Recent Omnipod failures

Changing the pod fixes the issue

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I believe this is normal, part of the priming process. In fact I would worry if I did not see insulin at the end of the cannula.

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I don’t have pods. I tried a couple way back.
It’s a shame you can’t move them. If they had steel cannula you might be able to.

Sorry Pam, I was responding to Marie.

@Viggen I will never rule out a bad pod might be a site issue. We can’t tell with pods However I really don’t think this is that issue when I can go through boxes of pods for months and have no issues but 4 out of 5 in one box don’t work. Or 4 from the same lot all of a sudden. I believe before this last issue I had one “bad” pods for 6 months. And I am now on new lots and I am not having any issues.

I am seriously thinking that the smallest difference of angle of cannula even a small variable on depth or power of insertion could be making a difference on absorbability of certain pods and that could be a manufacturing difference maybe at a different plant or different equipment used. It could also be insulin amount it disperses. None of which would be easy to figure out.

I don’t let myself go to 300 anymore. I switch it out if I hit between 140-180 as unless there is a specific reason (snorkeling) I never am above 160. I don’t go above 140 unless I mistimed my dosing. I literally spend less than 1% of the time when I don’t snorkel above 160 and when I am snorkeling regularly I spend 3-4% of the time above 160. My alert is set at 130 as I always keep an eye on anything above that.

And I always do a correction dose after going high from a “bad” pod with a pen and my numbers come down fine. This is a stubborn high that you will keep bolusing with the pdm and you don’t come down, you slowly creep up or stay level at a higher number because you are getting some insulin, just not the full dose. So you don’t always catch it immediately. An outright bad pod and your numbers shoot up fairly quickly.

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I figured out how to swim and keep my sugars flat.
I take a shot of 5 units Lantas about a half hour before and I disconnect my pump.
Then afterward I keep a close eye on my sugar because the lantus last several hours after I put my pump back on.
My tandem will make an adjustment for it, but it’s an adjustment you can make on your own too.

Thanks for the followup info. That clears up my confusion, for sure.

Its almost like a temporary occlusion, which, as you said, could be a defect in the depth or even the tension on the insertion needle (doesn’t jab you hard enough). Agreed that neither of those issues would be very demonstrable or provable though, at least not in any way I can think of either.

I personally have had a few issues where I get a stuck high sugar that doesn’t respond as I expect it to (I loop on omnipod), and I’ve always chalked it up to eating more than I thought, or some physiological thing (stress, hormones, sleep deprivation). Now you all have me wondering if its not a POD issue. Mine always have gone away after several hours (4-6, sometimes 7), and the loop catches any low that might have happened, but its still an adventure to 280-300 that I’d rather not go on.

I’ll start logging when this happens to me and what the POD lot number is, just to see.

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So an update. I had had a rash of failures in June, within 1-2 weeks, 6 total from 2 lots/boxes. then started on a new lot and not one failure. I started using a new box with the lot #L71053 that I had had a few failures in a different box in June to see if it was the whole lot and have now used 10 with no failures.

I did just had one failure but that is because I managed to dislodge it when sleeping, my dog was crammed against me and I caught it on her when I turned.

It just re enforces to me that it isn’t a placement/site issue, it’s a specific pod issue. It might not be just the lot so much as certain boxes from a specific lot. It’s telling to me that I can use them for a while with no issues. It could still be a specific problem with a lot number of where it’s made and a minuscule variance that affects me or some other people for some reason.

Thanks for keeping us updatet, @Marie20.

I talked to Insulet here in Norway. They hadn´t heard about this “pods failing but not failing” before, but I was told to keep score of LOT-numbers and pods failing this way and get back to them.

After this call I made an inventory of my remaining pods, put aside those who had been wonky and got myself three new boxes of pods. So far that has fixed the problem, so I do not have much to report back to Insulet yet.

I´m curious about @ColleenP and his “going-back-to-Eros-experiment” and if that fixed his problem.

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