I had travelled from Brighton to Birmingham a couple of days before, and due to travel back after the appointment. Tom had come up to Birmingham on the day to be at the appointment with me...but before that?
We hit CADBURY WORLD!
Now Cadbury World provides a LOT of childhood memories for me. The big 'CADBURY' on the top of that building? You can see it from the top of my mum's road (aka where I spent years living!). I went on several school trips there. Over the years it has expanded, changed, developed, and had loads of cool features added to it.
Just a hint: on Thursdays, it offers 2-for-1 tickets; you just have to print out a voucher and voila! 2 tickets for the price of one.
Unfortunately, being a school day, it was rammed with school children and we couldn't get away from them the whole time. Definitely took away from the visit, but certainly didn't ruin it. It did mean we missed out on writing our names in chocolate though, there were so many kids we didn't even get a look in. Oh well!
After that we made a pit stop for some food and carried onto the hospital. Of course, being this uber important appointment...naturally the clinic was running behind by over 90 minutes! I sat there, biting my nails, twitching my legs, feeling very hypo (I wasn't though! It was just nerves).
The eye screening lady tried to get me to have my eyes done before I saw the consultant. I pointed out that I normally like to be able to see the consultant...to which she replied "well, do you ACTUALLY need to be able to SEE him?!" at which point I firmly told her I did NOT want my eyes testing right before I saw him and I would have it done after the appointment, which suited her fine. Honestly. Yeah, I've travelled all this way and spent 90 minutes waiting just so I can see a blurry face...not!
When I finally got in to see the consultant, he didn't waffle on too much - and told me that YES, he is going to request funding for a pump for me!
He also:
- had a go at me for continuing to use my pump after the trial had 'finished'
- told me he had no idea what happens now, he will just write the letter
- had clearly been listening to my DSN, who believes I test far too often (in comparison to some, I'm a relatively light tester; this is why sometimes I have to filter the info I send to my team, because I get berated for testing 'too much' - too much, in their opinion, is more than 4 times a day, just so we're clear on that one!) as he quizzed me on how often I test. I'm afraid to say I gave him the answer he wanted to hear, and told him pre meal, waking, and before bed.
- poked around my feet and said they were fine
So...as soon as Brighton PCT send through the funding, I will officially be a pumper! Remember all that time ago, in July, when I said I had my heart set on a Medtronic Veo (purple)? After seeing the Animas pumps at Friends for Life UK 2010 I am really torn. There are features I like on both of them.
Medtronic Veo:
+ purple!!
+ smallest basal AND bolus rates around
+ the bolus button, the most used button on my pump
+ about as easy to use as you can get
~ has CGM connectivity; as an adult in the UK, this is unlikely to ever be a possibility, but I like that the possibility exists
- can't see basal history (on the 512 at least)
- not waterproof (I hear some of you going "ppfffftttt why would you care?!" well ladies and gents, water sports are soon to be appearing semi regularly in my life, as I train for a fundraising event next year!)
- I seem to keep running into problems with the sets. I realise this is just bad luck, but you know when something niggles in your mind...well, this is a niggling thing.
Animas 2020:
+ has colours I would be happy to wear (can't beat purple though!)
+ smallest basal rates going
+ easy to use and navigate
+ 500 item food store; not sure how much I would use it, but sounds like a useful feature
+ I liked the aesthetics of the pump; small, lightweight, not too clunky
+ waterproof
+ more basal rate profiles (ie day off, work, weekend, etc)
- its bolus increments could be smaller, ala the Medtronic
- no CGM compatibility; again a moot point really as I won't ever get funding and am incredibly unlikely to be able to self fund one (must.start.playing.lottery)
Until I hear from the PCT, it's not something I really have to knuckle down and think about. If anyone
has any thoughts, opinions, etc - please let me know! I'm always up for hearing what you think.
5 comments:
The new animas pump out next year will have CGMS compatability, so thats worth thinking about. If you go for animas I would check how they deal with upgrades.
I have been thinking that i would like an animas pump (getting ahead of myself here, don't even know if I will be approved yet). But i wouldn't want to get my pump, the new one comes out several months later and I am stuck on the old pump for 4 years.
Hope your funding comes up soon
That's exactly exactly my thoughts. I even emailed Animas to ask about the new pump and got a reply basically saying they are not sure exactly what they are bringing out or when. I know Medtronic are bringing out a new one in the new year too, apparently it's a lot slimmer and lighter.
I just wish they would be a bit more upfront with the products they are bringing out. I might ring them!
I hadn't heard about the new medtronic one. I will try and contact some reps and see if i can get any inside info. I know the last I heard about the Animas one at FFL was that they were thinking March time.
I have my pump appointment Wednesday, really nervous about it!
Good luck! Let me know how you get on!
March is ages away and I don't know how I feel about waiting for something that isn't definite. Time for a call to Animas I think!
I went with the Animas mainly because I preferred the way it looked and felt in comparison to the others, and I liked the colour screen, and at the time I chose my pump was around the time Medtronic were having to recall some of the new Veos due to a software failure, and I wasn't particularly impressed with the way they handled it.
I love my Animas, it does everything I want it to (same as most pumps would I guess!), and Animas have been absolutely fantastic in terms of customer service, including sending me a welcome pack with screen protector and a voucher for a free skin when I started pumping. :) I have no experince of the other pump companies, but I can't fault Animas. :)
Also, yay for approval! :D
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