I’d say your doctor’s opinion doesn’t mean squat because she is not a diabetic and thus does not wear a pump and live with it every day. Other patients having trouble is interesting, but…
The problems that have already been mentioned are show-stoppers for the Solo system in my book: no integrated meter, not waterproof, more complicated usage because of multiple pieces. It does some things better, but overall I’d have to see the meter and waterproof issues addressed before I’d give it a serious look.
And those kinds of things are not something that a doctor can really speak to unless she is a diabetic pump-wearer herself - those are the everyday issues that you have to live with as a pumper but are hard for a non-pumper to understand.
This is great. I agree competition will drive faster technological improvements for the benefit of all users, thank god for CAPITALISM.
- no integrated meter-Big deal. To also carry a meter and manually enter BG…thats a show stopper.
- smaller Size: huge plus, biggest i think, but omnipod will likely catch up with its next generation. sleeping on current pod creates discomfort and yes you can see the outline under clothes at times.
- Not Waterproof- no big deal if you just detach it before bathing/swimming.
- Transferable insulin resevior - how much money will that really save you, cant believe very much.
- They will get users IF THEY JUST ELIMINATE THE “1 HR PRE-EXPIRY” OPOD BEEPING SEQUENCE!!
The preexpiration beeping sequence doesn’t get a lot of coverage, but it should because it is an annoying “feature” of the OmniPod. A single beep would suffice rather than the repetitive alerts that force you to disable the preexpiry alert with the PDM. I had the preexpiry alert go off during a meeting at work, and it was pretty #$@%ing obnoxious.
I happen to really like the preexpiration alarm. I set it like 12 hours in advance so I always remember to bring a new pod with me if I’m heading out the door to work or something. It’s also easy enough to change the times for things like meetings/sleeping/whatnot so you don’t have to have it go off as long as your somewhat aware. This is one feature that I definitely wouldn’t want to give up. I could stand for it not to beep every hour after it expires though. That alone is enough to get me to change it after 1 or 2 hours.
I’m with you, Eric. I don’t doubt that others have a hard time with pods falling off or being knocked off – and at the same time in the 1.5 years that I’ve been on the OmniPod it has never happened to me. Maybe body chemistry is a bigger issue than it might seem.
The same thing happened to me in the middle of a presentation to a group of my company’s best customers. All I could think to do was to keep talking, walk over to my purse and pull out the PDM, press the button, put it away and go back to the podium. Not one person ever asked me what was going on, either! 
I wish that the pod and/or PDM could vibrate like call phones can. Some day . . . .
To Spooky—
Don’t know if I’ve asked you this before…have you tried applying the pod on top of a sheet of Tegaderm???
My choice of words was a bit too inflammatory, but my underlying point is nonetheless valid: it is very difficult (I’d say practically impossible) for a non-diabetic, non-pumper to understand the impact each little factor can have on daily life. For example, even if a non-diabetic wears a pump for a period of time, that does not really make them understand the burden of having to carry two devices around for testing and bolusing, or of what it is like to be frustrated by an unexplained high BG. I’m talking about really understanding to the point that your life literally depends on it and your entire emotional and physiological state can be altered when something is off. As I’ve always said, pump choice is a deeply personal matter and I, personally, don’t put much weight in anyone’s opinion who is not diabetic.
Perhaps the reason that your doctor has had a number of patients with difficulties with OmniPod is due to her dislike of it; it’s certainly possible that she, without realizing it, provides less encouragement and support to those patients, or warns them of her own dislike before they try it, thus tainting their own perspectives from the start. Perhaps not, but it’s possible.
I called Omnipod today about this problem and I was told that it’s very rare. I told them that I know for a fact that it’s not rare, unless I happen to have contact with every person who has this problem, and very few who don’t. They told me they are working on making the adhesive better so it stays attached to the skin better. It was a completely inane conversation. Anyway, my point is, if you haven’t talked to omnipod specifically about the adhesive tearing, please call them and tell them - so they have more records of it. Even if you switch pumps - I told them about how the solo is attached to the adhesive much better, and the woman I was talking to didn’t even know what the solo was. Argh.
It’s not the problem with the adhesive sticking to the skin with my son - it sticks REALLY well. The pod actually rips off the adhesive. It’s happened to my son four times in two weeks (and not while playing sports, because we wrap it really well for those) Twice completely off, and twice partially off.
