I am a brand new Omnipod user, just a week in! I was on shots for decades prior to this and love the new-found freedom. I even gave myself a bolus while in line for lunch today; never could do that with shots w/o many stares!
Anyway, my main concern with the Omnipod is the screeching alarm I've heard stories about. If it happens at home, not a prob. But has anyone had this happen at work? I'm an attorney and it would be REALLY embarrasing. Any thoughts on how to handle/muffle one that won't stop screeching while at work? Thanks so much!
Yeah the PDM should deactivate the failed pod, which should halt the screeching. If you are somewhere w/o your PDM and a pod fails…well just do the best you can to wrap it in a jacket, put it in a briefcase/bag, etc. Spooky is right: it’s not the loudest thing in the world, but in a quiet room it could definitely get annoying if you didn’t muffle it in some way.
But assuming that you’re never really far from the PDM, it shouldn’t ever be an issue
Like the others said… it’s not THAT loud. If you’re sitting by yourself in a quiet room, you’ll notice it. But I’ve had an occlusion in the middle of a semi-busy restaurant - not a particularly loud restaurant, but one with a few people around - and I didn’t notice it until my husband and I got up, paid our bill, and walked across the street and got in the car. Once we were in the car with the doors closed, I was like “what’s that noise?” Until then, I hadn’t noticed it, and I’m very sensitive to high frequency noises.
I’m a consultant and see clients once every 15 minutes. It’s only happened a few times and I let them know what it is. Most people are very intrigued and curious and usually know someone with diabetes if they’re not diabetic themselves and want to know more about it. A few people even started on an insulin pump after learning about it so it’s not the worst thing in the world.
The worst thing for me is when I’m with a client and their cell phone NEVER stops ringing… now THAT’S annoying!.
if it’s one that you can’t get to turn off, there is a little hole in the top of the pod that you are supposed to be able to push a push-pin or paper clip in to silence it. (as opposed to hitting it with a hammer or putting it in the freezer!)
in terms of preparing for an alarm… yeah, there’s nothing you can really do, except have your pdm close at hand so you can get it to go away as quickly as possible!
All these comments are great, but honestly, you never have to worry about this if you just always keep your PDM with you. If the PDM is nearby, then you just push a button and it stops immediately. That’s it. So, if you want advice on how to prepare, I think the best advice is to just keep your PDM with you. Good luck!
Yes, I agree with “just keeping your PDM with you”. Actually, it’s kind of dangerous not to have it with you at all times if something goes wrong like for some reason a very high BG reading or if you pod malfunctions and you need to replace it immediately. That’s where I keep an extra pod so I always want it accessible to me.
We had a spare pod alarm in our “diabetes bag” - and in that case the pdm did not help because the pod had never activated. Granted I think that is a rare occurence but just be aware that it can happen - took us a while to find out where the beeping was coming from!
I agree with most posters. Keep the PDM handy. The first day of a class I was teaching, I had to use the PDM to silence not one, not two, but three pods. I think two of the pods failed because I had been carrying them around for months as spares. Now I rotate them out. User Sherri Ann posted about her spares giving her grief, and I realized that is probably what happened to me.
I love my pod and would never give it up. I have not had many problems with it, and I think the ones I have had are user error.
Thanks so much; this has been really helpful. I actually had my first alarm due to low resevoir and it was not a big deal at all. Granted, I was in my diabetes educator’s office, but still! Thanks again!
The other thing that people did not mention is that Pods going off do not happen THAT often. I teach, and on Monday of this past week, I went “low” during my 7:30 class. I put something up on the overhead, told my college students to get the material in their notes, and walked across the hall to my office for some juice. The very next day, in the same class, my Pod started screeching. (My husband and I had noted when I changed it the evening before that the cannula seemed very close to the side of the window, but it functioned well during the night and I awoke with a good level.) However, it screeched in my 7:30 class. I repeated what I had told my class from the day before, walked across the hall, and turned off the alarm with my PDM. Then I went back to class and finished the hour.
I have been on the Pod since last August, and this is only the third time in nine months that a Pod failed on me-- and the other two were during priming, so I never even had them on! Pod failures are NOT that frequent if you take your time and follow the rules about putting them on. Maybe I just have plenty of flab on my body, so the cannula always has a safe place to nestle into, but I can honestly say that Pod failures are not a worry in my life.
Having read Brad’s comments below, however, I think that in addition to carrying a spare Pod (which I used each time I change Pods and put a fresh one in my kit to carry), I think I will add a Pod or two to my desk in case two fail in a row. As I said, I have not had any problems with Pod failures, but if that second Pod had failed right away, I would have had to cancel class and return home for an hour to change Pods again.
I am sure you will grow to love the Pod as much as the rest of us on this forum do. Congratulations on joining our ranks!
