My son has been on the Omnipod for about 3 months (and loves it I might add). We will be in England for 2 weeks over the holidays and I was wondering whether Omnipod will provide a spare 'loaner' pump? I know we can always switch to MDI if we had a pump failure while out of the country but my son needs so little insulin that this would be quite challenging.
Thanks.
Do you have enough pods from your 90 day orders to cover it? If not I would call them and ask to have an early shipment of your refill.
I'll be interested in seeing this answer, too. I'm not sure if they have loaner PDMs.
We have plenty of pods (2 extra months supply as there was an unforeseen delay in my son starting on the pump after we had all the supplies in place). What I am more concerned about is the PDM. I thought I read somewhere that you could get a 'loaner' PDM. Does anyone know if this is true?
I live in England & have a wonderful time with my pod. I got a spare PDM on loan for when I went to Morocco & Spain.
That's great to hear. Hopefully Omnipod in the US will also offer such a program.
I'm not sure if Insulet has an official loaner/vacation pump policy, but I talked to my local rep a couple years ago when I was going on a cruise and he gave me a loaner for the trip without any issues.
Thanks. I have just emailed our local rep - hopefully she can help.
The wonderfully fabulous CDE at my Endo's practice helped me out in a similar scenario. Perhaps that would be an option, or if not, your Endo him/herself? Good luck. Have a great trip.
Do you mean 'PDM', rather than pump(pod)? When I travel I always take days/3 pods + 4 or 5 extra, though I admit I switched back to the old pods last time I travelled because of the failures and I would take more of the new pumps.
If you mean PDM the answer is no ;-) I got a 'spare' originally because the instructor had one and I raised the overseas travel issue, but I tried this again with the new PDMs and Insulet didn't go for it.
If you mean pods 2 weeks should be no problem (it never has for me) - just make sure to get your sons next three month supply before you go!
In the event of PDM problems I believe Insulet can overnight a new one. It will almost certainly get to you faster in England that it would to me here in Oregon (several UPS fast shipping options aren't supported to where I live in Oregon.)
BTW, I'm not sure the PDMs available in the UK will work for you and your son - they will use mM units for blood glucose, not mg/dl. I can't remember if this is a user settable feature of the PDM.
Not sure about the loaner PDM but I would talk to your Omnipod rep about it. Just for your knowledge you can a backup PDM for $500 from Omnipod. I’ve heard of people getting it for $250 by requesting a discount on the backup PDM when they called Omnipod.
As an update, my Omniopod rep mailed a spare PDM to us as a back-up while we are overseas. Very willing to help out.