Omnipod made diabetes a larger part of my life
Insulet's goal to "make diabetes a smaller part of your life" is an admirable value. Yesterday I decided, after giving the Omnipod a five month trial, that Omnipod was making diabetes a larger part of my life!
I have been having trouble with pod-change highs and this community has given me lots of advice on how to deal with them. Thank you for that. I think I found an effective workaround using a 7 unit syringe bolus at the time of the pod change. That seemed like a drastic amount compared to many others here but it worked for me.
I also experienced problems with unilateral pod deactivations and occlusions. It was an occlusion early yesterday morning that made me decide to finally give up on the Omnipod.
The night before I went to bed with normal blood glucose but was awakened in the middle of the night with a 180 alarm. I took a correction dose via the pod and went back to sleep. When I rolled out of bed in the morning the pod sounded a continuous screech. I quickly checked the PDM and discovered an occlusion report.
My CGM showed that I was over 200 for the last eight hours. In years past I survived these situations with few symptoms other than the usual grogginess and the more general "blah" feelings.
Now, however, my gastroparesis rears its ugly head. I'll save you the impolite details but I doesn't take much imagination to understand the nature of my distress. It was no way to celebrate Thanksgiving Day!
I pulled the final occluded pod off of me and hooked up my old Animas Ping, out of service since last July. It took me until noon to get my BGs back into the normal range; I spent over 12 hours above 200. Yesterday's occlusion was the final straw for me. I gave the Omnipod plenty of time to prove its merits. For me, at least, it failed. While my experience with tubed pumps also included occasional absorption problems, the Omnipod was giving me these problems a couple times every week. I was adding hours and hours of unnecessary hyperglycemia.
I understand that the Omnipod system works well for many here. I think that's great! When I started on the Omnipod last July, however, I was well aware that a significant slice of attempted Omnipod therapy adoptions failed. I read about them here and elsewhere.
The system, however, intrigued me. It's use of wireless technology and elimination of tubing attracted me to try the system. Access to new sites also motivated me. Insulet offered to sell me the PDM for $200 and bypass my insurance. That allowed me to try the system without having to make a four year commitment. I am now especially grateful for that. I am still eligible to buy a replacement for my four year old Animas Ping and my insurance will cover it.
I read many idiosyncratic reports about not wearing the pods cannula down, problems on certain body locations. It seems everyone had their own personal list of do's and don'ts that sometimes seemed capricious and superstitious.
I made many calls to customer service, sometimes for my personal education, to learn how to effectively use this device. The customer service was very good about replacing pods when one of them failed. The thing that I could not understand was Insulet's deliberate decision to keep me in the dark as to the actual meaning of the alarm codes that they wanted me to read to them. I'm very much a hands-on technical "under the hood" kind of guy. I want to know how something works and why!
I filled out an Insulet online survey recently and I wrote a few sentences in the box supplied for general comments. I gave some details about my pod change hyperglycemia. The form asked if I wanted to be contacted by Insulet and I responded "yes" and filled in my email address. I never did get a response to that.
I know, I know, I know. We all go to great lengths acknowledging that each of our diabetes varies. But my experience with the Omnipod is congruent with many before me. Omnipod suffers from some significant (and yet to identified/recognized) design flaws that Insulet doesn't seem to want to talk about. (What's up with those large size air bubbles that I found in several of my discarded pods??!) I just wanted to go on the record here so that future Omnipod prospects will see the challenges that one person experienced. And maybe my experience will influence, in a positive way, the future development of this patch pump.
Tags: Insulet, Ominpod, alarm codes, occlusion, pod change hyperglycemia, pod deactivate
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by barend on -
Hi Benjamin, I have just started wearing the next generation pods. They are about 2/3 the size of the old ones. Still bigger than the DEx sensor but aonther step forwards in the right direction in my opinion.
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Permalink Reply by Benjamin McLaughlin on -
I was going to ask the same question. When and where.
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Permalink Reply by jattzl on -
Hi Benjamin, Looking on barend's profile (the person who just started on the next generation pods) - I see that he is in the Netherlands...at least we know they do exist. I was told they were in use in Europe but no timeline as to when they will be available in US.
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Permalink Reply by garidan on -
Just to understand, which is the ratio between your basal and total insulin daily dose ? I guess the higher the basal the worse high you get on pod change.
Do you change pod just before a bolus ? They say it helps, cause a bolus gives enough insulin to "start" the site and giving a little more insulin is less prone to hypo. -
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Permalink Reply by MaryMary on -
Not sure if the question was for me or not, but my daughter's basal at the time of her pod changes is 0.6. I really don't think that is a factor though, because parents of little ones with super low basal rates seem to report much higher numbers, some all the way to HI on their meters.
