Curious, in our first month we had three failures upon priming and one actual alarm after 48 hours…
Then in our second and third month we have had not a single pod failure… Pods manufactured in October and November of this year. Perhaps I am jinxing ourselves, but I’m curious if anyone else has seen reduction in failures and alarms?
I did appreciate the meticulous quality control questions and level of detail that customer service went into, did give me confidence in their feedback loop!
My daughter's been on the OmniPod for almost 4 years, and we definitely had more failures when we first started, I don't think we do all that much differently now; maybe we were just more aware of it and more frustrated by it in the beginning. I think I usually call in about 5 pods a quarter, so probably about 2 pods a month. And, of course, that's not including occlusions, because they don't replace those. I bet she has at least 2 occlusions a month. So, statistically, I guess that's not so great, but it's still better than shots or a pump with tubing, I think... We're a couple of boxes behind, so we haven't gotten to those made in Oct. and Nov. yet -- hope you're right that they're getting better!
I lose somewhere around 1 in 10 pods for various reasons. Most of those are replaced. I have the odd occlusion event but I haven't had one yet that I couldn't trace back to site choice issues.
Overall, I'm pleased with the quality control but I'm never without a little bit of trepidation when it comes to pods. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to pod failures. I'm travelling now for about 10 days but I have an entire month's worth of pods with me, just in case.
I'm almost to my first year of pods. I have had one lot of pods that most seemed to fail (L30630), but if you exclude those the failures have been very few. Most failed to fill (2xbeep) or prime.
Just finished my first two boxes... no pod failures at all, no occlusions. I lost 2 pods due to my own mistakes...1 due to fumble fingers (tangled the adhesive) and 1 due to pressing start too soon (before I put it on!).
I'm gong thru the same thing now. I am half way thru a box. Everyone has not beeped twice when I fill it. I carry my pen with me just in case. I have been using them with no problems (bad bad me).
I can go throw 3 boxes without a failure, but occassionally I will lself terminate a pod after a day if i feel that I am not getting the insulin reaction that I should be getting, for whatever reason. For example, I just had a perfect week of BG readings, then after changing a pod this moring my BG readings kept going up all day! I concluded I had a less than ideal infusion site so I just terminate & used a new pod at a new site & my BG came down immediately!
I had WAY more issues in the first two months! I am convinced that the majority of the issues were user error :) Once I figured out how to use the system for my body, the incidence of incidents drastically decreased! It doesn't mean that I never get issues, it's just that they are less frequent.
Our CDE said that there was a Lot (L30630) that they have had a lot of problems with and that we should call everything in. In this last box we have had more errors than we had in the prior year. All Alarms (not occlusions) and No Two Beeps on Priming.
We were doing so good that we had a surplus of pods and are probably hitting this error problem later than most people.
Our CDE also said that the new pods had passed FDA approval.
Hi Natalie.
my 13 year old daughter has been on the pod for 6 months. usually have one pod a box that doesnt prime correctly or give 2 beeps . Had only one alarm from pod while on her body, and had 2 strange things happened with the PDM, one happened after we reset the clock in November due to time change on east coast. The PDM stopped working the next day, had to call and reset with a paperclip where the battery compartment is. They told me this almost never happens or maybe happens once a year, then it happened 6 weeks later 2 weeks before christmas so I said if this almost never happens and it happened twice in 6 weeks, I want a new PDM, so no problem they sent me a new one. I have always had the ones that dont prime correctly replaced so , I guess in 6 months I have had 6 pod replacements, I dont think that is all that bad. We still love omnipod, and I have hooked up with a local rep , who is a big help if I have questions. She recently showed us how to use the extended bolus feature, a good feature for teenagers who graze at parties!!
Ha Ha Natalie!!! You better go "knock on wood" or "throw some salt over your shoulder"!!!!! (Btw, I'm doing those things right now;). We went through a HORRIBLE 9 months with pod failures and NO it wasn't "user error". Pods failing on priming, failure after 10-20 hrs of wear, and pods just seeming like they were not working correctly. HOWEVER, this last shipment has been going REALLY well and I have put my inclination to move my daughter to another pump on the back burner. Hope all continues to go well with you too!!
I've wondered the same thing, and actually asked Insulet on the data on pod failure rates (they wouldn't tell me). I had 3 failed pods in 3 days. One I had with me as a spare pod in my purse, and it randomly started continuously beeping. The next had continuous beeping when I injected it with insulin. (I took the insulin out and filled a new pod with it). Last night, I had blood in the viewing window and was told I had to replace it. Had a HUGE gush of blood from the site. Was SO glad I had read about it on tudiabetes, else I would have freaked out! They are replacing all 3.