…that’s what the lady on the phone just told us, but when we went through our training, we were told that once it says “Delivering” on the PDM it means the data has been sent over to the POD and we can walk away and any extended bolus information is transmitted to the pod.
Is this lady accurate that we’re talking too on the phone with now?
UPDATE: She also said we should wait until the PDM reads “Delivered”…not “Delivering” (for standard boluses) like we were trained to do. We were taught to stay until it reads “Delivering”, then we’re OK to walk away.
I start my normal boluses and walk away from my PDM as soon as it starts all the time. It works as long as the bolus starts OK. I do not know that I’ve done this with an extended bolus, as those are usually for times when I’m out at a restaurant and have my PDM in my purse.
I’m thinking that they caution you to keep the PDM near in case you need to cancel the extended bolus due to an unexpected low. You cannot cancel without the PDM.
What you FIRST heard – that everything is already communicated to the pod when it tells you it’s delivering the bolus – is the truth.
The PDM does not communicate with the pod AT ALL when the screen is off. You can easily prove it to yourself this way: Start a large bolus (at a meal, for instance). Now take the PDM far far away, say outside in your car. Wait for it to go dark.
Wake it up. It will try to connect to the pod, tell you it can’t (and read status), give you the option to go ahead any way. You’ll get the standard home menu screen.
Now go back close to the pod that’s still delivering a bolus. Repeat wake-up procedure, but make sure it successfully reads status. When it does, it will then show you the “delivering bolus” screen, you will not be able to access the main menu, just like usual with an active bolus.
There is no “state” retained in the PDM as to what’s going on with the pod. No communication or control outside of immediate transfer or commands when you issue them from the PDM. This is a safety design, BTW, because reliable connection between the PDM and the pod is simply impractical.
Few things tick me off more than “experts” who are anything but. Especially when they’re “official”.
The Omnipod would be a dangerous device if a T1 could wind up not getting their extended bolus, or just as bad, a change in their basal program at some specific time of day, because the PDM couldn’t talk to the pod.
Oops! Left my PDM at home, 20 minutes away. Going to go home and get it at lunch. Wait! I’m going into DKA because my breakfast extended bolus stopped when I left for work.
No, that would never have made it through FDA scrutiny.
