Started on the pod yesterday afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised that I barely felt the cannula insertion. I was expected a slight pain but it really was virtually pain free. No problem with the adhesive yet. I was a little anxious about it ripping off while I slept so it took me awhile to fall asleep. Finally fell asleep and when I woke up this morning it was still firmly attached, so yay!
Here are my BG readings since the pod was activated.
1st meal 85 premeal, 98 2 hours after meal
2nd meal 84 pre meal 93 2 hours after meal(about half hour before bedtime so i didn't do a pre bedtime test)
I did go low about an hour and a half before my second meal. Had a 59, probably becase i was pumping but still had some Lantus in my system from the day before.
i woke up at 2:50 to check it again and it was 48(yikes) took some glucose tablets, rechecked 20 minutes later, it was 59(still yikes) took one more glucose tab, ate some peanut butter, drank half a glass of milk and fell back asleep. checked again when I woke up in the morning, it was 146. ate breakfast, checked 2 hours later, it was 163. took a correction bolus and I will check again in about an hour from now.
I know there is an adjustment period going from MDI to the pump. How long did it take you guys to get it right?
I started on my Pod (my first pump) in February of 2009, it was around January of 2010 that I finally stopped having the absurd nighttime lows. What really made the difference for me was my CGMS, it let me see when I was going low so I could properly correct it. I’ve never been good at waking up in the middle of the night to check (unless I wake up naturally 'cause I’m low). I’m still fine tuning it though as I find I have different insulin requirements for different times of the year. (my insurance is also forcing me to switch insulin’s this month so that’ll change things too…). I guess what I’m saying is it’ll probably take you 1 to 3 months to find settings that work fairly well, then the more info you get the more you’ll adjust those settings. The real glory of the pump is that adjustments are just a matter of hitting a couple buttons, no needles, no waiting for 24 hour insulin to wear off, and the settings can be saved so you don’t need to worry about forgetting you changed your insulin dosages. Good luck, it sounds like you’re doing fairly well (but might have too much basal late night / very early morning). Keep noticing your trends and stay in contact with your doctors over the next couple months.
wow! excitement, adventure!
congrats on going on the pod! i actually just switched to the omnipod about a week ago, but i was pumping for 5 or so years already on the minimed.
you will probably just need to fine-tune your basal rates. before i went on the pump, i had no idea that your body would need different basal rates at different times of day. hopefully you are working with someone who can walk you through that.
definitely give yourself lots of time to adjust! i don’t know about the residual lantus or whatever, but it does sound like you are running on the low side, so you might want to reduce your basal? it’s a total trial-and-error process which can take a while but will be so worth it!
Hey…Your first few tests were awesome!! Sounds like your doing pretty good and like the other posts just keep track of numbers and I’m sure with a little adjustments you’ll get it. I would think the lantus might have had a little effect with some of your issues. How long was it from your last shot of lantus till you started on the podd?? I’m starting my podd in 12 days! So I’ll be right behind you, so we can figure this thing out together. I was asking my doc how long I should get off the lantus and she thought I should stop about 36 hrs before I get there so I’m going with that. Good luck and stay in touch…As Newbies we can report what works and doesn’t !!
Congratulations!! The OmniPod system is a very simple and straight forward way to pump your insulin. I love it!! Everyone, of course will have a different experience while getting settled down. My endo had me take 1/2 of my usual nighttime Levemir then my usual mealtime Humalog before starting the OmniPod around 11:00a. I had instructions to check my BG before every meal (duh) and 2 hrs after every meal…bedtime… midnight…3:00a…8:00a… I was worn out …BUT, it worked out very well. You’ll have some…perhaps many, tweaks to your basals. When everything is as correct as possible, you’ll feel better than you have in a long time. ,
Well I had my first technical difficulty today Plugged my PDM into my computer to upload my numbers to send to my trainer and got a message: PDM error replace pod now. I called insulet, they were very helpful, but it was a memory corruption error, so my settings and data was all erased. I had to reprogram everything…good practice I guess. And insulet is going to replace the pod I had to replace early. I had to bolus for breakfast, but the pod was still giving me my basal, so I waited until lunch to change pods. It was somewhat awkward trying to take the pod off of the underside of my arm, but I got it, and got the new one on with no problems.
The good news-the last dozen times I’ve tested over the past day or so I’ve had one low and the rest of my numbers have been in range. Minor technical difficulty aside, so far so awesome!
I had taken my last Lantus dose the night before, so i wasn’t too surprised to get a few lows.
Congrats on starting soon. I did the interactive training that’s on the Omnipod site and read the tips on this site and they both have been tremendously helpful, I suggest you do both before your training.
Like anything I think there is a learning curve but it’s great that your numbers are in range, guess that’s the important part. Glad to hear that Insulet is good to work with, I’ve heard that a number of times and from some people that I spoke to on the Podd if you ever have a problem like this or a bad Podd to call them and they are real good about replacing them. I talked to a guy that for some reason his PDM screen cracked and was all blacked out so he could read anything on it. He as on a business trip, called insulet and when he got home there was a new one waiting for him and they did not charge him for it, not sure it’s standard procedure but it does speak of there reputation. Glad to hear you seem to be doing good with it!! Take care…I’ve got a few days to go so I’m sure I’ll run into something like this also!
Plugged my PDM into my computer to upload my numbers to send to my trainer and got a message: PDM error replace pod now. I called insulet, they were very helpful, but it was a memory corruption error, so my settings and data was all erased. I had to reprogram everything…good practice I guess. And insulet is going to replace the pod I had to replace early. I had to bolus for breakfast, but the pod was still giving me my basal, so I waited until lunch to change pods. It was somewhat awkward trying to take the pod off of the underside of my arm, but I got it, and got the new one on with no problems.