I started on Omnipod 5 yesterday and my blood sugar stayed between 85 and 114 overnight and in the 80s during and after an afternoon hike. What I have noticed is highs after eating that seem different. I go to 180 or 190 and it sticks for awhile. Too much is on board to correct. This is only my first 5 pod and my after-meal blood sugar may improve as the Omnpod 5 learns from this initial experience. I probably wouldn’t have noticed the highs after food if everything else hadn’t been perfect. First day I hadn’t had candy or juice to bring up lows in a long time.
However, I am wondering if it will be necessary to adjust my bolus calculation settings. Perhaps my basal rates that I took from my Omnipod Dash were set a tad high so I could get away with 10 grams per unit on insulin at meals. Now that tentative adjustments are being made every five minutes based on CGM data and not my basal rate schedule, do I need to give myself more insulun per carb at meals?
It could be I need to bolus earlier. With less risk of lows, that might be a solution. Has anyone had to change their meal bolus calculations from the Dash after starting the Omnpod 5 or found it had become more obvious that they need to bolus earlier?
Yes I started Omnipod 5 one week ago (just finishing my 2nd pod tonight) and have noticed the same thing. For me, bolus for breakfast has not been right once yet, I have had nasty high BG mid morning. I’ve been fiddling with things but have not figured out what to change yet.
Also have given up on the bolus calculator for corrections. Not sure why but I often have to ignore the zero it calculates and bolus to lower BG when desired. Auto mode will not bring down a high on its own.
I am using Novolog and use 3.5 hours. With Dash I used Fiasp at 2.5 hours. So your 3 hours is probably pretty close.
I suspect something other than the insulin duration is changing bolus calculations though. I looked back and saw my total daily basal in auto mode is 20% +/- less than my old basal settings I used in Dash. So the next thing I am going to try is increasing my bolus by 20%. Not sure what else to do, the auto mode seems to work great overnight, but the way it works is by reducing my basal for hours and hours.
With my new setting of 8 carb per unit of insulin instead of 10, I did better yesterday after breakfast and lunch. It held steady and normal during a walk. It was around 70 through a 2-hour afternoon reahearsal.
But after a small snack that I double bolused for, I reated and woke up to 250 blood sugars that lasted until at nine when I finally changed my pod.
I had had a day left on the pod and thought that eventually the Omnpod 5 auto feature along with four units or so of my own corrections would work. I had had a low carb dinner and bolused early and thoroughly for that. I also had taken 15 minute walks before and after dinner and drank a lot of water.
At nine o’clock I tested and found ketones so that contributed to my decision to replace the pod. I had called Omnipod technical support but they did not call me back. They must be very busy!
Great night after correcting the 260 with 3 units from the new pod.
This morning I took a 40 minute hike before breakfast and blood sugar was great, too, …around 123… even with no activity setting on.
Sorry for the late reply! I am on my fifth pod and believe I’ve got the Omnipod 5 dialed in. I switched from Novolog to Fiasp which helped. I have developed a routine of switching to manual mode about 1/2 hour before eating, meal bolus with manual mode (and ignoring the IOB calculated by the pod, I guesstimate my own IOB number), and staying on manual mode until the after meal trendline is in range.
Auto mode seems to work best when it is not dealing with meals. I switch back to auto mode for sleeping and for staying within range between meals.
Just before my Omnipod 5 personal online training today, I realized that my Correct Above setting was 150. I mistakenly thought that was the lowest it could be and that the automated system was going to keep my blood sugar between 110 and 150. My trainer said my doctor recommended 110. That is going to make a big difference after meals. The Omnipod 5 will aim for 110 whether I lower or higher.
For serious exercise, I can push the activity button to keep my blood sugar above 150.
The trainer also told me to turn off the reverse correction. That might also have been causing highs after meals.
Training after starting was very good. I got to discuss problems and the trainer saw my blood sugars on Glooko and my doctor’s orders regarding settings.
I’m about 25 hours into the Omnipod 5 and it was horrible overnight. I woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and my BG was 43! This thing was giving me boluses even when my sugars were in the 70s-80s. My setting is to correct when it’s >120 so I don’t know what to think but I immediately switched to manual mode after treating my low and will only use manual mode overnight from now on.
