I have been using the omnipod for about 3 months now and I really like it! I have had some problems keeping it on, occlusions, communication with pdm and a couple other. I can totally understand these problems are going to happen. My problem is that it always seems to happen when I just put on a brand new pod. since there is no way to retrieve the insulin I end up wasting a ton of insulin. Omnipod has been great about replacing the pods. I am always running out of insulin before my 30 day supply is up. Has anyone else encountered this problem.
I just posted of a discussion to something some what about the same topic, What I heard was if its less than 24 hours of using the pod you can draw the insulin back out and use it in your new pod
I honestly have never thought about it, until I read this and Kenny’s discussion. It makes since though. As long as it’s within a 24 hour period you should be able to draw the insulin out of the failed pod and put it in the new one!
I just tried it for the first time the other day, but was only able to get about half or 2/3 of the insulin back out.
Will, if you are losing enough insulin to affect your 30-day supply, it sounds like you are having more than one failure per month - is that correct? That seems pretty high compared to my experience (I’ve lost only about 6 pods in 9 months). Also, you should ask your endo doc to write your prescription for a slightly higher per-day dosage to account for this; most Rx insurance plans will cover whatever amount of insulin the Dr. prescribes since there is a huge variance between different people.
Been using omnipod one month and only had one problem. An occlusion… I drew back most but not all the insulin also. Some is better than none.
Will-
If the POD goes bad when I am at home I draw it back up
you can retrieve the insulin out of the pod with a syringe. Just back it out of the same port you filled it in. You can use the syringe supplied with the pods. I always keep one with me just in case.
I think that you’ll find a lot of us have drawn back the insulin from a pod. The first time I did was immediately after filling a pod that failed to prime. I said #$@^&%…I’m not wasting a 3 day supply of insulin. I managed to get back most of it. Of course Insulet wouldn’t advise doing this nor will your doctor BUT…it worked for me. I have used tegaderm (available from medical supply) over a lose pod. I’ve read that some have used it on the skin placing the pod over it. It looks like a window pane with the frame being sticky.