Hey guys. I am a potential pumper, and I’ve been reading about some of the other insulin pumps, but I am leaning towards the Omni Pod. I have a question about the alerts the pods give off. I work in the criminal justice field, and I am in court rooms quite often. My concern is the pod going off while I’m in court. Is the alert sound very loud & noticeable? Does the pod have a vibrate function? I just would hate to have unwanted attention on me while sitting in a court room. Thanks for the feedback.
I have not had an occlusion or pod failure in a year so have no experience to share there. I often let my pod go as long as possible over the expiration point…they will last 8 more hours as long as you have insulin left, and have known to expect beeping every so often. If you know you are going to be in a work situation, you would just not extend the pod use. As Nate says, you can set the timing for the reminder alerts, as well. The reminder alerts do not seem overly loud to me. I have slept through them…my husband calls it “chirping.” In public, it has not been an issue as everyone is hooked up to some sort of technology these days. I know to carry my PDM with me if I am due for a pod change or am expecting a “low” (insulin) reminder and address it at first beep. Of course, technological interruptions are frowned on, I am sure, in the court room. By anticipating those times, you should be OK. Nate’s advice to try out a trial pod is a good one.
Hey, Chauncey. It’s great that you’re considering the OmniPod. I’ve had mine 1.5 years and LOVE it!
Like you, I was very concerned about beeping in public. As others have said, you can change some of the settings so that the alarms won’t go off while you’re on the job, you can’t silence the darn thing. No matter what, if there’s an occlusion or some other problem, the pod can start beeping with no warning.
In my experience, Murphy’s law certainly applies here. I’ve had pods start beeping at the worst times – yet hardly anyone but me has ever noticed! I keep my PDM near me almost all the time so I just nonchalantly unzip the case and push the “OK” button and act as if nothing is going on. These days it seems as if there are electronic alarms of all sorts going on in public and most people seem used to it an unconcerned.
With all that said, I sure hope that Insulet is working on a vibrate option! 
Stay tuned . . . I’m going to start a thread on the worst times that pods have started beeping. I’m predicting some pretty funny stories and will start with mine.
I think that one of the key issues is honesty. I do not know what your position is in the courtroom -bailiff? stenographer? lawyer? officer? – but if you let the judge and other key people know ahead of time that you “might” beep, most have no problem with it. Truthfully, to discriminate against you in any way due to a medical condition is against the law, and the legal profession of any people should know that! Just keep your PDM near you or on your person and you will be fine.
I control my alarms. For example, I time my Pod changes for the evening when I generally am home, thus the alarm goes off only in the privacy of my home. You can also set your alarms to minimum times. My expiration alarm gives me just a one hour warning, and that is enough time to react. I keep track of my insulin level and have only had one instance in five months of getting low in insulin.
Will alarms occasionally go off at inopportune times? Sure, but that’s life. I am an instructor at a college, and the first day of class I let my students know that I am diabetic and that I wear an insulin Pod. I tell them that if I start to run low or if I start to beep, that I will need to leave the room for a few moments. Although I have never beeped in class or in a meeting, I have had to leave class a couple of times because I started to drop low. Adults understand if you let them know what is going on, and I assume that most if not all of the people in the court room are adults (even if they do not always act that way!)
I love my Pod and would not go to a tubed system or back to injections for anything. The alarms or beeps are VERY infrequent and most are under your control, so do not let that issue stop you from the freedom and control you can get with the Pod.
I’m a professional singer and was worried that the pod would beep during performances, but I, too, run mine nearly silently. I turned off all the confidence alarms (for bolus delivery completion, temporary basals, etc). And I watch the expiration alert and move it to a convenient hour if I know it will be a problem (didn’t want it to go off on a plane once, so I changed it from 12 hours to 8 hours beforehand).
The only pod beeps I have to worry about now are for occlusions - which has happened maybe 4 times in the 8 months I’ve had the pod. The one that was in public was when I was at a movie theater and we were halfway through a movie (Angels and Demons). It had been going off for over half an hour apparently, but until I leaned forward in my chair, I didn’t hear it. That’s different than in a court room, perhaps, but all pumps will beep incessantly for occlusions/blockages - and that’s a good thing. You want to know you’re not getting your insulin. =/
I am just glad that I no longer have the Minimed 508 I had back from 2000-2004. When its reservoir would go empty, the pump would repeatedly scream these six long beeps until you refilled it - which resulted in many an embarrassing classroom moment for me in college as I learned to watch my reservoir volume.