I've finally got a new pod working

I don't want to jinx myself, but I've finally got one of my new pods working for over 12 hours now. I have burned through a box of the new pods over the last few weeks, and only one has functioned for more than about an hour before this one. It's created a real dilemma because I'm out of town a lot on weekends, so I've been using old-style pods to get me through without having to deal with multiple failures. I hope this is the start of consistent success with the new pods (they are nice and small and should open up some new sites for me), but until I have some confidence, I'll continue to carry old-style backups. Customer support has been good and given me plenty of replacements. They are even sending some old-style pods in case problems continue with the new ones. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I've just had a run of bad luck that is hopefully over.

Do the old pods work with the new PDM? Just curious. Good luck with your current pod!

Hooray! I only have experience with the new pods and so far so good. Hopefully you just had a bad box and won't have any other issues. (And hopefully I won't find myself with a bad batch...I've been carrying around my lantus and humulog pens, though, just in case.)

This makes me nervous. I just started on the new system yesterday and the first pod I attempted to activate failed. The second one is working so far with no problems so I'm hoping that one was just a fluke! Jim, where did you get the pods from? I'm just curious since maybe it was a bad batch. I hope the success continues for you!

I’ve only had 2 or 3 failures since February. The new OmniPod is the only pump I’ve ever used. I didn’t think the old PDM worked with the new pods, or vice versa.

No. Neither pods work with the other PDMs.

I got mine from Edgepark. The new priming system is much more precise than with the old pods. I leave the pod in the tray to fill and to prime, with the PDM touching the tray just to the left of it. After the priming process, the new pods are supposed to have a greater communication range, but the priming process (for some reason) must be done very carefully.

That's awesome!

Completely off topic, but you mentioned that you still have a supply of old pods.

Did they send you the new pods and new PDM as your regular 30 or 90 day supply, or did Insulet just notify you about the new pods and ship them at some random point in time so that you had a overlap of new and old pods?

I still have a roughly 4 month supply and I'm assuming that, at some point, I'm just going to get new pods instead of my regular supply of old pods. At this point, though, my attitude is the more pods the better and an overlap in shipments would be nice.

Insulet confirmed these manufacturing problems in there last investor update. They say they have the problems fixed now. So it shouldn't be a problem in the future.

Started the 2nd gen at the end of November. I have a failing rate of 12% now + a PDM replacement. This weekend I had three errors and the PDM failure. The 1st gen had the same failure percentage. the difference is more occlusions. I am waiting for improvement/better production.

Very curious to see what happens with my 4 boxes of new ones, but need the PDM

Herman, I started beginning of December and had a huge failure rate, some boxes 70 % but this week only one but 2 more just over 3 weeks ago. I think they were over sensitive and the problem is acknowledged and hopefully it is getting better. My PDM is ok I think but has had stuck keys. Probabably better for those in the US to have waited until the problems have been ironed out but I do find the size so much better and they also don’t unstick so often although this does occasionally happen.

Just curious Agswin04...I am sure that Insulet told you to send the boxes of smaller pods back to your distributor and have them swap you for the larger ones that you can use. They told me to do that. I swapped them out. Why aren't you doing that so you can use your pods?

It was hard enough to get the first supply of NEW pods. there is NO reason for the delay on insulet's part...sending the PDM to someone that has pods should not be an issue

I am now on my third straight pod without a failure of any kind. I am using replacements sent by Insulet. I hope this doesn't mean that the other four boxes of my original order are going to have problems.

glad to hear that it's starting to straighten out, Jim!

Jim:
So....what priming procedure do you follow now? Have you worked out tricks that get these pods to work, or do you just have more reliable pods than your previous batch? (Stand on one foot and chant or anything?):-)

I pretty much leave the pod in the tray, except for removing the syringe. I have the tray flat on the counter and fill the pod and prime it with it in the tray. I place the PDM right next to the tray on the side closest to the pod (actually touching the tray itself). I don't chant or anything, but I do cross my fingers!

I just got 3 boxes from Edgepark last week but haven't used them yet. I got the first box from a friend and have successfully used 3 pods so far after the failed one. I do hope the ones you are using continue to work. Especially if you're adhering to the instructions on how to fill and activate a new one.

glad your pods are working now, jim. I just got the new system and was told the same thing too; put new pod very close to pdm and only to the right side of the pdm when filling.