We had several cases lately, when the pods would just stooped working. For example last night my son’s BG’s went straight up after dinner. He was fine all day so I thought it is not pod-related. I kept giving him correction after correction but nothing worked, he stayed around 300s. I tested him for ketones - no ketones. At 2am I was pretty desperate and gave him an injection. His BGs immediately started going down, which made me believe that something was wrong with the pod.
So couple of questions: how would you know if there is anything wrong with the pod? At what point would you change it? How often it would just not work? Also, what happened with all the insulin that the pod was supposedly delivering? I gave him 3 times his usual dose…
We have found this on occasion, in spots that we use frequently. I have chalked it up to poor absorption due to scar tissue build up. I have heard other parents talk about this as well. It is not a pod specific phenomenon, but rather a site problem. So, anyone pumping can experience this. I actually tried taking my son’s pod off before deactivating to see if it was actually delivering basal and bolus when I entered one in the meter. The cannula dripped as I would have expected, so I believe it was the site itself.
we have had this probably lately but it is ussually when a pod change is due or after a pod change at least we can anticipate it but still frustrating, sometimes we have an occulsion alarm when bolusing before a pod change then obviously it is an immediate pod change and a high bs because it says that say 3/4 of bolus went in before occulsion but i doubt if much of that bolus went in i guess i would agree with brooklyn, check every 1-2 hours and if it is not going done with a repeat bolus in an other hour or so i would change the pod, also keep in mind it seems like if you are running high it can take a while for a bolus to kick in and if you check too soon it can be frustrating sometimes my son runs high and if we wait it out he does come down within 1.5 hours hang in there! i’m not sure how long you have been using the omnipod, my son has been using if for about 6 months i still would say the benefits outweigh the risks just a different set of worries i guess.
We are running out of sites so we are reusing the same sites a lot. This very well could be a reason. Any idea on how long it should be before using the same spot?
I don’t really know how soon you can reuse a site. We try really hard to alternate between 6 general sites but even within those we try not to reuse the same area at least the next time we use that site.
I was told by my endo practice when we started pumping with omnipod or any pump, that if after 2 corrections through the pump if the BG doesnt come down , then correct with a needle and change the site. I worked as a nurse in a diabetic camp this summer with 80 kids with only 5 on the omnipod, everyone else on animas and medtronic, and we did that with them also, didnt make a difference what pump they used . These can be site issues asthese kids hardly rotated their sites or bent cannulas issues.
With me daughter we now rotate to 8 sites. She is new to podding and we dont want to have issues as I saw some of these kids who only use their abdomen and all the bumps and lumps they have from this , they cant use their abdomens anymore, really quite an eyeopener!
I am trying to leave Omnipod as well. I have had 4-5 pods fail while on me within the last 3 weeks. I fortunately did get the joyous error beep that lasts FOREVER.
I am hoping Animas will do an in warranty upgrade offer again and I am out as soon as that happens.
This summer has been brutal for me. I blame the heat!! The pod was perfect during cooler weather!! Now that the temps have gone done so have my numbers and my insulin usage. The pod failures and errors have decreased too. Using the Pod is back to wonderful for me.
marty