It’s giving me super tiny boluses for the crazy high BGs and I’ve had to manually enter extra boluses. I know they advise to be patient and let the Omnipod 5 do its thing, but I feel sick when my BG is high. On the Dash my carb ratio was 1:18, so I tried 1:9 for breakfast today but my sugars still went up to 284. I see in the history that the most bolus it gives me is 0.15u. Is that the limit? I’ve changed my correction factor today but 0.15u is still the most it’s giving me.
I don’t know if I have the patience to continue using this. My overnight low was scary and neither my husband nor I woke up to the low BG alarms. The Dexcom G6 receiver alarms were better but you can’t use that receiver w/ the Omni 5.
Does it really get better with time? Right now I feel like just staying in manual mode until I can get the new Tandem Mobi since I hear a lot of good things about Tandem’s algorithms.
Where do you get the OM5 Starter Kit and Pods? I currently live in Wisconsin, am on Medicare, and was told here that the Starter Kit had a long line of people waiting for it, and that the Pods were almost impossible to find. I have a prescription for OM5, but I cannot seem to find it anywhere. From which pharmacies do you get the OM5 Starter Kit and Pods?
I tried a few pharmacies with no luck and finally got them from Walgreens Community Pharmacy in Central VA…the one that handles specialty drugs. They mailed them to me. I signed up early and spent a few days on the phone trying to find out how to get them.
Thanks for the reply. The last time I called Walgreens Community Pharmacy in Madison, Wisconsin, they said that they had NONE and a long waiting list of people who wanted the Starter Kit. I think that Insulet dropped the ball on this one. They said that it was available when supplies really were short.
I think I will wait until Insulet gets the bugs worked out of their OM5 and then try Walgreens in the fall.
Update: I tried Walgreen Community Pharmacy again today (July 12) and got the good news that they have fulfilled all of their waiting list orders for the OM5 Starter Kit and that they now have a “good supply” of refill Pods. I have contacted my doctor and may give this a try this summer yet. Then my biggest problem will be to be patient enough to let it all learn my body and to not have family members freak out when things are not always in line. My goal is to get more TIR each day. Wish me luck!
Check online in the training videos for OM5. I think that changing some of the settings will help you get the control you want. I cannot believe that 0.15 is the MOST bolus you can get. That means that something is wrong in your initial set up. What kind of boluses were you getting when you were on earlier pumps? What kind of boluses does the OM5 calculate when you go to manual mode? Those same types of boluses should be obtainable in auto mode. Please check out some of the training videos, especially those that deal with setting limits and boluses.
I had the same thing happening. What I did to fix this is (a) when I wake I switch to manual mode. This setting gives you your preset basal. Then (b) I do a correction bolus if needed ignoring the Om5 bolus calculator and calculating in my head the correction bolus to get to BG 85. Then (c) breakfast bolus and breakfast normal the way I used to do with Omnipod Dash (I use extended bolus which can only be done in manual mode) and leave Om 5 on manual until the post meal peak has finished, then switch to auto mode.
It might seem complicated reading it but its actually pretty easy. Just switch to manual in AM before breakfast and switch back to auto after the post meal spike.
Yes if only! I went with Omnipod 5 with the preconceived notion that the automated system would probably be useful part time but not all the time. That is how it worked out so far and I am not disappointed, it is an improvement over Dash. I like the easy switching from Auto to manual and back again, and the predictable behavior of the pump under both settings without me having to do tech setup etc. as I would need to for Loop. In my mind I am comparing it to Looping (which I have not tried). So overall the Omnipod 5 meets my needs so far. Time will tell if A1c comes down, if Time in range is consistently better etc.
I have lowered my bolus gram per unit number and increased the time I wait before I eat before meals. I also do corrections as needed so I am low enough by mealtume. I have adjusted my correction factor down substantially as well. My highs have disappeared after meals from settimg changes alone. I haven’t had to go to manual.
Simply recognizing that the red line on auto means that I was getting no insulin at all has helped. I have assertively changed settings to make up for no compensating basal deliveries around meals. I find that even with the high meal bolus I give myself now, I need a good long walk without using activity setting right after breakfast.
