Mini-Med Revel & CGM

by Tom Haake
(Centreville, Virginia)

I upgraded to the Revel pump from the Paradigm Pump, and have found really no differences at all, not even the simple ones, you would have thought they would have made.

With the actual pump itself, I have had little to no problems at all. The only problem with the pump has been an occasional failure in the infusion set, which I have had. The phone in staff is helpful with those problems, and I have learned a great deal from them in my calls. My advice here is if you do have a problem, on the call, when they ask you to return the infusion set or products, ask for a letter of resolution on their findings for this problem. That way you will know what they find.

The CGM is a bit of another story. I used it with the Paradigm Pump and it was large and cumbersome at best. I finally gave up on it and stopped using it. With the Revel, I have committed to try it again and while the transmitter is much improved as far as size, the sensors still provide many problems. I have had some good ones that were extremely accurate and reliable, but have in my opinion had too many replaced by them. As I type this, they have requested my supply be sent back, and are sending me 5 replacements sensors. That may be a good thing, and yes they are very good about that, and maybe I expect too much, but they should just work.

I love the fact that BG reading upload to the pump. The pump also accepts Nova Max monitors (which replaced BD) and that is what I use as I don't really care for accu-check. One of the things I would suggest if asked, is when you have a BG reminder on the pump, and then do a BG and it is transmitted to the pump, the reminder "should be" canceled. I would love to see them incorporate that into the next design and upgrade. The Bolus wizard works great, but you have to stay on top of it, and monitor the trends in your control to make sure it remains correct.

Overall, I rate it a good pump and it has helped me, but at times does frustrate me, so there you have it........ I hope this was somewhat helpful, and should you have questions, please feel free to drop me an e-mail @ thaake@cox.net