Does anyone know if there is anything to do if this is the case? We have it so no part of the pod is touching my sons (tegaderm) skin and he still says it itches where the cannula is. It has to be that, the allergist told us they cannot test for a teflon allergy. Anyone have to go off their pump because of this? I have no idea what else to do!
Not sure what you mean by Teflon? My younger one gets itchy with the pod and uses an ice cube between the pod and the adhesive (just for a short time). It seems to provide some relief.
Have you checked with Insulet to see if anyone else has this sort of problem? They may have a solution.
Is it possible that he has developed some sort of reaction to the insulin? I take injections daily for MS and the next day it itches like crazy! It’s a side effect from the medicine and there’s nothing they can do about it, so I just try to deal.
Good luck!
Teflon is what the cannula is made of. I have been talking to our Dr., the omni pod rep, insulet, lots of ideas for different things to try but nothing so far has helped. It’s very frusterating. I thought about the insulin too except for when he does a shot with his pen he doesn’t itch at all. His A1C has come down quite a bit since he started on the pod in Jan., we really don’t want to have to give it up!
Lisa,
You can put “Teflon Allergy” in the Search Tu Diabetes Box in the right hand corner to see the prior discussions. There are several people here that have gone through this allergy. They may be of more help.
If it is a Teflon Allergy, I would think it would be easy to determine. There are a lot of Teflon Infusion Sets for each of the tubed pumps. Our CDE always has lots of samples. If he reacts the same way to one of those inserted on a trial basis even without the pump attached, he probably is allergic. It sounds like it is a pretty immediate reaction.
Most of the people on other pumps were able to switch to steel infusion sets but with Omnipod, you only have the one option at this point.