Yesterday I was wearing my pod on my arm while at work where there lots of people in a small area, constantly crossing paths. At one point someone bumped in to me - the pod didn't get knocked off but it hurt a bit. I took a look in a mirror later and everything looked fine.
Later on my blood sugar was rather high (over 300.) I bolused for it, tested a couple hours later and it was still really high - a little higher, in fact. (abt 350). I bolused AND ate dinner (I hadn't eaten in hours) and tested an hour or so later and it was now up to 400. I didn't have any occlusion alarm and didn't have any sign that the cannula wasn't in place properly. At this point my blood sugar had been running high for about 5 hours or more and I decided to change my pod, even though it was about 30 hrs old. Finally a couple hours after that my blood sugar started coming down.
Has anyone experienced anything like this - where the pod was bumped and seemed to stop being effective?
I’ve had issues with the pod being loose - the tip of the pod would come loose from its own adhesion and cause the cannula to come out a bit, but not all the way. Even though I pushed it back in and taped it up, it just didn’t work anymore. Had to do a pod change. Perhaps the bump loosened it up just enough that the cannula was unstable. Since my daughter is little & skinny, we don’t use arms for sites but if we do in the future, I’ll probably order her some arm bands to add some extra protection.
The depth of the canula is pretty important. That's one reason the PDM asks "is the canula inserted properly" when you setup a new pod. I've not run into this yet, but sometimes I worry about the loose fitting pods or bumping my pod hard. I'm starting to become more interested in constant glucose monitors, for this reason and many others. I'm thinking it might be easier to spot problems faster.
I've had a couple instances of the cannula coming completely out due to bad placement and I watch for that - I usually check to see if there's any dampness around the pod or if there's a scent of the insulin. (i.e.:Humalog smells like band-aids to me.)
Was the insertion spot red when you removed the pod? I have had that happen more than a few times. If the cannula is jostled and the site becomes inflamed, absorption seems to become an issue.
I agree with sll these posts...probably a dislodged cannula. It has happenmd tp me a few hundred times in the past 5 years....If I feel a pod is not delivering (for whatever reason) I just give up on it and change it immediatly. (not necessarily a suggestion, just a personal preference to not go for hours without getting any insulin)
It has happened to us - Insulet says those are the pods that worry them the most, so it obviously happens to others too. We've been pumping for 18 months, and it has happened 2-4 times, and those are the ones I have to mail back in to Insulet. I know the pod isn't working because he has large ketones. (There are plenty of times I have a high BG with no ketones, so I know then I just have to pump in more insulin.)
One issue that I have noticed - my son has been on the pod since he was 18 months old when he only took 6 units total a day and .05 was a regular dose. The Omnipod has a very hard time detecting an occlusion when it's delivery very tiny doses, given occlusions need to see back up pressure in order to detect. I have had pods that don't seem like they are working that will take an extra 12-24 hours to alarm with an occlusion. If you take low doses, unfortunately you will see this problem more often.
Hopefully, the new, smaller pods will help minimize the problem of knocking a pod off kilter. Seems like if the sides were more tapered, it would help avoid such problems as well, but I don't think the shape is changing much. It will be thinner, though.
This is the patch pump version of a doorknob tethered cannula de-infusion snag. This happens less and less to me over time as I become more innately "pod-aware."
That has happened to me with my MM pump also. I think the Omni has a glucose sensor that can be purchased too? Yes? I did not have a glucose sensor at that time so I had no idea until I tested and was in the 300s. There was no alarm, and the site looked fine....
