Medtronic 640 - a bit bulky

[LondonPainter]

Hi all
I appreciate this is something of a niche thread!

I upgraded from the 520 to the 640 pump last week and it's so bulky! I used to clip my old pump onto my bra and this new one just seems too big. I clip it on but then it moves around and shows through my clothes...

...I just feel this is another design by a man who hasn't appreciated women's clothes without pockets! I'm going to mention this to my team but wondered if any other pumpers have had the same problem?

Thanks

Yep I got one when it first came out. So big, bulky, heavy!!! I gave it back and another patient had it and I had their accu check pump they weren't getting on with. I have that back too after a few months. 10 years on a pump and I just couldn't stand any of them any more. Pump, itchy sites, bubbles it all drove me mad. Much happier back on MDI

I would like a break from my pump too but I wonder if this is possible...
Did you go back onto the same insulins you took pre pump? I have been on a pump nearly 10 years as well and was on levemir but I think there are newer and possibly better insulins now?

Yes I went back to my insulin's pre pump. I now use tresiba now instead of levemir. Take it once a day it's good stuff. Worth asking for a break

If you have a break does your pump funding automatically stop and then you have to reapply?
I am worried that if I go back to mdi and it's horrendous then I will be stuck with it. Levemir didn't work very well for me but I know the newer insulins are meant to be better.
I am fed up of being attached to something all the time and it worries me when I change the set whether or not the new set is working properly or if the cannula is bent. I also don't like taking the pump through airport security - in fact I just don't travel abroad anymore. The arguement over whether or not it can go through a body scanner / x-ray just puts me off. I mean I know it can't but some airports apparently try and force you to go through.
I've been abroad a handful of times since I had the pump and always found my blood sugar was in the high 20s after going through the airport due to how stressed it made me. So now I just don't bother. That combined with the worry of the pump breaking whilst away and the faff of connecting it and disconnecting it all the time for swimming (technically it is waterproof but I've never had it in water) and then going high because I've been disconnected and then low later from activity and heat. It just becomes one long endurance test. Even more so than life is usually just living with the condition every day.

This is very interesting, fellow T1's I know on pump therapy positively rave about it. I'm hoping for one myself in the future.

Hi Pippa
I've been on pumps for a long time am doing have always loved it; it's just this latest model which is worse than the others. It's so much bigger. I do still have my previous pump so could return to that, though it's out of warranty now.
Thanks all for your replies.

I used to rave about it but it stopped working for me. I know a few people who have gone back to injections now.

You can take a pump break when you like don't have to tell clinic. Take it off for two weeks see how you feel.

I too get fed up with mine regularly. Don't know what to ask my clinic for instead! Medtronic Ones are rubbish, but I don't know what else I'd like.

They're stopping making animas ones so there's accu check or omnipod. The accu check combo I had five years fab pump very sturdy built to last it never let me down once

Check out the omnipod - very small in comparison and tubeless. Life changer.

I have a 640, it's definitely bulkier than the Veo, it doesn't especially bother me but then I live in jeans and it goes in a front pocket on them, mostly. I've been pumping for 14 years and don't intend to ever go back to MDI if I can help it.

If you let Medtronic know you're travelling abroad, they will loan you a spare pump to take with you in case of breakdown while you're away.