Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lorraine on June 5, 2012 at 6:27am

I don't blame you for being apprehensive! When Caleb starting pumping (five years ago) I remember a couple of occlusions early on - worry, worry, worry. It's been years since we've had an occlusion, and I've never been able to figure out why that happened back then.

We occasionally have a PDM error - perhaps I should say rarely. It's frustrating when that happens bc the connection between the PDM and Pod are lost, and as you were told, the bolus function is therefore lost.

What I have noticed is that the PDM errors tend to coincide with low battery. Even though there is a low battery alert, I find it can be a little too late. So I keep on top of replacing batteries.

I would definitely take them up on the new PDM offer. We had this issue with a PDM that was a few years old and since it was replaced we've been fine.

Good luck!

Permalink Reply by mikep on June 5, 2012 at 6:33am

Hi Beth.

Definitely hear your concern. I can tell you that I've never had a PDM failure being on the Omnipod over 2 years now (knock wood). I did have two pump meltdowns on a Minimed pump over a 10 year period, so it's definitely something that can happen with any pump.

Permalink Reply by Eric Rizzo on June 5, 2012 at 6:35am

PDM errors like that are a rare occurrence. I've had only 2 or 3 in 4+ years of 'podding.

Permalink Reply by Jim on June 5, 2012 at 6:41am

I had a PDM failure recently and all of my settings were lost. (Keep a written copy of your settings somewhere safe!) They sent me a new PDM, but I ended up sending it back because my existing PDM worked fine after I reset everything, and it continues to work well. One thing to make sure you do is use Energizer batteries. For some reason, they are a little longer than Duracell and fit the PDM better, making them less likely to turn off intermittently. I certainly understand your concern, but in my experience, such occurences are extremely rare. Is it possible for you to make sure someone accompaying your son knows how to change a pod, if necessary?

Permalink Reply by mikep on June 5, 2012 at 6:47am

Good point Jim. Energizer batteries are the way to go.

Permalink Reply by Eric Rizzo on June 5, 2012 at 7:16am

We all have different experiences, but I'll just say that I never use Energizer batteries in my PDM. I buy the cheapo ones at Walmart or Walgreens and they work great.
I have seen some people report that you can adjust the battery contacts in the PDM so that the batteries fit a little more snugly; I did that a while ago, and it's been a LONG time since I had any sort of battery issue.

Permalink Reply by Celeste on June 5, 2012 at 6:53am

We had the PDM fail like that once (on a Friday night)- had to reset and change the pod - that was about a year ago - PDM was working fine after that (though that did get me to order a backup - my 5 yr old - then 4 is very resistant to shots - the idea of giving her shots over a weekend while waiting for a replacement was unbearable). We did have some communication errors with this PDM early on but that improved once we started using Energizer batteries consistently.

Permalink Reply by Jacob's mom on June 5, 2012 at 9:12am

hi beth, i believe we have had only 2 pdm errors, they are a hastle but once you know what it is it is pretty easy to resolve. i believe the energizer batteries are more reliable and we have had no issues in this regard for a while, a bummer it happened right of the bat for you, my confidence would waver a bit also, but hang in there, there will always be bumps along the way, check this one off as been there done that and now you know how to fix it. best of luck! amy

Permalink Reply by ahe05a on June 5, 2012 at 9:13am

I've had two kids on omnipods for 4 years. One PDM has failed one time and the other 2 times. Before that we had the Minimed for 4 years, and I think it maybe failed twice in that time. I would take them up on a new PDM also. We use Energizer batteries too.

Permalink Reply by Scott Wilkins on June 5, 2012 at 11:25am

I'm new to Omnipod, but no PDM problems so far. The nature of any electronic device is that 0% failure is not possible. There will be bad ones. At least Insulet is good and fast at customer service on issues such as this. That is how you rate any electonic component maker these days, is their service. Also, at the recommendation of my Doc, I also keep an extra Insulin Pen around, just in case.

I have had a couple pod issues though. One that died early with the beep of death. It's currently in the freezer, cooling off :) And I have noticed that each pod seems to have a different maximum radio distance. I've had one that I had to have the PDM almost touching to send bolus and changes to. And some that seem to communicate easily across the room.

And, I use the dirt cheap alkalines. No problems there either, and more than the 2 week normal battery life that most talk about. As one person pointed out to me once, the name on the battery case doesn't mean much these days.

Permalink Reply by Beth on June 5, 2012 at 11:27am

Thank you for the replies. Alex will start pumping insulin tomorrow and we will try to be calm regarding the pdm failure and hope it was just a rare occurance and bad timing. They are sending a new PDM, however, it won't be here in time for the start up. I will decide whether to send the old one back or keep it and send the replacement back. The batteries were industrial energizers that came with the pdm and the battery power was indicating "half" after less than a week.

Permalink Reply by smileandnod on June 6, 2012 at 12:30pm

Hi Beth, I hope things are going well for Alex today! After 25 years of injections, I've been on OmniPod for about 3 months now.

My pdm had a communications error one night on a friday night and I had to reset - same situation as yours where it keep giving basal until I changed the pod. I was a little annoyed at the time because it was late and I was tired.

I didn't lose any of my settings except for having to reset the time and date. As a caution to everybody, be so careful if you have to reset the time. As I said, it was late and I was tired so I mixed up the am and pm when I reset the time. Getting your daytime basal rate at night and your nightime basal rate during the day doesn't work so well.... I'll be more careful next time. :)

I haven't had any problems at all with my pdm since then. Just for peace of mind, you may want to put fresh batteries in Alex's pdm right before the field trip even if it's not time to change them. I definitely think there's a link to the battery when this communication error happens because the first question the OmniPod customer service rep asked me that night was if the battery was low. Like yours, mine was a little less than half when it happened.

Don't let it get the best of you, though. I have way more good days than bad days with OmniPod and I'm still very happy with my choice to go that route.

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