Rebecca, you don’t have any discomfort sitting in a chair or carseat with the pod on your back?
If you are dedicated to pump therapy and a good candidate, yet your doc doesn’t go along with pump therapy / OmniPod therapy, you need to find a new doc pronto.
I’m so excited about all the responses. I’m so excited i found this website where people are so willing and very consistent about posting and supporting each other. If all goes decent with insurance and my doc says he’ll sign off on it, then i think the omnipod it is. im so sick of the tubing and clothing issues because of not having a holster these days or anything. however i must say, im very guilty of using the pump as an enabler to eat bad and jus quickly cover it with the click of a button. i really need to cut that out but man its hard! Will be 3 years this november since diagnosed and some days are still a struggle…
The prescription is actually supposedly required to be based on insulin usage. If you use less than 200 units in three days then you should be replacing every 72 hours, if you use more you should be replacing every 48 hours. Getting extra is always best and needing the extra insulin is the best reason to give your doc. If you’re clearly under 200 units in three days (only taking 50u a day or something) then you probably won’t be able to get a prescription to change every 48 hours.
Thanks, Rebecca. I am using 40u a day plus some for corrections. I will not ask for the 48 hour replacement.
I was on Medtronic pumps from 2000-2008 (ages 20-28), then a Cozmo for 9 months, and now the Omnipod since May of this year. I agree with everyone here, especially JayBear, about the pros. I love the pod and don’t think I’ll ever return to a tubed pump.
The only con I have is that, when a pod fails while priming or needs to be replaced for one reason or another, they won’t ship you a replacement until your next supply order, rather than sending you an immediate replacement for a faulty pod. I’m between insurance plans this month and need to hold out to place my next order until September 1 and thought I would be fine…but I’ve had two that failed while priming this month and two I had to remove early due to a kinked cannula, so I will run out of pods for the last week of the month (maybe 2-3 pods shy of making it) and have to return to my tubed pump until I can place my order. Now, this is an isolated event - how often will you be unable to place your next order? - but it’s still something I wish I had thought about. I could have ordered earlier, while still under my old plan, but I just assumed my three month supply would last me three months. So I suppose it’s more a lesson in ordering before you’re out of supplies. You never know when you might run shorter than you anticipated. When I failed to re-order early enough on my tubed pumps in my younger days, I just wore the infusion sets a day longer and stretched the supplies out. The pod is going to last you 80 hours or less, so there’s no fudging the time. When you’re done, you’re done. But so far, that’s my only con.
This actually depends on how you get your shipments. If they come directly from Omnipod then this is true but if they come from your supplier then Omnipod’s new policy is to ship them out at the beginning of the next month. Also, as far as I know they used to ask if you could wait until your next shipment. Also, I’ve found that the Omnipod Area Reps are really good, if you call them and are running short, about getting you a couple pods just to tide you over. So definitely fight for Omnipod to ship them earlier and check out your other avenues before just giving up and going back to your old pump!
I get my shipments directly from Omnipod. Good point about contacting a local rep. I know a woman I can contact. Maybe she can help me out.
Melissa, I love my omnipod. It has made my life with diabetes a lot easier. I MDI for almost 29 years before I decided to go on the pump and my only regret was not going on one sooner.
I also have United Healthcare and use Edgepark. At the beginning I had a lot of problems and I think it was the lady assigned to me. She set me up in the system incorrectly and had me on a rolling three month supply instead of sending me a three month supply all at once; at least that is what Edgepark told me. Now everything is going smoothly and I haven’t had any problems. Reordering has been wonderful and I get my order the next day. My only problem has been with Edgepark, haven’t had any issues with United Healthcare paying for my supplies. The only problem now is my insurance is changing to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas and I get to go through all pre-approval again.
I wish you luck with your insurance and deciding on the omnipod.