I’m new here. I’m on an Animas and Dexcom G6. In a couple of days I’m getting a free trial of the Omnipod (available for Animas users.) any tips?
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Welcome @Dr_B. I have not used Omnipod, but there are many here that do.
You may want to edit your topic title to include “omnipod help”.
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Welcome to TuD, @Dr_B! My Omnipod experience is dated and limited, so I will let others with more current and longer experience weigh-in here.
I took the liberty of adding to the topic title so that it attracts the attention of Omnipod people.
This is a community of people who have deep experience living with diabetes and also believe in our ability to help each other. I hope you stick around to take advantage of what we have to offer. Good luck!
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Welcome @Dr_B!
I use the OmniPod and love it. I’m sharing a few recent threads about OmniPods that might help you gain some knowledge.
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Good luck!
My son has been a user for about 12 years. Tips for someone just beginning - be mindful of placement - if you wear it on your arm, for example, that’s probably a new experience for you and you may have to adjust how you walk through doorways to be sure you don’t knock it off. Gosh that sounds dumb, but it’s something Caleb had to do. Also, if you are using new sites, like arms and legs, you might find absorption better. Be familiar with how IOB is calculated if that’s something you rely on. Remember that there’s a hard shut down, unlike tubes pumps that you can use far past the three days if you wish.
Definitely check out the conversation’s @Tapestry has shared, and come back and ask any questions you may have!
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I did the Omnipod trial, and so glad I did. My only problem is the cost, but it’s so worth trying to figure that out. All the bad things I have heard about pods hasn’t happened, and the freedom to move around to different sites is so worth it to me. My hands were getting more arthritic, so infusion sets and I were not getting along. PlUs, they always failed on me early. I’m notu using nearly as much insulin as I suspected (even tho I am on low doses and you have to fill the pod pretty well i dont see any real waste issues. ) I run the pod for the extra 8 hours after it expires. Customer service has been good, trainer was excellent. .
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Best of luck to you. Its always frustrating/nerve wracking adapting to new tech. I’m worried your trial period may not be long enough to get passed the difficulties that always accompany new tech. How long is your trial period?
I’m a fairly long term Omnipod user, so do not hesitate to ask and I’m sure we will all try and work quickly to help resolve issues as they pop up.
I’m an Omnipod user, but I’ve never used another pump so I can’t give a comparison.
But I absolutely love it. I don’t see me ever switching to a pump with a tube.
First no tubes!!! You can get in a shower, go swimming in the ocean, etc and you just don’t have to worry about the pod. I’ve only ever had one come off and that was because I made the mistake of putting it at my pant line and my jeans were pushing on it constantly. I lay on it in bed asleep with no issues of it not working. And it’s small enough generally it doesn’t show up under clothing (for me). You forget where you put it even. I remember asking my old Endo’s NP who was also a type 1 that wore an Omnipod if she ever had issues of it staying on if you wore it on your leg and she said never, she does it all the time and started patting herself all over trying to find were she was wearing it. It was on her arm. I find myself slapping myself looking for it too!
I’ve never had an infection, sometimes a slight irritation. I do remember listening to a woman once that said she for some reason she couldn’t wear them on her stomach as she was prone to an infection when she did but she was fine anywhere else and had no clue as to why. I do always wipe the area with alcohol before putting it on and right after I take it off. I usually wear mine on my stomach.
They work better in some locations than others for me, but I’m sure that is the same with any pump usage. But the control is really easy to use and give yourself insulin with or without entering carbs or your blood sugar level. You don’t have to be within a certain distance for it to maintain giving your basal rate. I’ve only had 2 pod failures over the past year, and they do replace them.
A few things to pay attention to, room temperature insulin should be used, and don’t over fill or under fill the pod. Your insulin can come from a pen or a vial. They last 8 hours past the expiration, I do it all the time because I hate wasting insulin so I try to use it up so to speak. Plus the last 6 units for me just don’t work as well, whether it’s not really there or has degraded from body heat who knows. And real important lol, there is a young lady that has a utube video that shows how to disable a pod that is shrieking at you. This happens and I know this from experience when you forget to change it and it goes past the 8 hours after expiration!
The link
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