I guess my only reservation would be pod failures. It seems today we spend a big chunk of our time chasing down errors that other people made, doing follow-up calls because someone failed to do their work, calling about faulty products, etc. You get it? I just want to find the easiest, safest route to go as far as my health is concerned. I’ve been diabetic for 48, almost 49 years, pumping for 24, and it’s time things got easy. Anyhoo, I ordered a trial (fake) pod yesterday and will check it all out before making a decision. I do love all the insight that you’ve given me, though. So keep at it! If you think of anything else, please feel free to voice your opinion because I can’t get better answers anywhere else.
I went on th eOmnipod 2 years ago. It did not work for me. I used it for only a few months.
I am now back on a Medtronic 722.
I am not sure what to do with the Omnipod, I have the whole things still in its box with a supply of pods…I do not want to destroy it or simply throw it away. Maybe EBAY??? any suggestions
I don’t mention it either. But if I wear it on my arm, one of the TSA folks inevitably notices the lump and gets all freaked out. The other problem is when I have to go through the scanner - the pod and dexcom show up nicely on those and it’s a toss-up as to whether you get a competent TSA agent or one who is clueless and kind of freaks out about the lumps (although I do explain what they are as I step into the scanner, but that doesn’t help b/c i can’t talk to the person looking at the image).
Problem is solved when I plan for travel (i.e. don’t wear it on my arm and don’t wear flow-y clothing that will get me pushed into the scanner).
I would be willing to take any pods and your PDM off your hands. I will cover the cost of your shipping, too. I am looking for a backup PDM (Can’t afford to buy one from OmniPod) Let me know. You can e-mail me off lise if you prefer neasews@msn.com
I haven’t gone through a scanner. I had the thought to try and schedule a pod change for roughly the time I’d be flying, as much as possible…remove the pod at the airport and place a new one once I was through security. Seems dramatic, but when the scanners got a lot of scary press initially, I was trying to not get strip searched or groped or whatever it was everyone was freaking out about.
mfy, can I ask why you returned to MM after trying the Omni? Why didn’t it work for you? As far as selling your Omnipod, don’t even try Ebay. They’ll just delete your post almost as soon as you’re done typing it.
Many thanks! Rose
Our 2 cents. My now 14 year old daughter has been using the OmniPod for eight months now. Was on MDI before. She was only diagnosed the previous year (Aug 20, 2009 at 4:30pm, but whose keeping track?). She is very happy with the OmniPod and says she would be heartbroken to have to switch to a tube-based pump. The four big reasons she chose the OmniPod are 1) auto-insertion of the cannula–it is instantaneous and virtually pain free, 2) wireless connection and no tube gives huge freedom, 3) the ability to put the pod in so many places, and 4) the waterproof pods can be worn all the time. My daughter is very active and runs cross-country and plays softball. In the very beginning we had issues with learning how to keep pods on but after the first couple of months we worked out the bugs and rarely have issues any more. The pod size itself has not been an issue but we are certainly looking forward to the new pods now due by the end of the year (30% smaller). Also interesting to note that all the major manufacturers are working on these tubeless “patch” pumps. Maybe the only down side–and it is minor–is learning to estimate insulin usage–once you load the pod you are basically in for the duration. There is also an occasional pod failure. Sometimes it is a bad pod but I have found most of the time it is actually an occluded cannula. Insulet has always replaced every failed pod with no problems. Best of luck to you either way you decide.
I’ve been on the Omnipod for 6 months now. It is my first pump after 25 years of diabetes.
First, I will never go back to MDI if given the choice.
Second, I do not see myself ever having to switch pumps if given the choice. I do keep up with this forum and I’ve had a smattering of the issues listed here but, overall, my experience with the Omnipod has been relatively trouble free. For me, the Omnipod has been extremely reliable.
Tha all could change with my next shipment, of course, but I’ll cross that bridge when/if I get to it.
We used Minimed for 3 years before switching to the Pod. We pumped with the 522 and then upgraded to the MM 723 Revel last year and now recently switched to the Pod. We love it!!!
Our switch was kind of a fluke, a friend of mine switched to Omnipod, and her excitement was contagious. My daughter really didn’t mind her tubing until she experienced being free of it. She does not want to ever go back to tubing now.
What pump are you on now? I find the Omnipod very similar to MM’s features with a few exceptions. Everything we need the Omnipod has, although I do wish it easily calculated IOB for food (it does for corrections). But we can deal with that given the other benefits it has!
We love being tubeless, love the easy pod changes, love using a remote.
We had some bad pods in the beginning, but they were quickly replaced. Haven’t had any issues since then. I learned a few little tricks here to avoid issues and things are going great.
Call Omnipod and ask for a free trial - if you have a good rep they are very accomodating. I would want to wear it for 4-5 days at least, so you can experience a pod change and really see if it is for you.
I started on Cozmore pumps which are no longer in production.
When the warranty period expire I switched to Animas Ping, last year.
Got involved in a medical study for “d” and they switched me temporarily to the Omnipod.
At the end of the study I packed my Ping away in a box and stayed with Omnipod, which I believe gives me the best control and I like no tubing; although, the tubing wasn’t a horrible thing to deal with, but this is better, IMHO.
Rosie…as I read these replies, something comes to mind. I don’t know about the other pumps but one major (in my mind,) thing that the oPod has going for it is this group. Honestly. I have learned so much from these people and have gotten so much support. I almost only check into tudiabetes here. The OmniPod Users are phenomenally helpful and knowledgeable. It has really helped me live with this. An extraordinary resource.
