New-ish to the omnipod (like... two months I think), and never had one hurt. This one is just sore and killing me. My blood sugars are fine and it's not beeping. I read that occlusions can cause pain, but I can't be having an occlusion if it's not beeping and my BG levels are fine... right?
Do sometimes they just randomly hurt? I have used this site before with no problems.
I have been using Omnipod since September 2012. I have had a few pods that have done the same thing as yours. Only a few. Don’t know why it hurt but after 3 days I was happy to put on a different pod.
Here's some possibilities for what happened...
From my experience, the new pods are having issues with the cannula insertion. This sometimes causes the hard needle to insert, and not retract. And it hurts when it does that. The hard needle should retract leaving the softer cannula in place. Usually at some point the needle does retract, and you'll hear a loud click when it does. I've had this happen twice with the new pods. Never had this happen with the old pods. I've reported the issue to Insulet, though not sure if or what they are doing about the construction of the new pods with this cannula insertion issue. Normally on the insertion you get what I call a "long click", which is actually two clicks, the insertion and then immediately the retraction of the hard needle. When it fails you get a much softer short click as the hard needle stays in place longer than it should. Overall, I find the new pods are unpredictable on the cannula firing. The old pods would fire on the 3rd click every time without fail. The new pods fire on the 2nd click, 5th click, or just whenever it wants to. Very unsettling. Anyway hope they fix it soon.
Though, like stacyfarris, you do hit a nerve sometimes, and it just hurts no matter what. I've had that a couple times, usually in a day or two the pain will go away. Rather than within the first minute or two like normal.
I’ve definitely had some pods that are sore right from the moment they are activated. If that happens, usually I know I’ve hit a muscle. Although it subsides as time goes on, it’s a long 3 days. Otherwise if the site starts to hurt at a random time as I’m wearing the pod, I’ve found my skin has sort of been sucked up into the pod area where the cannula comes out. I have no idea how this happens and I can’t confirm or resolve it until it’s time to change the pod. Then I see the sore raised area as I pull off the pod, which usually goes away after a short time.
And you’re right, whenever these scenarios occur I have no occlusions or raise in BGC… Just a luck of the pod, I guess!
Yeah, if it's the needle not retracting, just flick the pod and the needle will retract with a satisfying click.
That did happen a lot with my first shipment, but less with my second shipment. However, that didn't seem to make a difference with the random painful insertion or the random uncomfortable site.
I've had just one that hurt this way since I started using the Omnipod. I figured that the cannula had literally hit a nerve and just kept on stimulating it in the same way that the cannula sometimes hits a blood vessel and causes bleeding.
The needle firing is less predictable on the new pods, but I never had the experience of the old pods firing on the third click without fail. They were more consistent when they fired but many times did not fire on exactly the same click. I've never had a new pod needle fail to retract that I'm aware of. Wouldn't that restrict insulin delivery? Anyway, pain is most likely caused by hitting close to a nerve. In the several years that I've been podding, I've actually had to remove a painful pod a handful of times, but that hasn't happened in quite awhile.