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.
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.
My insurance copnamy paid for it 100%. My endocrinologist said that I needed it for my pregnancy to keep my blood sugars down, since I had my daughter they are still paying for my supplies thank goodness. My A1c tests after having the pump when I was pregnant went down to normal non-diabetic levels, but since I had her they are back to 5.9 and just three months ago they were 6.3. I have a Deltec Cozmo from Smith’s Medical and they did wonders helping me get mine. A friend of mine has a mini med and now he wants a Deltec due to the ease of using it and the injectors are very easy to use they are called the Cleo 90 s.
I have cozmo too. the year i got it they discontinued the thing. I love my pump, but now i’m starting to feel like i should of gotten the animas or something else. I dont have health insurance right now so the cozmo is getting rather expensive. they only use their own cartridges which even on a whole sale website cost 100 dollars. sigh! what kind of insulin pump should i change to once i get married and gain some kind of benefits from my fiance’s job?
Yay for another Cozmo user! 🙂
All pumps only use their own cartridges, so there’s no way around that. As far as which one to switch to, I’m afraid that’s a choice that only you can make. Each company can send someone out to visit with you and teach you about their pump, and each company can also take a close and detailed look at your benefits without any cost or obligation – it’s definitely a service worth taking them up on.
And take a look at some of the great community sites like TuDiabetes.org or DiabetesDaily.com – there are lots of users there you can ask questions of and see what they think.
Hope that helps a bit!
I’m giving it a try next week, even getting training. I think its been twenty years since I waited for the training, before unwrapping. Great to see you at CWD, hope all is well.
SR
Sweet feature. It’s true that you don’t know how tedious something can be until something else comes along to show you that.(now, if I only had my own personal diabetes robot who would do all these tasks for me…) Wishing you luck with the insurance co-surely they should approve this, they haven’t payed for a new pump in forever,right?
Thanks for the review, Scott – I always love to hear about the new things that are out or coming out. The only question I had has already been asked and answered here by people who aren’t as behind on blogs as I am – LOL – which was about the types of insulin the cartridges come pre-filled with.
Apidra works so much better for me, I would hate to give that up!
Oh Snap! That pump sounds awesome. Thanks for the review.
Thanks for the review, Scott. Honest question here: If it applied, would you switch from Novolog to Humalog to use this pump? And if your insurance company didn’t cover Humalog as it did Humalog, what would you do?
That is a really great question, Mike.
I think it would depend on how much more my copay would be. My monthly costs would already be slightly higher than on a traditional tubed pump (greatly balanced out by the much lower initial price of Snap).
If the copays were expensive, that might be enough to keep me from switching.
That being said, the team at Snap are very much aware of the need to work with either Novolog or Humalog, and are working on it.
Sometimes, we grin and bear it when we face the same tedious processes day after day, for six years. It becomes a routine, albeit a relatively easy one.
Then one day, something comes along and shows us what it’s like to NOT have to do that routine, and we wonder why we wasted so much time for so long.
Your experience and “revelation” with the Snap is kind of like how I see the evolution of diabetes technology – mving towards the AP – overall. It’s great to pile on more and more features, but the goal is to make life EASIER and more free, and it seems the Snap does just that.
Wishing you luck with getting insurance to cooperate, and then looking forward to hearing more feedback about this new guy on the market.
News flash. The earth was knocked off its axis the day that Scott K Johnson abandoned his Cozmo pump.
I’ve never heard of either pump either? Anything that does the job insulin wise, but is also easier and leaves less footprint is worth checking out though. (That’s what I’m doing now.) Thanks Scott!
The Snap sounds cool. My kids have been Animas users since day 1 of pumping. Well until right now while my daughter is using a pump that I can’t blog about because its a trial and not approved by FDA yet – sadly not the Snap – although if any Snap people are out there – my kids love being test subjects. sorry Scott – bad plug. I hope insurance plays nice. I hadn’t even heard of Snap before – hope to see and hear more soon. My daughter’s warrenty is nearly up and while she loves her Ping she is debating a switch to the T-Slim. I will say that holding the button on the Animas to prime is a little bit of a pain – I always seem to let go to soon or forget that it needs to be held down. 6+ year you would think one wouldn’t forget but alas – we do sometimes. The remote bolusing in the Ping will be very hard to give up if she decides to switch. Currently I need to roll her around or wake her to set a temp basal or give a correction bolus. Ever tried to roll a teenager around while they are in a deep sleep – its like playing Russian roulette with a bear.
Can’t wait to read and see more from Snap.
Thanks for sharing.
want.
“It doesn’t seem like it takes much time out of my life.”
I can’t help thinking about standing in front of the microwave impatiently waiting for something to heat – as if I never had to wrap leftovers in aluminum foil and stick them in the oven for half an hour.
I thought the snap looked pretty cool and one less (or shorter) step sounds great! I hope you can get your own soon.
Very cool Scott! Six years and still using my Cozmo. -Lloyd
I thought you would never leave the Cozmo lol! Thank you for sharing your experience with the new pump. I love hearing what others think. Good luck with the insurance!
Scott… welcome to 2013!
(comment provided by someone who purchased his first mobile phone two years ago)
Great recap… this is definitely on my radar to try when my current pump’s warranty expires.
I LOVED my Cosmo!! Was the first insulin pump I ever had, and I wore it proudly (in green!) for close to 10 years. I cried the day I had to switch, and tried the Animas Ping first, which I quickly ditched because it only held 200 units and I was used to 300. So, off to Medtronic Minimed I went, and so far, it’s been a fairly easy transition.
Thanks for your review on this pump, Scott! It does sound really cool. It’s sort of how I feel about the Omnipod. Granted, I switch off so much, but going back to it now I see how much less “stuff” there is compared to other pumps. I don’t think I’ll ever get a chance to use the Snap, but it sounds like it’s a big step towards making things more simple for tubed pumpers!
oMG Scott! I cried when I had to give back my Flashy Blue Cozmo because they went out of business. It was so dramatic to let go. i know how you feel. But it is time to let go, I guess. That Snap pump looks great! Enjoy!
I’ve never heard of either pump! Great to read more about other brands and companies that are out there. Good luck with your insurance.
Ash