I am hoping someone can make any suggestions to an issue I am experiencing with my pod.
The issue:
My blood sugar spikes from 250-350 80% of the time when I change out my pod. I’ll bolus .25 units to prime the pod. It usually takes 4-6 hours for my blood sugars to stabilize. What I have been doing lately is checking my glucose, depending on what my reading is I’ll get the correction, then inject the required amount.
Does anyone have ideas on how I can correct this issue? I understand it does take some time for the insulin to take affect, but 4-6 hours is not good. There are times however when the insulin starts working within a hour or so.
Maybe try to bolus more (.50? or more?) as soon as you apply the new pod? Or try the extended bolus feature, so you get a steady dose for as long as you’ve been high, post pod change? Just some ideas. We have the same issue, and each time is a little bit different. Like you said, sometimes, our daughter does not go high at all…
The time of day that a pod is changed seems to matter for my son. He does best when it is done early… like sometime before lunch but after breakfast has bolused. If he waits till later… it is usually much longer to take effect. Play w/times of the days and whether it is best before or after a meal. He never remembers to add a temp increase for the change so he just does like you did… the .30 ot .50 added insulin after the pod change. Also… for some weird reason… his pods are working MUCH faster and better now that he isn’t using Skin Tac anymore. He says the pods are still staying on fine. Maybe the skin tac clogged it some? Who knows. But… so far… time of day seems to matter the most.
I have this problem sometimes as well. If my BG is over 100 at all before changing a pod I will do a correction with the old pod before taking it off. Or if it’s in range and no correction is needed I will blous at least .5u to 1u before taking off the old pod. That way if I have a little trouble starting to absorb in the new spot I won’t skyrocket. Usually works good. Just watch your BG.
What I do is bolus 0.50 with my old pod b4 removing. After change I set a temp basl @95% because my basal rate during the day is only 0.05/ hour. I usually eat breakfast in a half an hour after the change so I bolus as normal. It works most of the time but every once in a while it takes about 4 to 6 hours to settle in. I find that I need to eat right after the change. Don’t know why but the insulin seems to kick in better for me that way.
Hi Troy, I was having this same issue for months which almost made me go back to MDIs, since BG in the 300’s after each pod change (every 3 days) is not good and very frustrating!!! With some help from fellow diabetics I now no longer have this issue. This is what works for me…I usually change me my pod at lunch time. I will bolus on the old pod for my lunch plus a little extra like 0.50 units, i wait 15 mins (i use apidra insulin in my pod) and then eat lunch. Right after I’m done eating I deactivate my old pod and activate a new pod. I then put a temp basal increase 20% for 2 hours on the new pod. I also wear the dexcom cgm so I monitor my BG for the next 2-6 hours to make sure it doesn’t drop too low from the temp basal increase! I realized, for me at least, that depending on what site I use, the insulin in the new pod starts to work at different rates. For example when i place the new pod on my arms this temp basal works perfect. But if i place it on my lower back this temp basal is usually too much because it starts to work better at this site, so i usually have to stop or lower it after an hour. This has been working out great for me, I no longer have these spikes with every new pod change! I know how frustrating this is!!! I was dealing with it for the past few months and have just started to do better with it now! Best wishes!
I actually set a basl for pod change days (I have the same probs) at 50% more and I switch to that basal on every change day, I would bolus every change before that. Like Will D. suggests, I would bolus before the change and test every hour or so…then I just gave up and set the new basal. It seems to be working fine!
This is the only thing that has worked for me! If I do it any other way… I get 200-300 BG readings for many hours after a pod change, like 6+ hours, requiring me to inject bolus amounts every few hours trying to bring it down! I think that the extra bolus with the old pod keeps the insulin in your system allowing time for the new pods insulin to start absorbing! This makes a huge difference for me! I hope this helps!
I also do some combination of the basal increases mentioned here. On top of that, I don’t remove the old pod for at least an hour (if possible). I found that when I took the old pod off too soon that some amount of insulin would also leak out from the site. I could not begin to guess how much I was loosing, so now I just keep it on (when possible) and let it all absorb in.
