I love Medtronic

I really do--and no one made me say that! I'm talking about their customer service (not the pump). Though I will say I like my pump a lot as far as insulin pumps go, but I can't actually claim that it's the best because I haven't tried any others.

Medtronic's customer service is AWESOME. I've never had a bad moment with them and they are always so quick to respond and deliver--I love it!

Last Friday, I had 2 fails. First, my sensor does NOT seem to last more than 6 days. I don't know what it is, but after I re-start it on the 7th day (the Medtronic sensor times out on its own every 3 days), it just goes wonky. And by wonky, I mean one minute it will say 109 with 2 arrows down and the next reading will say 240 with 2 arrows up. A little unnerving. That's usually when I know it's time to change it because if I wait all day for it to "right" itself, it never happens. Eventually it will just lose the sensor and refuse to be renewed. I gave it the benefit of the doubt last Thursday and didn't change it...until finally it said, "change sensor." Of course it was in the middle of the night and I was not at my house, so I couldn't switch it out.

The next morning, I tried to test my blood sugar...my meter counted down like usual, and after 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, I got a "WARNING. CHANGE BATTERY." Um, what?! Thanks for wasting my test strip, meter. So I take out the strip, turn it on...it will turn on and perform functions, but it will NOT let me test my blood. I swear I've gotten this warning before and it still lets me test--that's why it's called a warning! It's warning you of the battery being low...and if it's able to turn on, I don't see why it won't let me test. I pulled an old trick I use on the remotes and switched the batteries to their opposite sides. It doesn't work... The meter is too smart for that.

I checked my purse...no extra battery. No access to my supplies since I'm not home yet. And I didn't want to drive without testing first. I felt fine, but didn't want to chance it. And I've found that if I worry about going low while driving, chances are my brain will trick myself into thinking I am low. I took the battery out of my pump and put it in the meter....test...97. Put it back in the pump and headed to my car, only to get the beep of "failed battery test" from my pump.

I drove home, grabbed my stash of batteries and replaced both in the meter and the one in my pump. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, and it's not, but I just don't want to deal with this sometimes, ya know? So one problem was fixed...now I just needed a new sensor.

I had called Medtronic the day before to order new sensors. One nice thing is you can order supplies yourself, so it's pretty easy to just get what you want. But the automated response told me they wouldn't ship for 2 weeks so I talked to someone and she ensured me they'd ship out Friday and be at my house Monday. Awesome. I have 2 sensors left so shouldn't be a problem. Also, I was happy with the fact that I got my last shipment in November, which means I managed to make my 3-month supply last about 8 months (I think I took a month off though at one point).

So, I prepped my skin and tried to insert the needle...something weird happened and the needle didn't go in all the way. I don't know if the inserter got stuck or I wasn't placing it right, but the needle only went in half way. I stared at it for a second before deciding to pull it out and toss it. Ok, no problem, I still had one left. I prepped, inserted...and the SAME thing happened. Hmmm. This time I decided to just manually push in the needle until the tape sticks. So I did and it looked ok, but my pump did not find the sensor after many, many attempts.

I always feel a little lost without my sensor working, but it's kind of nice to get a break from it too. But much to my surprise, my sensors DID get here today and once again, Medtronic came through for me. Hopefully I've learned my lesson--make sure you always have at least one extra battery on hand...and don't wait until the last minute to order supplies--even when you think you should be set!