Hi everyone, I apologise if I do anything wrong here, this is my first forum post on here.
So I’ve been using the omnipod for about a year and I’ve been having omnipod leaks that start and stop at random times.
Is there anyone else who has these at all? I have a couple of questions for you guys if you have if you wouldn’t mind me asking.
I use the pods but I haven’t had that issue. Are you seeing insulin leak out? When this happens, is the cannula still in?
Been on the system for three months. I had a couple that were slightly damp when I took them off, but no real leaking around the site during the three days…
Yes, there’s visible insulin on the omnipod, I can tell through the dampness and smell. When I take the pod off, the cannula is still “in” but there obviously must be some sort of opening around it where there’s insulin leaking out from.
Apparently it’s called “tunneling” https://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes-technology/insulin-pumps/pump-life/pump-problems/tunneling
The Facebook Omnipod group has been so helpful for me. You may want to ask them.
When you are doing the insertion countdown, are you pinching the skin at the canula end? Sounds to me like you are not getting a “full” insertion of the canula, or you have the units being delivered WAY to fast in too large of increments. Slow down the delivery of the Bolus and it will probably go away. Some people just can’t take the fast delivery and count on a fast absorption rate. Try lowering your Bolus Increment to .50, or even .10 and then give yourself 10 - 15 minutes before eating.
Also - where are you wearing it? What is your Basil Rate? The amount of fatty tissue will really affect the delivery of insulin and the body’s ability to “hold” it in and not “push” it out if it is being delivered to fast, or there is a small amount of fatty tissue.
In eleven years of using the Omnipod, I don’t think we’ve seen a leak like you describe. Definitely worth a call to Insulet, or have you already done that?
Here’s another source from New Zealand talking about tunneling.
I used to have frequent leaks until I found out about tunneling. My solution is to limit the amount of a bolus given at one time. I’ve found a max of 4U works for me, but experiment to find your own limit. E.g., if a bolus is 6U, I deliver 4 now and extend the remainder over half an hour.
When a bolus is large and/or I want more than 4U up front, I simply inject with a pen and use the pod just for the decimal amount of the bolus.
Since I started doing this, I’ve never had a leak.
Just curious - I know everyone is different - But why not just decrease the incremental size of the bolus? Mine was set to 1.0 by default, and I dialed it back to .50 and never again had any issue. What is yours set to (again - just curious)?
I don’t think a lot of people know how you can control the Bolus dosage delivery rate. You can have it literally smashed into you very quickly, or you can dial it down so low it will take a 1/2 hour to deliver.
I’ve had my bolus increment set to .05 since i got my omnipod and I do already wait 10 minutes before I eat anything.
I’m fairly skinny so I use my abdomen, my legs and my arms. There’s not much to pinch onto but I did try that and it did nothing to help.
I called insulet a few months ago and all they could say was to either pinch while applying or to use an armband, not really any useful advice.
I read about tunnelling from another source earlier but I never read about safety loops, what are those?
That and using an extended bolus so far has been the only solutions that seem like they will work. Thanks, I’ll consider using it. It still sounds like a hassle having to use both omnipods and injections together to keep healthy but it sounds like that might have to be what happens.
Safety loops are for infusion set tubing. You secure a loop so if your set pulls out, the loop takes the stress and may prevent the site from dislodging. Nothing to do with pods.
On the omnipod, the only way to control the bolus delivery rate is by doing an extended bolus. All boluses are delivered in 0.05 unit clicks. That amount can’t be changed, regardless of the bolus increment setting.
If you have your setting at 1.0 units, or 0.5 units, or 0.10 units, that only allows you to have different amounts.
For example, with a setting of 1.0 units, you could only pick 1.0 or 2.0 or 3.0 units, etc.
But with a setting of 0.05 units, it would let you pick 1.00, 1.05, 1.10, 1.15… all the way up.
But the delivery rate is always the same. Each click is 0.05 units and the time it takes is the same regardless of the increment setting.
The only way to slow down a bolus is to do an extended.
I’ve read about this and found it works wonderfully, except I decided to not bolus at all using the pump. I just use the pump for basal and all boluses are now via injection. Prior to going keto my boluses were 1 to 5 units. Now I’ve only needed a rare correction bolus (stress, illness, gremlins, …) or a dose if I have certain foods.
It would be nice if there were other options, but so far this path hasn’t been too bad.
Thank goodness for you and others in the DOC because this is how I found out/realized what was happening. I should add OmniPod tech support put me on to the right search path when they asked about site rotation and absorption. Then, the DOC did its thing!