We are having the same problem. Last night we changed out our pod, ( somehow we got off our afternoon schedule, because Kennedy had endoscopy yesterday for celiac, which she has we found out yesterday) and just before she got home from endo she was 310, then switched the pod out and she was 400!!! Did a big correction ( for her) and came down within an hour to 276, then floated around 300 for the next hour or so. I was nailbiting at this point and called our endo. We did another correction and I just kept checking her and she eventually floated down around three in the morning. This am she was 101 at 0630. Here is what I learned…
Anesthesia may affect blood sugars, I should have had a better handle on exactly what they gave her.
All family members must be cross trained to do pod changes, my dad had her and he was a little unsure and so waited till he got home, which was right at the 8 hour pod turnoff mark.
NEVER change a pod at night!!
Repeat number three!
I see that lots of folks have solved the pod change problem, so I am eager to work with our endo and find a solution!
Question? Insulin can break down towards the end of that third day, our endo says, and they actually recommend changing pods out every two days rather than three specifically because of this problem. Anyone have luck getting more pods from insulet with a physician’s order? Our insurance upheld extra vials of insulin to allow for waste and a boatload more test strips to my delight! This would be 4 or so more pods a month.
Feature request!!! ( any insulet people lurking in here? You should be!! ) Make the insulin chamber " insulated" somehow, to protect against that warm body temperature. Some material that would keep the insulin in the chamber remaining at room temp!!! We have thermoses, right? Use that stuff!!??
I can totally empathize with you in trying to get your daughters BG stabilized. I made a pod change yesterday at noon - gave a bolus of .50 units - changed pod - increased basal rate 20% for three hours - worked perfect. However, this is the first time trying this technique, and it was in my arm which is one of my better absorption areas; so I’ll need to try it a few more time in other areas to see how that goes.
As far as insurance, I have Blue Cross. I was receiving 4 boxes of pods for three months which allowed me to change the pod every 2 days. Then 4 boxes went to 3 and that’s where it’s been for the last year. I’m able to get by with changing every 3 days but I do notice my blood sugars run a little rapmant towards the end of the 3rd day. I was told by Insulet that my insurance company is only allow for 3 boxes.
I’m glad insurance companies “know best” on what we need to keep us healthy.
Thanks again for your recommendations and thoughts. I changed out my pod yesterday for lunch and had great success with trying some of the techniques mentioned in here. NO BG SPIKE AT ALL! YAHOOOO. Of course I applied my pod to my arm which is one of my better absorption areas, none-the-less I would still spike at times in my arms.
So, I’ll give it another try in a different area and see how it goes.
Thanks again,
Troy
Hi Kate, I was leaving my old pod on too while then activating and putting on a new pod thinking it would allow the insulin that I recently bolused to absorb, but then it started interfering with the new pod activation. I was getting pod alerts, deactivations, alarms etc when activating the new pod! I called omnipod and they said the old pod is most likely too close in proximity to the new pod and they recommended discarding the old pod >5 ft away while activating new pod! Have you had this problem at all? That’s why I bolus for lunch with old pod, wait 15 mins, eat lunch then deactivate old pod and activate new pod. This at least gives me about 30 mins for the insulin I bolused to be absorbed, this seems to be a sufficient amount of time since there isn’t any insulin leaking out when taking off old pod.
Here is my daughter’s pod-change protocol as recommended by her endo:
Just before deactivation, bolus 1 unit from the old pod.
Immediately after activation, bolus .5 unit from the new pod.
Set temp basal to be an increase of 30% for three hours.
Check blood sugar 2 hours after new activation. If levels are too high, continue to check every two hours until stabilization. Continue to apply an increased temp basal until stabilization.
Hi there,
I am saying good-bye to Omnipod for now because my daughters insurance will not pay for it. We are switching to the Revel.
My daughter always, always had this problem with Omnipod. Even giving and extra bolus did not help. It is just something we had to live with.
I am not sure why this happens but looking at everyone’s advice I wish I would have tried some of these tips out.
I wish you all the best. We will miss Omnipod. The no tubing was very freeing, but the Revel has more advantages for our daughter’s needs right now, such as the smaller basal increments. Too many times we need to have her inbetween a certain number.
I’m new to this site. Thank goodness I found it! I’ve been on the pump for a year now…thought I was the only one with this problem. I thank you all for your input. I am eager to try some of the suggestions. I’ll post when I’ve come up with a solution that works for me. I’ll try using a bolus up front which makes more sense than testing and trying to correct highes on the back side.
I know how frustrating this is!!! I was dealing with it for the past few months and have just started to do better with it now! Best wishes!