I am one of those hardcore Cozmo nuts. Have you ever met one of us? We’re easy to spot. We usually have an old Smiths Medical Deltec Cozmo insulin pump that is well past its warranty period, is a bunch of different colors (from “Frankensteining” parts off other broken Cozmos), and might even have some duct tape or superglue holding it together. The Cozmo was taken off the market back in 2009, and many of us have been unwilling to let go.
But I have been open to trying new pumps and had an opportunity to try the Asante Snap recently. I wore the Snap pump for about 30 days, which put me through the exercise of changing infusion sets, loading cartridges, and installing new pump bodies for a month.
Each time I got a kick out of how it all worked.
My favorite part was twisting the tubing connector onto the pump body, which triggers the auto priming. As soon as I twisted that piece on, insulin was pushed from the pre-filled cartridge all the way out to the end of the tubing. It was fascinating! I literally chuckled out loud every single time. I even made my family watch.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXrq8-0WC3U]
I also liked how easily the pump traveled. Having a pump body, a pre-filled cartridge of insulin, and the Conset infusion set packed really well. Small, uncrushable (within reason), and pretty much self-contained. The only thing I had trouble with is handling sharps from the Conset (but I think one of those BD needle clippers would work well).
In terms of pump features, nothing in the world stands up to Cozmo. That being said, I didn’t find myself missing anything while using the Snap pump. It handled all of my basal rates just fine, all of my insulin to carb ratios and correction factors worked well, and my use of temporary basal rates for exercise went without any trouble at all.
I can’t say that my diabetes management is fine-tuned enough to tell if the Snap pump made any appreciable difference in my numbers. When switching out one pump for another, I wouldn’t expect to see anything drastic.
There were no surprises through the duration of my trial.
When the trial was done, and I was preparing everything with my Cozmo, the magic of the Snap pump hit me. I was sitting there waiting for the push-rod in my Cozmo to rewind and pull the cartridge full of insulin inside. Waiting, waiting, waiting. It felt like forever. It all seemed so ridiculous after using the Snap for the past month.
When I think about the steps involved with my Cozmo, it doesn’t feel like a lot. It doesn’t seem like it takes much time out of my life. Not that I had ever noticed, anyway. But in comparison, the Cozmo (and I’d argue most other pumps) experience is clumsy, cluttered, slow and leaves a bunch of wrappers and garbage. The Snap experience is easy, fast and contained.
I’m sold on it. Now I just need my insurance plan to cooperate.
