Why Minimed is far superior to Animas

I am no technology geek, but I am a Mom who has worked with both Minimed and Animas pumps. Unfortunately, my youngest was so little when he was diagnosed that the Animas was our only option at the time, as Minimed pumps did not deliver small enough increments of insulin. I don't want to seem ungratful for how the Animas pump has helped our lives, it was certainly better than no pump at all, but given a choice, I would pick a Minimed any day of the week. Below, please find a list of things that bug the heck out of me about Animas pumps...

1. It delivers the insulin too fast. Slower delivery allows the insulin to absorb properly into your site. Fast shots of insulin creates "Pooling" and sometimes the insulin does not fully absorb.

2. The buttons you need to push to give yourself insulin is ridiculous. (1)Ok to open screen, (2)Ok to open menu, (3)Ok to bolus, (4)scroll down to carb smart. (5) Ok to open carb screen. (5)arrow up to open carbs. (6)Ok to enter carbs, (7)Ok to add blood glucose #, (8)Scroll up to enter BG, (9)Ok to enter BG, (10) Ok to show result, (11)Scroll up to manually enter the number of units the pump tells you to give, (12)Ok to enter number. (13)Ok to Go and actually deliver the insulin. INSANE! Compared to Minimed's 6 buttons. Bottom line, young children cannot give themselves insulin with it, as compared to my 5 year old excelling on the Minimed pump.

3. When you replace the battery, a full rewind is required. Which requires many more buttons to push and an alertness that is not always available 1:30 in the morning.

4. Changing reservoirs and sets takes far less time on a Minimed than an Animas. The Animas sets are hard to work with, luckily you can use Minimed quick sets with the Animas pumps.

5. The black cap would often come loose and we would get the infamous "Pump is not primed,no delivery" message. Which again, requires many more buttons to push to fix, including priming and sometimes a full rewind.

6. The customer service at Minimed is quicker and more efficient than Animas. We broke a Minimed pump once at 8:00 on a Friday night and the new pump was at my house by 11:00am the next morning. Once an Animas pump broke and we had to wait 3 days for a replacement.

We were blessed to receive a Minimed pump for our youngest yesterday. Now the three pumps will be the same, making life easier for us and our extended family who work with the boys pumps as well. L has officially given himself his first bolus, (supervised of course,) and it is such a relief for all of us. J is elated that he can now help L give himself insulin, and I am elated too, my life just got a little easier, and that is nothing but a miracle.