It's business strategy trying to use every possible means to be profitable so they can continue innovating and providing these products to us, for which I am extremely grateful.
The day someone here demonstrates financial data showing these companies (currently operating at a loss) are realizing rape-level profits, I'll jump on board criticizing them.
Until then, I will support them in every way possible to stay afloat so that I can have these miracles attached to my boy that are saving my life.
The issue, of course, is an overweening government, applied through the FDA. Because there are some who are incapable of managing this more complex situation than others, none of us have the option to manage such things conveniently for ourselves when we are capable.
The solution is to have an "expert" setting in the PDM that can only be enabled by an Insulet rep, and some optional training a user can request from Insulet a long with 4,627 pages of releases to initial and sign, several places on each page, so that we can have features like "total insulin management".
Kidding about the 4,627 pages. Not about the rest.
Of course, in a rational world adults would simply be responsible for themselves to begin with, and when someone played with some feature on a complex device like a pump that they had no understanding of, and killed themselves, we'd all shake our heads in sympathy for them and admonish others not to do this, rather than suing the manufacturer of the pump.
John, I have solved this problem by covering the entire pod with a 4x4 sheet of tegaderm. Under pressure, the air surrounding the pod goes in and out of the vent instead of salt water.
I've done dives to 60' for 45 minutes successfully without any problems, more than I can count. As such, it's pretty clear to me that the issue is water intrusion through the vent -- the rest of the mechanism is quite a bit more pressure tolerant (which makes a lot of sense).
A cell phone to replace the PDM and Dexcom receiver--this would be lovely! Right now my daughter has to shlep around a PDM, Dexcom receiver, iPhone, extra Pod, vial of insulin, alcohol and IV Prep wipes, lancing device, test strips, etc. If her iPhone could replace her PDM and Dexcom receiver, wow, just wow...
I did some experiments after I wrote the above too. Since I was going to take the pod off anyway I took it off without deactivating it and stuck it to a plastic bag then put the whole lot in my BC. I then took it swimming to about 55ft with no problems. There was no tagaderm, but the pod was almost empty so there was lots of free space where water wouldn't cause a problem (behind the plunger.)
I'm sure that the pod equalizes just fine (because of the vent). When it equalizes the pressure changes are moot; I agree completely that the issue is the potential to pump water into the pod when diving down. Indeed I suspect the worst case is snorkeling - repeatedly diving to 15ft or so and then surfacing.
Tegaderm sound like a reasonable approach to minimizing that possibility. It's cheaper than a dry suit and it's probably a good idea when snorkeling too.
