YpsoPump MyLife Updates

Last weekend, I attended my first in-person blogger conference since the end of 2019. It was exciting, and in many ways, just what I needed! I travelled not too far to London to the YpsoPump Mylife Diabetes care Blogger Event. It was an intimate gathering of nine bloggers, podcasters, Tic Tock’ers and Instagrammers, and included some new faces and some faces I knew well online. I finally got to meet Kamil who is Nerdabetic on YouTube, Type1Dan Newman and Beth and Ellen the @DiabeticDuo from Belfast, who you might remember from all over the news with their Tic Tok videos of getting ready to go out dancing with their Libres a couple of years ago.

Here are their details if you’d like to know more:

I do accept that these weekends are about product updates and sales pitches but we are always treated with respect and as hugely valued members of the diabetes community. For me personally, these events are good for my mental health, my soul and my heart. 

So before I get to the product update and discussion around feedback from users, I have one public service announcement relating to travel. 

I live a 15-minute drive from Shannon Airport on the west coast of Ireland and I have been unable to use it since about 2018 because travelling to all the major European cities requires transfers meaning that it would take me twice as long to get to my destination than driving to the other side of the country to Dublin Airport to fly direct. So I was absolutely thrilled that this trip to London was doable from Shannon. 

My flight was scheduled for 7:40 am and at:

  • 6:05 am I left my house

  • 6:20 am I arrived at the airport car park

  • 6:40 am I was through airport security and waiting for gate information, and that included a quick pat-down at security. 

It was a dream! My return flight was delayed by an hour but I landed in Shannon at 5:20 pm and was home by 6:20 pm. Fly Shannon, (as much as you can), it’s easier. If my future includes more air travel I hope Shannon will have expanded its services to make it possible for repeat experiences. #FlyShannon. 

OK the important stuff. 

The event started at lunchtime which helped some of us get to know each other a little before the meeting. Once we were well fed and watered (it was a very warm day in London and sunny, so air conditioning was required). 

The first part of the meeting focused on personal sharing; what makes me me, why did I get involved in blogging, etc and a dark secret. No, whatever happens at D Blogger Con stays there. I will share that we had some hilarious moments around the table and some “OMG yes!” moments. I choose to share that I was going through a particularly long period of advocacy burnout and was hoping that the weekend would really help me get out of that funk. But I think this burnout is a bit different in that I have almost lost all faith that diabetes care will improve in Ireland and that I was tired of trying. 

This is not really all that unusual - I think we all have moments where we need to step away temporarily. But this episode for me just felt a bit harder to shake off and I was hoping that this weekend and my people would help me find the light and optimism again. It did help!


Then we got to the product updates where we jumped on our gracious hosts Zara and Alex with our many, many questions. After this, we got to have a play around with MyLife Loop demos and I did not take any photos or videos but guess who did? Yep, Kamil, have a goo here. 

The Product Updates

I really should have done a bit of homework on what stage the YpsoPump is at in Ireland but I think I’ve got a handle on it now.  YpsoPump is one of four insulin pumps available in Ireland if you count the Roche Accu-Chek Pump which is being phased out.

PS if you’re not a pump user but you’re curious here’s a starter page on what an insulin pump is and how it works as well as some of my personal experience posts which can be found in the blog search box.

MyLife Loop with CamAPS

The big news is that MyLife Loop, the hybrid closed loop is due to launch in U.K. and Ireland in June 2022. This actually took me by huge surprise as the partnership with CamAPS was only announced recently so I assumed it was years away. I did repeatedly ask so you mean it will be in people's hands? And but has it gone through HSE approval?? The answer was all the conversations that needed to happen with the people they needed to happen with had taken place and the launch date means approved dates. However, years of eagerly awaiting device updates have made me sceptical of specific dates even when it’s rounded into an entire month, so this is an estimated ETA!!!

Image from MyLife Diabetes webpage https://www.mylife-diabetescare.com/en-GB/loop-program.html

MyLIfe Loop is the YpsoPump with Dexcom G6 integration and CamAPS algorithm to automatically adjust the background insulin to keep you in range. The website states that it will “Automated correction of high and low glucose values with the aim to increase time-in-range based on predicted glucose levels”

It will be fantastic to have three closed-loop insulin pumps available in Ireland soon, now we just need to add a patch pump to this list to increase choices in pancreatic devices ;-)


MyLife Dose 

MyLife Dose will allow bolus calculation and remote delivery from your smartphone, which is what I currently have with my DIY Loop. This update is planned to be available in August of this year but I include the same scepticism disclosure as the product above. 

You will find a bit more information about both of these products here.

This was the official part of the event finished and we were then treated to the Van Gogh Immersive experience up the street which was thoroughly enjoyable except for the heat then back to the hotel for a short break before an amazing dinner at The Granary.

As always the group want to use every precious minute to talk about diabetes and life so I was really glad of the breakfast the next morning for more talking and absolutely loved having the company of Dan and Kamil for most of my journey back to Heathrow Airport. 

Disclosure- Ypsomed / MyLife paid for my travel and accommodation. I was not required to blog or post about my experience and all thoughts are my own.