Changing Things Up a Bit with Loop Dev
I wanted to write a little review of my experience so far looping with the DASH pods! As of now, it is only for advanced users as a part of the dev branch.
Overall, I love it.
Mostly because It is incredibly nice to not have to worry about remembering my orangelink anymore. My favorite is at the gym – where I mistakenly left a rileylink on one occasion and an orangelink another…. :)
Not going to lie, I get stressed over builds too.
I had my first ever build fail which an awesome T1 buddy helped me work out (thanks Dave). I learned a lot from the experience, I tried again a few days later, not because anything was wrong with my current build but because I just wanted to practice. A few patients I work with also are running dev and a good bit also ran into some build issues. I was actually able to help with some….others, not so much. The people on zullip are amazing and incredibly helpful.
In my ~1 month of use, I’ve had one red loop.
I was using a pod that was over a year expired so I honestly think that was the cause. I like the way the therapy settings are laid out on dev (and 2.2.9 too) now. And I really like that if you put in a value that’s outside of typical recommendations, you’ll get either a yellow or red exclamation mark. It looks like they plan to put a support tool for therapy settings too which I’m really interested to see. As of now, its just in as a placeholder. One thing that almost got me in trouble is that the food type absorption times on the main emojis changed. It’s now, lollipop defaults to 30 min, taco still 3, and pizza is now 5. Additionally, you can now only enter carbs 2 hours into the future.
Now, the big question almost everyone I work with has asked is, “Kathryn, are you going to switch to the omnipod 5”?
Short answer is probably not. I’ll of course wear it for at least a month but I’m honestly in love with loop and the amount of customization I have over my management. The awesome thing is, it’s covered through pharmacy benefits so you should be able to get it and if you don’t like it, switch back.
Thanks for your review! You and I started on Dev at about the same time. My experience has been similar. I had problems with the initial compile (no programmer here either), got several red failures; finally realized my errors (RTFI-read the friggin instructions). I’ve tried both modes (Temp Basal Only and Autobolus). The two greatest things: 1) No PDM!!!! I didn’t realize how tied down and encumbered I felt; and 2) Sleeping thru the night with no alarms (I tended to slowly go low at night and once below 90-95 it was virtually assured!). I still need tot week my food bolus and learn to use the types better. I’m still a bit unsure about the pizza/slow setting whether it actually holds off insulin delivery or not, or if my interpretation of the docs is wrong.
I’m also making the decision of whether to try the Omni 5 or not, I doubt it could provide much improvement to my results.
Anyway, thanks for your report !
Thanks so much for sharing your experience, Kathryn! I currently loop with Eros Pods and I keep getting asked if I’ll switch to the “approved” system but I love the customizations, too. I’ll probably still with Looping for now, especially with the limited target range of 110-150 with Omnipod 5. It’s great to hear how you’re enjoying Looping with Dash!
Loop (dev) with DASH pods for the win! I’m loving the new found freedom of not carrying around an OrangeLink/RileyLink.