This morning, I had my first gusher. I let my pod ride out it's last "extra" 8 hours and woke up to the alarm this morning, fumbled for my PDM, and ripped off my pod in the usual fashion...except this time, there was quite a bit of blood on the adhesive. And when I looked down at my back, there was blood pooling on the bed sheets and literally spurting from my insertion site!
I've had a little bit of bleeding before, but NOTHING like this! Has this happened to anyone else? How can I avoid this happening again...it wasn't exactly the most pleasant way to wake up this morning!
All I can say is that sometimes you have a "gusher".. It has happend to me, but perhaps twice in over 2 years of wearing the pod. I always, if it's convenient, let my pod stay on the full 80 hours. I think it also depends on where it's placed.
I don't think it's anything to worry about other than being "messy"....
It's happened to be about 3 times over 3 years. Not too bad an average, I guess, but never fun. I don't know a way to avoid it, save maybe trying to match the angle of extraction perfectly to the angle of the initial insertion, but I figure I hardly ever do that and it works without a problem most times.
I have not had any gushers with the OmniPod, but did with my other pumps. I was told that it may be related to my bs being on the low side when I changed the pump. Not sure if this is true, but that is what I have been told.
Huh? I get 'podded' tomorrow. Gushing blood doesn't sound so great. Guess I will be careful when removing the old pods. That would upset me greatly to wake up covered in blood. 8>(
I've been using then OmniPod for 2 years now, and this is the first time it's happened...I wouldn't be too worried! I just posted to make sure I wasn't doing anything terribly wrong!
Right. It's very rare. For me, 3 in 3 years works out to be one instance of bleeding on removal of the pod every 120-150 pods or so. I've never woken up covered in blood, just had some localized bleeding after removing the pod that stopped in a minute or two.
Don't sweat this! Every pump has this issue. We literally stick the infusion site in us as a "shot in the dark" - you cannot be sure to miss hitting a blood vessel. That being said, I've only had one in 10 months. No big deal. I just sat with a paper towel for a few minutes until it stopped and then sported a lovely bruise for a couple days. It was surely a surprise, but in the grand scheme of things - no big deal. Good luck with the pod training today!
Wow! Nope, never. I've had plenty of bleeders, a couple of times a month maybe, but nothing like that.
Glad you are ok.
Leaking blood has only happened to me once in the 122 pods I have used so far. Of course, that one time was when I ripped one off at work because it ran out of insulin and the pod was screaming and I didn't have my controller near by to shut it up. So, I ripped it off, tore it apart, pulled the spring out, stuck it back together and shoved it into my pocket and went back to whatever I was doing. Several minutes later a co-worker started freaking out because there was a giant wet blood stain on my shirt because I hadn't noticed that it started leaking blood when I ripped it off. Amazing how much blood can come out of that tiny little hole if you are taking aspirin every day...
Now when I take them off, I have an alcohol pad and paper towels ready, and it never leaks..
Sigh,
I've had this happen just once and have also been podding for about 2 years. Not sure there is anything you can do to avoid, just happen to have the insertion site hit a vessel...it's a bit alarming when you realize your leaving a blood trail. Think some sites are more prone to this, for me it was on my side of my stomach that it happened. Don't think it will happen on the back of my arms.
One time. Back of arm. Streaming out. GF almost passed out when she saw it.
I think this has happened on a rare basis to all Omnipod users. My daughter has had these happen twice over the last two years.
I've been on the pod for about four months and had a pretty heavy bleeder once. I'm new to pumping so this really caught me by surprise. This one time was the one instance where I've even had as much as a drop of blood when removing an expired pod.
I get them probably once every couple of months, I just always have a paper towel handy when I take the pod off. For me it seems that when I have a painful insertion site, feeling like the cannula is stuck directly into a muscle, thats when I'm going to have a "gusher"
Thank you so much for posting about this! I saw it a few weeks ago, and it helped alleviate my anxiety when it happened to me. I only started not even 1 month ago on the Omnipod (first pump) and had blood in the cannula. When I removed it, there was SO MUCH BLOOD! And it just kept coming! Your post prepped me on the possibility of this happening so it wasn't as scary as it could have been!
Wow. I have only just started 'podding' Dec. 1, 2011. I am so glad to read this as I'd probably have a cow if that happend. This last pod hurt more than usual when I put it on. Hope it isn't a gusher. I had my first defective pod too the other day. Figures it was the first time I did a pod change at my job. Ypes. Started to beep like koo-koo. I had just put the insulin in so I just pulled it out and put it into a new pod that worked correctly. Called OmniPod and a nice lady said they just do that sometimes and promised to send me a replacment pod.