Went down to the Lancaster i Pumps tonight. Got out of work and utterly blitzed it home. Got to Penrith with spare time and even got to the meeting early. One of those nights I guess.

The big topic of the night was the new Medtronic 640G pump with a presentation from Medtronic with help from local test user of the pump Dave Sowerby.

Not actually being able to use one I can’t actually say how well the Smart Guard hypo prevention works when really pushed in my usual inevitable taking things to the limits, and then take them a bit further just to see how far they’ll go. But still it did look a nice touch.

So getting to fiddling with it for five minutes. The new user interface and general feel of it is improved. The ability to create presets for various things is a very nice feature. Bolus Wizard has been tweaked, it always was good but seems better still now. Being waterproof is great, and long overdue as we live with British weather! Shining a torch on the screen seemed to work as a test to see if it’s readable in bright direct light…seemed pretty clear even then so that’s very nice!

The pumps heavy reliance on CGM sensors was discussed, which is always a hot topic as to can we or can’t we get them out of a hospital. With its Smart Guard needing CGM sensors all the time that really will depend on how the NHS becomes more open to general CGM sensor funding for all…that as we all know is best not holding your breath for. It does work without the CGM sensors, yet without them it really just becomes another pump with a colour screen, and a software upgrade.

So do I like it? I honestly don’t know. The portrait layout of the device compared to the landscape format of all the earlier models will make it more difficult for me personally if I had one mounted on my arm as I usually do. But only as far as I’d need to have more slack tubing in my arm pouch so I could rotate it around. That could in theory at least result it tugging on it and make it rotate while on my arm but this really can’t be known until it’s tried in use.  Am I putting how to attach it to me over actually it’s features and use? Probably.  Would I like one? With the CGM sensors yes for the Smart Guard, without them hmm, not overly sure…maybe *shrug*