Monday I was finally trained in person on my new iLet pump from Beta Bionics. I’ve been following this technology since before it was FDA approved. Before switching, I read all the negative reviews and had discussions and had iLet demos by my health care educator. Now Bionic, I agree with the professionals that the complaints come from not following the exact guidelines that are given. I learned all the pitfalls - from how to load it, how the algorithm works, how to let it collect my usual patterns honestly - no overrides, no cheating it.
In my determination, I learned everything that I could about how it works, especially the automated part. How it needs time to collect data on your “usual” behavior to get a good baseline down. I was warned that I would go high and low at least in the first few days - my response was, well i’m used to that so no big deal.
So here is the report you’ve been waiting for - yes a bit early in, but i’m so taken with this technology that i’m excited to offer my experience now and in time a bit more. Day one on Monday, I went Bionic about 3:30 p.m. I was 115 bg when I started, I had a long walk to the parking lot from the office and was worried of going low - but didn’t. I maintained 98-120 till my first meal, dinner. I followed the guideline - BE HONEST - I wrote down as a personal guide what all my “usual” carb meal intake has been, a usual carb meal for dinner is 35-50 carbs. I ate in this range possibly a bit more - I did go a bit above 200 during the evening, but it was a gradual high - not a fast rise like before. I was very impressed with the every 5 minute micro doses, which for me is a game changer.
Day 2 the pump seemed to get it already even though it only had data for one dinner only - for my three meals “usual” amount of carbs for me for day 2 - it was responding really well and through dinner. This morning day 3, I woke up at 95 bg. During the night it kept me beautifully even from 3 a.m. till 7 a.m. and prior to that after day 2 dinner reacted with a VERY SLOW gradual rise to 180 then began going slowly down. I’m impressed with its ability to pace the ascend and descend. Now i’ve noticed previous alarm fatigue is subsiding. I deleted the Dexcom app on my phone and now just use the beeps from the iLet pump - one less thing to manage. Overall less to stress about.
Day 3, today, will be a full 3 meal day - I just had breakfast and yes 1.5 hours after eating my bg is 209 but now evened out. So far, i’m feeling liberated from the stress of how to micro manage my dosing - and settings. I know there is no perfect pump - i’m anticipating challenges, but knowledge is power and I feel fortunate that in this day and age we have all these technologies to choose from. Thanks for reading and i’ll report back as more time goes by.
FYI - I was 1.5 years into a Tandem pump lease on my TriCare that paid for it then I turned 65 and now on medicare - by going through Reliable diabetic supply (a new supplier for me) this channel through reliable to medicare approved the full amount paying for the pump - $3,500 if paid out of pocket, so that was the shove for me to switch. I was told that not every medical supplier going through medicare would be able to approve a new pump if the user was already in a current lease with another device. But Reliable seemed to be the channel that medicare wouldn’t flag the fact that I was already on a current leased pump through my then primary insurance.