new to the group and new to OmniPod life. My 2 year old daughter just started the Omnipod about three weeks ago (she was diagnosed December 2009 and this is our first pump system). At last count we have been through 15 pods in 17 days... some don't stick, some just don't work, some don't beep twice when filled, and some work for about a day and then crap out...
We are on the 45 day trial and we were very excited to try this pump but now we are very frustrated. I called the doctors office to see if anyone else is having a problem and the answer is no so I'm a little confused. One of my friend's daughter has the pump and she only has about 1-2 fail a month if that. Has anyone else had problems like this before? I called Insulet and they are replacing all the pods which is great but I'm just confused by this problem. Can an entire Lot of pods be bad, the PDM be bad, or can someone be allergic or have a reaction to the cannula material and make the pods fail? We receive communication errors sometimes and the Reference codes appear but for some reason the rep. could not explain what the codes were - which is strange I thought.
Well, any suggestions, advice, or comments is appreciated!
I’m sorry to hear of all the issues you’re having! I don’t have any experience w/ diabetes at that young of an age, but I’ll offer my suggestions nonetheless and you can hopefully garner something from it.
Making sure to clean the site really well w/ an alcohol pad prior to applying. And make sure you press down the edges really well so that it has the best opportunity to get a good adhesion to the skin. I would also assume your daughter’s skin is probably more sensitive than mine is, so this may not work for you, but I use skin-tac wipes prior to applying a pod. It makes it super sticky…but this also makes it more uncomfortable to get off at the end of the pod’s life (something to think about).
I assume your 2 yr old is probably very active and wriggly Making sure to put the pods in places where she will be least likely to bump it or ‘scrape’ it on things (like sliding off of the couch on her stomach, w/ the pod placed there…well, it’s probably going to snag and potentially become loose). Using an over bandage like coban may help if you use the arms/legs. And putting it underneath clothing (like under the diaper if using the top of her butt) may help.
The ones that don’t beep after working, I don’t really have a suggestion for. Maybe making sure that the insulin is room temperature? And I always fill mine kinda slow (not just stabbing the needle in and forcing the plunger down quickly the way that I might give a shot). I usually fill it over 5-10 seconds maybe (never really counted, but it seems like a long time)?
The ones that work for a day and then crap out? You mean it throws an error, or the insulin just doesn’t seem to be infusing great (i.e. higher BGs), or something else?
And if you’re having lots of communication errors, it could be the PDM is having issues (but I don’t know for sure…so that’s just an assumption obviously).
Lastly, I know ppl can be allergic to the adhesive and to the canula material, but I don’t think either of those issues would cause a pod to fail (outside of extreme erythema and inflammation that caused insulin absorption issues).
I hope you are able to get some answers to help get things running a little smoother soon…
Some of us will swear that we’ve had bad boxes of pods even though Insulet tells us that’s impossible. I have never had as much trouble as you are having but there have been times when 3 out of 4 pods will alarm during fill or priming or just won’t beep at me and I’ve had to call them all in. It is definitely annoying. I have noticed that if I’m especially active (which I imagine applies to most 2 year olds) the cannula can slip out of my skin causing the pod to stop working. Also, the temperature at which you keep the pods is really important, if they’re exposed to extreme temps then they’ll often not work right. I usually have about 1-3 a month fail now (like your friends) so you’re failure rate is high. Keep trying to figure it out and good luck!
I am so sorry to hear about your daughter. I cant imagine life from 2 years old on with this &^%$# condition. I am a 30 year veteran and I get to points where I just cant take it anymore. It has got to be hell to see your child go through this crap. Now to your issue: last year i had an entire carton (of 10 pods) go bad on me. When I called Insulet (at first after about 5 pods in a row) they refused to believe that this was even possible. I called again after 7 or 8 pods, they were all just “dying” with no error code or anything. Many were just going into the long beep while priming, and they told me that it semply was not possible, b/c of the way the pack the cartons. “Well, congratulations, you’ve performed the impossible” I said. Then, I ex[plained that the pod program was the cause of my brain hemmhorage,(back in 2005) and my doctors were enciouraging me to sue INsulet (basically, I lied. I did have a brain hemmhorage, but the doctors did not even attribute it to my diabetes, though I find it interesting I am hearing more and more about diabetics and brain hemm’s/stroke, ie Brett Michaels, Gary Coleman) and PRESTO! They sent me a whole case of replacements, free of charge! I often say it…;.and once again “squeaky wheel, man, squeeky wheel”. I just also want to add that Bradford is always a contributor, and we are always in agreement.
oh yeah…And like Rebecca says (she is also a great contributor), temperatures are VERY IMPORTANT. Especially the insulin when you are first putting in the pod, must be room temp or the pod will immediately go into crap mode and scream with displeasure. Good luck, bless you and PEACE!
first off, im sorry to hear about your daughter, but i can tell you that you will make it through. in life we have seasons, and this may be the longest… lifelong season.
as other people have said, we’ve all sworn we’ve had bad boxes of pod. i swear my first 2 boxes lasted maybe a week. i had mine replaced at no cost. as far as the PDM being bad, i really doubt thats the case. the older as well as the new PDM have technology equal to that of nasa.
again, its already been said, but filling the pod should be done slowly, just from personal experience. filling it too fast will cause it to beep to early and really making you throw that whole pod away, or ive even come across the insulin coming out of the canula from filling it too fast.
ive been on about every insulin, every pump, every infusion set, and have had every test kit there is. my body rejects certain kinds of insulin, which really is a pain. i think we would all aggree that we wouldnt wish diabetes on our worst enemies. with this being said though, if you have any questions, this is a great place to find answers. good luck and you’ll be in my prayers
Hi…sorry to hear of all of your troubles. I’m getting ready to hit the road for a couple of days and haven’t had time to read all of the responses in depth, so bear with me if I repeat some posts. Have you made sure that there were not any bubbles in the syringe prior to filling the pod? Someone did metion the importance of room temperature insulin. I know that this is contrary to Insulets advice but that “pinch up” thing never really works for me…so, I press down on the canula end of the pod during insertion and voila!! I’ve had very very few failures. As far as not knowing what the error codes means…that’s got to be “junk”. I don’t like anyone thinking that I don’t have common sense. Of course they know what the code means.
Thank you everyone for the replies. It is very good to know this is not the normal course of how the Omnipod system work. Great tips too - we will certainly try some of them.
Thanks,
Mary
This is edifying. I’ve been having a run of rotten pods. Some of them go off less than 24 hours after application. I think I got a run of bad pods. If Insulet will replace them, that’s annoying but it’s not that bad. I’m about to pick up the phone and ask them what’s up. I’ll let them know that we’ve been comparing notes and we’ve found some trends. Yes we talk about you behind your back.
It also might help if we would compare ‘lot numbers’ and ‘serial numbers’. Back in February when I had a run of bad pods, I kept track of both lot and serial numbers. Insulet claims that the pods are taken at random so if there was a bunch of defective ones from the factory, that no individual customer would get a whole box of bad pods. Hmmm…not sure I agree with that line of thought. I had 5 pods fail in one day and out of those 5, four were from the same lot number and three of those four pods had consecutive serial numbers. I even offered to send back the defective pods to Insulet so they could be analyzed. They declined.
SF Pete - Keep us updated if you talk with Insulet and let them know we’ve been comparing notes.
Making sure to put the pods in places where she will be least likely to bump it or ‘scrape’ it on things (like sliding off of the couch on her stomach, w/ the pod placed there…well, it’s probably going to snag and potentially become loose). Using an over bandage like coban may help if you use the arms/legs. And putting it underneath clothing (like under the diaper if using the top of her butt) may help.