I am switching over to Minimed Revel on wednesday. Mostly bc of the cgm,my A1C’S have been getting bad over the last couple of years.
The pods have been driving me nuts, so many deactivations…occlusions…ect.
And big and bulky. I knock mine off when getting in my car/ sitting on the couch. just rediculous! I leave the PDM at my desk at work a lot too. (Not Omni’s fault…but still). I feel like when you are in that last 8hr window of usage it holds back insulin. My BG is always elevated in that time period.
Let me know how it goes....I'm always curious about switching to the other side, but I think I'd hate the tubing after having the omnipod for 3 years .
Agreed. I have been thinking about it. The last pods I’ve had in the last two months have been really bad. Randomly alerting and I have to take them off. Just had my first occlusion. And I had 5 pods poop out on me when I was on vacation.
I’m worried I would hate tubing though. Iveonly ever had the omnipod. And I like howit helps me feel “less diabetic”. Cant see it and I can just leave it be on my arm. Idk…maybe I’ll switch this summer. Let us know? I have the dexcom cgm. What tubed pumps work with dexcom?
I switched from the Omnipod to an Animas for similar reasons as you, plus the cannula kinking. I'm a professional dancer and the omnipod just wasn't working. I thought the tubing would be annoying but it's less annoying than all the problems from the omnipod! I'm glad to switch but it all depends on what you're looking for in a pump.
I had a minimed with tubing when I was 12. I switched because the no tubing wasn't ideal for me because I played sports when I was younger. But I am definitely sick of all the errors. Ive been reading a lot (not just on here) and a lot of people seem more satisfied with the minimed. You can wear your site on your arm/thigh and hide the tubing in your clothes - same with the sensor so that is nice. I also like not seeing my pod, but when I wear it on my back I just look like I have a tumor.
I don't know a lot about dex com. I don't know if they can communicate with any pump system? I guess if you wanted a tubed pump it would just work seperately from the dex just like the omnipod does. That's what is so appealing about the revel - the two communicate so your pump will alert you when your BG is going up/down.
I get hooked up Wednesday so we'll see how it goes. I'm going to keep my omnipod just in case I can't make due with the tubing.
I hated the tubed Disetronic so have been willing to put up with the O'pod's character quirks. As to the last 8 hours of the 72 problem, I finally figured out 3+ years later that it wasn't the O'pod but the insulin (Apidra) I was using that caused the problems. I switched to Novolog in January 2012 and feel like I've discovered the Holy Grail. Novolog gives you a 6 day window of viability of insulin in the reservoir as opposed to Apidra and Humalog which only give you 2 days. Lots of the people on this blog say that the Minimed CGM is not very reliable. I use a DexCom and it's not perfect but better than nothing.
I’ve never heard that about the Novalog. I’ll have to snatch a sample from my doc!
Thanks for the info…Hope the CGM works out! If not I’ll just have to be more diligent about checking!
I think what I’m going to do is switched to a tubed pump for most of the time when I wear pants, etc. but in the summer and occasional (but rare) times I wear a dress, I will keep my omnipod and use that
That's kind of what I was thinking. If I give medtronic my Omni I get 500$ taken off the cost, but I think I'd rather keep it. Especially for summer time. Can't swim with a tubed pump!
Wow! I think the first page in my minimed user guide said "Do not emerse in water" =( Really inconvienant because I like to float the river which takes 6-8 hours..Def couldn't be disconnected that long. &injecting every hour isn't very fun.
No kidding! Being waterproof was a big reason (among a million others lol) why I chose animas. But you'll always have omnipod for those times so you're covered!
I've used Humalog ever since I started pumping back in 2004. I would wear my Ping for sometimes 4-5 days without issue. I guess I'm a weird one that doesn't have higher numbers in the last 8 hours of the pod's life. I would only experience higher numbers on my Ping if I let it go for that 5th day...
hi There read your blog a bit, my 11 year old is a dancer and on omnipod, pump is working well for the most part, but she still has low's during class that are preventing her from dancing her best, just breaks my heart... first competition this weekend and we really don't know what to do with her basal,,, any words of advice? it will be half stretching and waiting with bursts of runthroughs and performances ( 3 minutes) we tried a bit up from her regular class and rehearsal rates ( 50% decrease on basal) and she ended up getting low on that...
I bet that is fustrating. I think something like that just takes trial and error. When I am walking all day (six flags...zoo..ect) I set my basal to -75% and still sometimes have a low. When I go to the gym I just eat 25 carbs before and that usually is fine.
I know! Each one has it's pros and cons. Animas does have integration with Dexcom but it's only available in Europe. It'll be on it's way to the states soon...I hope! It's called the Animas Vibe.
Thanks! I hope you enjoyed my blog. I absolutely understand having lows (and highs) get in the way of dancing. I've had many a time that my artistic director or fellow dancers force me to sit down and I feel awful watching them dance without me.
What works for me is reducing my boluses by 50% if I am eating close to a ballet class, rehearsal or workout. In addition to that I reduce my basal. Rehearsals are stressful so I only reduce my basal by 30% for ballet since the adrenaline kicks in. Regular workouts like pilates would be a 50% reduction and high intensity cardio like running or swimming would be a 75% reduction. I also make sure that about an hour before a workout I eat something with 15g carbs as well as some protein. If I eat too close to working out I sometimes will have my blood sugar go too high.
This evil plan seems to keep my bg's steady 90% of the time, which is as good as it'll ever get for me!! I hope that helps a little. If you ever have any dance/diabetes questions I'll do my best to help.
