Omnipod - High BG

Hi - I’m using Omnipod and have been having high BG that repeated boluses (?) won’t knock down. Seems to happen on the 3rd day - not sure if that’s relevant. Injecting insulin via syringe brings it down, so it’s not the insulin. When I removed the last Pod there was a large lump and a little blood. Could that be the reason for the high bg readings? If yes, what should I be doing to avoid this? Thank you.

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Sounds like you’re not absorbing insulin very well on Day 3 of the pod. This was happening to me for a while so my provider rewrote my prescription to change out pods every 2 days as needed.

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I have a similar issue. My site can only take so much insulin before it stops absorbing.

I found that the limit for any site is 150 units over 3 days.
Anymore than that and it craps out.

I recently started taking 15 units of lantus in the morning and I’m not having the absorption issues now because I’m pumping less

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For consistent absorption over the three days, I find the less I use my pods for large boluses, the better.

You could try:

(a) limiting the size of any one pod bolus. I don’t bolus more than 3U, but you can experiment to find your own limit. The rest I inject.

(b) doing extended boluses. I find a half-hour extended bolus, with my safe one-time delivery amount delivered up-front, works well.

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I bet you are using Humalog, right?!?

It is more common for Humalog to go bad after a few days in a pump than NovoLog.

Here are a bunch of reference links. If you can get a prescription for NovoLog instead of Humalog, I think it will work better for you. If you can’t do that, you might need to get a script for 2-day pod wear instead of 3-day.

If you can, try NovoLog.

Here are a bunch of links that support this.

(By the way, in these references, the name Aspart refers to Novolog, and Lispro is Humalog. That is their generic name.)

“Resistance towards isoelectric precipitation is highest for IAsp [insulin aspart], lowest for ILis [insulin lispro]"

“Aspart is the most compatible of the 3 RAIAs [rapid-acting insulin analogues] for pump use.”

“The overall adverse-effect score was significantly lower (P<0.005) with insulin aspart than with insulin lispro”

“Postprandial blood glucose was more stable with insulin aspart than insulin lispro”

“Daily insulin dose (units per kilogram) was significantly lower at week 16 for subjects treated with aspart compared with those treated with lispro”

https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/31/2/210

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For those with insurance but Novolog not covered, or no insurance, there may be discounts available. I have been using this the past 2 years. (Using Tandem, not Omnipod, but get better results with Novolog).

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Thank you. Sorry for the late reply. Didn’t receive notifications.

Thank you. Sorry for the late reply. Didn’t receive notifications

No worries!

Thank you. That’s interesting. Sorry for the late reply. Didn’t receive notifications

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Hello. Thanks for all the info. Yes, it’s Humalog. Will talk to Endo this month. Thanks again.

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