I've been a long time Medtronic Diabetes customer dating back to 2000 with my MiniMed 508. Over the years, the technology has worked well for me including the SofSensor, their first CGM. I don't take pump upgrades lightly. Every time my warranty is up, or there's a new pump on the market I do stop and take a beat and figure out if it's the right time & right pump for me.
Like many of you, I was uncertain for a while if I was going to upgrade from the 670G to the 770G. For the last 3 1/2 years I've been pretty happy with my 670G, and I don’t have the strong need to see my information on my phone screen. With the 670G, it did its thing in the background and most of the time the only reason I’d interact with it was to bolus for meals, or set a temp target to exercise, and to do a sensor or site change. In fact, I’m trying to reduce the amount of time I’m on my phone!
What made me take the plunge? A few things:
Bluetooth: I know, I know. Bluetooth has been around forever, and we all wondered why it took Medtronic so long to embrace this technology. That I can’t answer. But I can answer what it means to me:
Connectivity: Even though I said above that I don’t want to depend on my phone or have another reason to have it active, 3 days into the 770G it has been nice to be able to click the app and see how things are going vs. taking my pump out of my pocket. I can already see how this could be beneficial when I’m out and about more after the pandemic.
Share: I’m still uncertain about this one. I’ve had diabetes for over 40 years and it’s been mine. As a kid, diabetes management belonged to my parents. It's been mine though for more than 30 years. Of course my husband has been involved and is impacted but the day to day stuff is mine. I’m not sure I want anyone else to be able to see things on such a granular level, besides my health care team. Prior to COVID my husband and I traveled a lot – often together but more often separately. Him for work, me for fun. I can see the benefit of this feature for when we’re not together. I'll re-visit this in the future.
CareLink Upload: Through the MiniMed mobile app, the system sends information right to CareLink. What does this mean? It means not having to scramble the night before a doctor appointment to upload the data. It wasn’t difficult to do but something I had to make a conscious effort to do. Having this be done automatically may even entice me to look at the data more often!
Software Updates: This was a big selling point for me. Being able to have a software update instead of having to get a new pump is the icing on the gluten-free cake.
Warranty: My 670G warranty expired a few years ago due to a pathway from a previous pump. And while I’ve had good luck *knock on wood* with not needing replacements, it has been in the back of my mind for a while now.
First Impressions of the 770G system in manual mode:
I’ve now been on the 770G system for 4 full days, with 1 new sensor. While I greatly miss
automode, I’m going to stay in manual mode for the recommended 6 days so my system has a good set of data.
My first impressions follow, using the system in manual mode.:
Buttons: The buttons have a slightly different feel. They still click, but feel a bit muted than the 670G, which is a nice change.
Sensor start: Starting a new sensor is more streamlined. Less button pushes, and the “searching for sensor” message is gone. My 670G seemed to struggle a bit when connecting to a new sensor. It wasn’t broken, just seemed to be how things went. Not an issue with the 770G since they took that messaging away, and it connected quickly.
Sensor neediness: A common 670G day 1 sensor struggle I had, even with the updated transmitter a few years back, was a needy sensor experience during the first 8 hours with a new sensor. With the 670G I always had an extra required calibration. I’d do sensor warm up (2 hours) then calibrate. Then for some reason, at hour 3 after the warm up calibration, I'd need to do an extra calibration before getting to the 6 hour one. This has not been my experience with the 770G. <770G calibration schedule>
Automode: I’m waiting 6 full days before starting automode, so I’ll have some more to share when that happens.
Long story short, so far I’m happy with my new system. Feel free to reach out with any questions!