Okay, you’ve got me hooked! I just finished filling out the paperwork for the OmniPod. They have a promo that ends on the 31st and I figure if I don’t like it I can always return to traditional pumping. BUT, I’m optomistic that I will never look back. Thank you ALL for your support. I do realize that most everything has a failure rate and it just depends on how you deal with it. BTW, MWmom, I have worn my new Dex 7 for 8 days now and absolutely love it!!! I wish it were smaller but will find my comfort zone and keep at it till the 2 are integrated. Again, thank you!
I have pumped for 11 years and been with Omnipod for the last two.
I love the user friendliness and functionality of the PDM, personally. All of that screen with its bright colors and easy to access info is smartphone-esque, IMO.
I didn’t mind having a tube at all, but I do enjoy the tubelessness occasionally. There are outfits I’ve worn more confidently with the Pod - such as formalwear, bikini, etc.
For me, not having to disconnect in water and/or lug around an additional device while naked has been a plus. I’m one of those people who rises quickly while disconnected from basal, so I appreciate not having to do it like I did with Medtronic. My Cozmo was waterproof, but didn’t have a native clip feature, so it was still a hassle to hold during showers, etc.
I think Omnipod Customer Service is tops and I have the phone number for the head of their department if I ever need to escalate. Their billing department isn’t that great, but I haven’t felt any of the other companies’ billing departments were great. Insulet seems to take an inordinate amount of time to bill you for a shipment, which is especially irritating if you haven’t yet met your deductible.
If you’re used to a trim profile infusion set, the bulkiness of the pod is hard to get used to at first. Every time I’d try a sample pod, I’d have second thoughts, but once you figure out where on your body you’d like to wear it, it virtually disappears. I don’t ever remember where mine is - it’s that little of an intrusion.
The automated insertion is awesome. It takes just a split second, rarely hurts, and is so clean compared to using insertion devices (so inconsistent and prone to user error) or self-insertion.
One con of the pod is that, for me at least, it’s prone to far more frequent occlusions. I think I had two occlusions in 9 years. Now I get one every few months. I get about the same amount of kinked cannulas as I did on infusion sets. And you get the occasional pod that fails during priming, but Insulet is great about replacing those.
I have been on the Pod for 2.5 years. I have had periods of pod failures, but thankfully haven’t had one in a while. (Knocking on wood, as I’m sure I’ve just jinxed myself!) My experience has been that Insulet customer service is extremely hit or miss. I have had a few representatives that seemed more like DMV agents than customer service people. And on the other hand, I have had some of the greatest customer service in my life. I have had to be incredibly forceful before, but have always had a satisfactory result in the end, regardless of how difficult the rep was. For example, the Insulet rep who trained me on the Pod initially told me that I should “save up my failed pods and just call them in when I have a few of them”. Well, when I did that, the rep told me they couldn’t replace them because I needed to call it in right when it happened so that they could get the coding and whatnot off of the pdm. That’s all fine and well, but it isn’t what I was instructed to do. The rep kept insisting to me that I was generally out of luck. I finally said “I’m an attorney, and I did just what your agent instructed me to do. You will replace these or we are going to have trouble”. She put me on hold and came back and said “we’ll do it this one time”. Seems silly to me to have to make threats. I’m not that type of person normally. I’m actually fairly pleasant, I think!
As for the pod itself, I couldn’t say enough good things about the device. I haven’t used another pump, and was an MDI person previously. But I find the pod to be unobtrusive, comfortable and the best thing that has happened to me since diagnosis over 20 years ago. Yes, it’s annoying beyond all belief when a pod fails or occludes and the alarm starts going off just as you are about to fall asleep, go into a meeting, or sit down in church. It seems like it always happens at an inconvenient time! But I’ll take that any day for the convenience and comfort I experience generally.
I echo the previous posters that have comented on the amazing help to be found in this group. I have had two separate, big problems, with the pod since beginning and have found solutions to both here on the forum.
I wish the pdm had a feature that would know where a bolus was left off when the pod gets changed. For example, tonight before dinner, I was a little elevated, at around 150. I put in the dinner carbs and hoped that I would get the bulk of the delivery before my pod ran out. It didn’t work out that way, and when I changed my pod, I didn’t know where things had been left and how much to deliver with the new pod. I know that my own laziness was the issue. Had I changed the pod before the dinner bolus, it wouldn’t have been an issue. But the family was sitting down, the new pods were upstairs and i was downstairs, etc. I just wanted to get on with it.
That is my long and rambling input. I hope it helps. Feel free to ask any follow up questions!
In reading through the thread, it sounds like you’ve already made up your mind; but I thought I would add my 2 cents. I’ve been on the OmniPod for more than three years. I waited for it to be available in my area and was the first to get it there. I did not want a tubed pump. That might have been a mistake on my part, but it was what I believed would work for me. I also have the Dexcom CGM and wouldn’t not want to be without that either. I am very happy with the decisions I made. Hopefully, you will be too.
Thanks all ! I appreciate all of the help that I have gotten here. I sent my patient information forms in today and will be anxious to see when I can start on the Pod. Where they’ve got such a good promo going on, I figure I can always go back to a tubed pump if I have great difficulties. I don’t foresee that happening but it’s always a possibility.
That’s great…so glad to hear you are going to give the Omnipod a try!! Their Cut the Cord offer made things so easy, plus as you said if things don’t work out you still have your old pump plus the option of getting a new one covered when warranty runs out. I think you will love the pod as much as you love the Dex. We LOVE both the pod and dex. Awesome stuff!
sandy, you are not the only one who has had those problems with the omni pod. I had all of the problems plus more. I finally switched to the animas. I have sites and the PDM incase. just a backup
I have made it a point in the past years to donate the pump / systems I had when getting a new one to un insured people. It’s tax deductable and helps someone stay healthy. I wish I kept my MM522 though lol
Good luck. I am also sitting on a PDM with almost 3boxes of pods. I’m keeping it for a back up till a new Ping comes through.
