First day on the Pod!

Diabetes Technology Insulin Pumps
1

Well, I took the leap. :-)

I met with my CDE and Omnipod trainer last week, but thanks to a mix up between her office and my endo, I didn't have my new insulin or approval to start pumping.

My CDE was great and spent about two hours with me going over the OmniPod system and evaluating all my numbers and coming up with some base settings to start on. She gave me some saline and we hooked up my first pod. I spent the weekend still on MDI and simulating with the PDM. It went well and by cranking down my basal and bolus numbers (for instructional purposes only), I got the pod to last a full three days and then put on a new one on my own.

I met with my endo on Tuesday and she was surprised that I hadn't started pumping insulin yet. Guess some faxes got lost in the telephone network. :-(

Anyway, she provided some beginning pump values that were even more conservative than what the CDE came up with and I left the office with two new vials of Apidra. I waited until just prior to dinner and filled my first pod with real insulin. Since I was talking my Levemir in a split dose twice a day, we just ramped my basal down 50% for the first 24 hours to compensate.

I was a little high (160-240) through the night and most of the day today, but towards the evening when my sensitivity gets better my numbers came down to the point where I started to get a little low and got to reward myself with a few twizzlers. :-)

I'm going to spend the next few days with the conservative numbers and see how my body adjusts to switching from MDI with Levemir and Novolog, to a constant pumping with Apidra. I do like the fact that whenever I'm high I can just take a reading and bolus without having to reach for a needle.

I will follow up with my CDE on Monday and we'll see what fine tuning adjustments I can make. I also follow up with my endo a week from Friday for another review as well. I know my sensitivity changes throughout the day, but both my endo and CDE seem to think that the switch to pumping may even that out as well.

Thanks for the great information and advice and I'll keep updating.

Alan

2

Good luck,AT. Hope all goes well for you.

3

Welcome to the collective. ;)

My short ride so far has been interesting, but good overall. I hope your's is good as well.

4

Congrats and good luck! It will take you a little while to get your basal rates & I/C ratios setup, but it's well worth it!

5

Good luck. Keep good records and give it a little bit to get things tweaked.

6

Good luck! Just remember that your endo will need to make some adjustments to your basal & carb rates along the way. It took me a good 6 months to get everything tweeked just right. Now on the Pod in my 3rd year & I still need some minor tweeking now & then.