I did just have an AHA moment though. These problems for us seem to have gotten worse since she stopped taking Metformin. That may very well have something to do with it.
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Permalink Reply by Benjamin McLaughlin on
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Just wanted to update on my situation. Turns out I just needed a little week vacation. AFter a week on MDI, I realized how much I missed the instant calculation and just ease of giving a bolus. As I have said before, I have always thought the pod has controlled my diabetes as well as MDI, I think I am just going to have to take a small vacation every 6 months or so. I have been back on the pod for 2 days now, and even with the unfortunate cons that come with it, the cons of tubes or hassle of MDI's far outweigh the pods cons, for me at least.
I can't say enough how much I enjoy this site and the ability to read other people's stories and experiences. It has been one of the most helpful thing in my short stint as a type 1.
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Permalink Reply by Steve D on -
Last week I saw a "reply" in this discussion group chastising everyone for filing complaints vs. the Omnipod and that the pod had "changed his/her life for the better." and why didnt we just accept the pod for what it was and shut up! The response is missing now, so I guess the repondant thought twice about the admonishment and removed the comment...(?) I just wanted to say to this person (whoever you are.....CONGRATULtions ON FINDING THE ANSWER FOR YOU!! THAT IS WONDERFUL, But, bare in mind that there are many people who dont FEEL THE SAME AS YOU. And, I havent asked Manny this question personally, but I believe that the very PURPOSE of these discussion boards are so that product improvements can be developed and released! Typically, these improvements come from complaints/suggestions from the Users themselves! So, bear in mind, these people complaining are not taking aim to insult YOU....we all want to see improvements that will make all of us happier!
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Permalink Reply by jattzl on
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Steve D -Thank you for expressing the same thoughts and feelings that I had when I read that response. This is a forum for support and learning from ALL experiences not a promotional site for one system or tool over another.
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Permalink Reply by Scott Wilkins on -
There's a fine line between helping and just blowing steam though. The latter does really nothing to help anyone. We've got two persons here that seem to feel the need to force feed everyone here their opinions and scream as if they are the solid truth. For them, maybe. But for the rest of us, not so. For the majority, not even close. These type of posts are not to help, but do more to hurt. If one does have a problem, finding answers is great. But those posts in this thread are not answers.
One person told me long ago that the "deep analytical personality", that is those that overthink problems have a trait in that it's not that they don't want to be wrong it's that they, in their mind, can't be wrong. Even when they are wrong to an extreme. They will go to any length to force their self beliefs off on others with strong words and extreme efforts. Even to the point of hurting others. We seem to have a couple of those here. Sad for the rest of us we have to have them here I think. There is no help in this type of behavior. There are no solutions to their problems. Instead of just leaving Omnipod and calling it quits, they have to be vindictive and hateful. This helps nobody here who truly needs help with other problems they may face.
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Permalink Reply by MaryMary on
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I don't know if any of these comments are directed towards me or not, but I don't really care. I am not blowing steam, and I feel as if what I am saying here can help someone else, and maybe all of us in the process. I have been on the phone with Insulet and the endo's office upwards of 15 times now, and I know for a fact that the problem is Insulet. The first two people that I spoke with dropped the ball, pure and simple. The second one was not even informed that the cut the cord program was only a 2 year warranty. She kept saying that she was sending a fax, and then did not. I finally got a call from someone that knew what he was doing, and sent the fax with me on the phone. Then called and verified that the doctor got it. Thankful for Gerald for sure. I was at my wits end by that point.
We are still having issues but I don't want to give up on the Omnipod, so I will continue to work on things. I would have had no idea of how people deal with post change highs to even know where to start if it were not for forums like this. Every product out there that you google will have people that love it and those that hate it. Omnipod is no exception. People know enough to investigate further and make up their own minds.NO one here that I have seen has said that Omnipod is a bad product and to steer clear of it. It, along with any other pump has people that for one reason or another cannot use it successfully. It is too bad that some people can't stay respectful of this.
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Permalink Reply by jattzl on
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Wow. I'm very disappointed in some of the posts on this site. I don't know who they were directed at but I agree with you, Mary. I thought it was very disrespectful of each individuals experience. Good or bad, any information can be beneficial. The comments could have been directed towards me too but we can't take it personally. Hang in there Mary and I'm glad you have gotten the support you are looking for.
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