Yesterday, I apparently didn’t get any insulin after breakfast ( not sure why), when I checked at lunch my BG was HIGH. The PDM said it couldn’t bolus when the BG was HIGH. Excuse me, but isn’t that the most important time to get more insulin? I changed the pod and gave myself an injection…and skipped lunch. I don’t understand the the rationale of this setting in the pod. It is so counterproductive! Any suggestions for me or am I just not understanding that there is something else I need to do?
I would call Insulet about this. I’ve never had it refuse to give me insulin for a high glucose (I’m not sure if I’ve ever had it read HIGH though…). If it’s that high you should probably be giving a shot anyway as it’s absorbed faster but it sounds to me like something might be set up wrong on your PDM.
I ahve had this happen to me only once and the way I got around it was to put in a lower BG manually, I think that 500 is the top it will read, so likie 490 etc, and it will give you your required Bolus, if all else fails, cary a vial of insulin with you and an needle and inject yourself manually. Hope this helps and I hope that you do ont ahve anymore highs.
That is how it seems to work, strange as it is . It’s happened to me, when I cheated and had an ice cream without enough of a bolus. What I did, was put in a ‘reading’ of 498. I was then able to give myself what the PDM suggested plus a tad more.
It worked. I also don’t understand why it won’t read anything over 500, which CAN happen.
I would bet that it can’t make a bolus calculation off of a non-numerical reading.
I have not had this happen for a high reading either, but I think the same type of thing is occuring when you have a BG under 50: it won’t let you bolus.
It’s like what Ginny mentioned, that it can’t calculate it b/c it’s a non-numerical value (you could be 501 and you could be 1001, and it doesn’t know…and obviously there would be a difference in bolus amounts between those two numbers).
I would suggest just exiting that screen (involves pressing “cancel”, I think) and then trying to “bolus” after that, but enter a number just under 500 to get the maximum benefit (b/c you’re at least that high). Sorry you had to deal w/ a high BG like that…I know it’s never fun and doesn’t feel very good either 
Maybe a safety issue in case pod is occluded? Maybe when super high, PDM is configured to refuse to bolus so you will use syringe instead?
I would guess that HIGH means that the reading from the glucometer is above what the glucometer is certified to measure. Therefore the PDM doesn’t know what your reading is and cannot calculate your bolus. You can give yourself a manual bolus by selecting:
Bolus > No (at the prompt “Use for bolus calcs?”) > No (at the prompt “Are you going to eat now?”) > Use the up arrow to select the number of units > Enter > Confirm.
You might have to wait a few minutes for the HIGH reading to go away so it doesn’t show at the “Use for bolus calcs?” prompt. You want the display to show “—” (three dashes).
If I recall, the reasoning was:
- If it’s too low (below 50), obviously you shouldn’t bolus.
- If it’s too high (500 or above), many meters are not precise/certified in that range, so the BG reading could be incorrect and, therefore, delivering a bolus could be risky.
You have the final decision, so if you REALLY want to bolus, you’re allowed to bypass that safety feature by using the suggestions from Brad Ringer, Bradford or Dee.
Thank you all for the responses! I appreciate the help. I have been on the pump (Omnipod) since the 9th of August, so I am still new to it. Luckily, I didn’t feel really bad at the time and the injection I gave myself worked pretty quickly. I will keep all of this in mind, should it happen again. Unfortunately, this is something we must deal with at times with the pod…it is worth t though!
when your bg is HIGH…and you can’t take insulin…that means it is too high for the pdm to calculate and you have to go to the bolus screen and correct for a 500 bg. HTne, check it an hour later, it should have come down. COntact your medical provider for more information or call omni pod themselves.
I wonder too if it is in the pump settings where it has the maximum allowable bolus? That would limit how much you can get at a time.
Also, Gil I would disagree with you a bit on your comment about, “- If it’s too low (below 50), obviously you shouldn’t bolus.” That is one of the few things I find wrong with the Omnipod.
If my BG is 30 and I want to eat a bowl of ice cream at 100 carbs, it should allow me to bolus for that amount and subtract out the amount that would be required to get me to my goal of 100. My previous two pumps, the Cozmore and Animas Ping did that automatically. If I didn’t take enough to get it to my target it would give me no insulin but if I ate enough to take it over my 100 target that was fine.
Not arguing with you. it just doesn’t make sense to me. If I eat more than what I exactly need to bring me “up” I have to calculate it by hand and when I am low that isin’t always a great idea.
I’ve even call Omnipod about that as I thought something was wrong with the meter. Just a different philosophy I guess.
What are your thoughts?
Hi Ron,
I think the OmniPod has a maximum bolus setting.
Yes, I agree that user has the final word. You should be allowed to bolus when your BG is 30, and going to eat, if that’s what you want to do. In that case, an extended bolus should be fine, to give the carbs some time to act.
Cheers,
Gil