the CoPilot software to download report data from the pump to anylize instead of the CozeMore software. That is just me since I like that kind of stuff. And I liked the disconnect feature.

Now all those positives said I did think the design of the pump was squirly with its odd shape (I guess that is the designer in me wanting some a bit more stylish but when it came to it the functions won out). There have at times seemed like there were a lot of button pushes that needed to happen but, well that has not been a big worry for this user. I have used the Cleo infusion set since I got the Cozmo and have been in the process of finding something else.

So it is too bad about this pump going under. I think I will wait till the warranty ends and I can qualify for an upgrade through my insurance. Even with the discounts being offered by MM for a refurbished pump that is still too much money to dish out and I’m sure my insurance won’t help out. So far I think I’m going to stay put with what I have.