I like the idea in concept, but I think the execution is poor. The pod acts like it’s going to blow up when that preexpiry sequence kicks in. The option to disable it (or not) would be nice. At the very least, they could redesign the preexpiry alarm to provide sufficient notification with a bit less aggravation and intrusion.
I agree. I think it should be like a childlock feature that can be activated or deactivated as needed. Kind of like turning on BG reminders or something–I don’t need the pump to remind me to test my BG…I do it plenty of times throughout the day; I also do not need the pump to continue beeping like its about to blow up…
I received my Solo demo kit yesterday and was disappointed that you actually can’t detach the demo to see how the reservoir separates from the base. (or at least I couldn’t figure it out). Also, although it is smaller than the pod, it doesn’t seem that much smaller. I’m anxious to see what the new pods look like. I just spoke to Omnipod (calling in a failed pod-priming) and was told they still haven’t seen a prototype but that it’s being worked on. So I’m not holding my breath that we’ll see a new smaller pod anytime soon.
Another question—I may sound crazy but, has anyone noticed the beeps from pod to pod may sound different? Like it’s flat instead of sharp???
I don’t think the demo for the Solo separates…that’s definitely not going to stop me, as I’m planning to use my ‘demo’ in a little demolition experiment to see if I can look at the inside
I haven’t seen anything in print about when the new pods will come out, but if you spoke w/ the company and they still haven’t seen any prototypes, then I would wager they introduce them in early 2010 when solo actually hits the market (just my guess).
And yes, I’ve definitely noticed that the beeps from pod to pod are different…but when you are constructing really tiny speaker devices that are also disposable, then you’re bound to get some margin of difference in my opinion…
The small speakers makes perfect sense to me. I just thought I was crazy. Nice to know I’m not the only one. Let me know what you find out after dissecting the solo. Oh hey, guess what??? I was just looking at the solo again and I got it to separate from the base. It took a real tug…I wonder how that would actually work when the base is stuck on your body. Hmmm?
Please let me know what you think about the solo. I am in the process of getting my endo to let me try the omnipod. Says he wants me to be in more control. But I thought that was what the pump is suppose to do.
When you go on the pump everything changes and more control is possible. The problem is that with everything changing they need a baseline so they know where to start you. It doesn’t help to go on the pump with really low basal rates and be high all the time or to start with really high rates and end up passing out from going low. Most doctors start you on slightly lower rates than you’ll need and then bring you up based on how your body responds. But the major point it that if you don’t know where you’re coming from it’s hard to start on a pump. Also, the pump is much more sensitive to things like carb counting and corrections since it’s got all the calculations done to the hundredth of a point! I know how you’re feeling because I went through the same thing in February but your doctor’s not completely unreasonable here. Keep fighting for it and keep your numbers as well in control as you can and then if you’re doctor gives you problems then you can question them. But going into it knowing what you used to do (and that it worked!) makes figuring out what to do now much easier.
I am finally going to order my Omni pod on wednesday! Like Jon, my endo wanted me to get my BG down before I go on the pump. I have been doing really good for the last 6 weeks. I thought this day would never come. So hang in there Jon, get ur sugars under good control, b4 u know it u will b ordering yours too!
It does resolve some of the issues. I have been on the pod for 4 years now. However, forgetting your pdm and not having a way to do a bolus on the device itself is a problem. Omnipod should have seen this coming and beat them to the punch. The solo is much slimmer than the omnipod. However for many of us the amount of insulin it holds will be the deciding factor. Omnipod holds 150 units of insulin, good for 3 days for most of us. The solo holds less and may only be a max 2 days for many adults. However, the ability to take it off for hot tub use (a definite problem for omnipod) is a good advancement or if your working in a confined space where you might tear it off. However, I think omnipod could fix most of their issues just by adding a way on the pod to take boluses without the pdm. It doesn’t have to be a fine tuned as the pdm, just the ability to take .5 units per push or something as a backup.
The cellnovo coming out in Europe sounds very promising as well if they can get their funding online and geared up.
Actually, the Solo holds 200 units. And unless I was looking at a European site or something, it looks like they finally have a whole lot of new info on the web site.
Looks great.
Of course, my stupid HMO considers the Omnipod as Durable Medical Equipment (yes, the pods) and so no doubt they wont cover this pump either.