I have had a reoccurring problem with my omnipods and was hoping to get input and see if anyone else experiences the same thing. Basically after a couple days of wearing a pod on days when I am working out or have to do very physical labor at work, my blood sugars begin to go very high and I often have to take 2-3 times the amount of insulin to get my blood sugar to normal levels. After I come to the conclusion that it was not my error (not taking enough insulin for a meal etc) there is usually either blood in my observation window or a bruise/scab where the cannula was inserted and often times the area becomes painful and very sensitive to any pressure on the pod. My best guess is that the weight of the pod being jostled around is damaging the tissue around the cannula causing bleeding and a clot that is keeping insulin from being properly distributed. It never happens on the first day I have the pod on so I know my insulin is good and my ratios are correct.
Honestly Iām thinking about ditching the pod and going back to the freedom of daily injections as I often am very wary of the omnipodās reliability. At least with DMI you know that you are getting your insulin and that if you hit a bad spot you wonāt have to live with the repercussions for 3 days. On more than one occasion I have intentionally kinked the cannula on an active pod to where no insulin could get through, delivered a large bolus, and no alarms sound at all. You think this would register as an occlusion. This is very concerning to me (and the reason I ditched the terribly unreliable gen1 pods for a few years)
On a side note, anyone ever ditched the omnipod for DMI and been happier?
Ugh. Thatās a bummer. It sounds like youāve carefully diagnosed the issue. My only input is to perhaps suggest a difference placement of the Pod. If the bruising/clotting/bruising is due to activity, maybe a different spot on your body would be less susceptible to jostling. Just a thought.
Are you able to try another pump? I have far less site issues with my Medtronic than I did with Omnipod - either a site works or it doesnāt, unlike with the pod where I found at any moment a good pod could go bad. I think MDI would be very difficult for exercise, since you canāt lower your basal rate.
When I have been trouble shooting in the past, I got rid of my pump just to get rid of āhardware failureā as one possible source of system failure. I found that I still got BG jumps of 300 points during exercise, so I was able to conclusively say that, most of the time, its just me (not the hardware). I am also pretty tough on hardware, so it was worth it to try MI.
Too many failure points is my biggest complaint about pumps.
Also, I run high when I work out intensely with weights and go low if its a light run. I was told my liver is converting stored glucogen into glucose in response to the stress. Of course the glucose has no insulin to back it up so it sits there in you blood stream. I compensate for that by giving myself a couple units right before a hard workout.
I have a tubed pump (Tandem now and before Accuchek/Disetronic) and have been on one for about 19 years. I couldnāt use the Omni pod for a few reasons, but I imagine it would only exacerbate the issues I already have with regular infusion sets since one probably is only allowed to get even fewer pods than infusion setsā¦
Exercise and other physical activity, sweat, and water are the absolute bane of pump sites. And of course the extra device and possibly tubing if not on an omnipod gets in the way regularly. That is probably one of the biggest things that is having me consider MDI. Another being how unreliable insulin delivery can be due to infusion sets and/or sites randomly going bad so control is very inconsistent.
Thanks everyone for your responses and I apologize for the late reply. After two more pod āfailuresā (not giving proper bolus due to blood clots and site trauma) I have had enough and am going back to MI for awhile. I think the biggest culprit for this is my current job. I work in a large pistachio orchard and am constantly riding quads and karts around quickly on very rough ground. This really rattles your bones and my pod too! I donāt remember having this problem often at all when I was at a desk job. I think I will give the pods another go when I move to VT in the spring and most likely have a lower impact job. In the meantime I will stockpile pods for the lapse in insurance I will face during the move Wish me luck as I go back to the needle. Iāll let you know how it all works out for me Thanks again for your support!!!
Wish me luck as I go back to the needle. Iāll let you know how it all works out for me