Can you use U-500 with OmniPod while your pregnant? 32 weeks pregnant
and I’m using about 140 units of Humalog a day to keep my BG’s in check.
I still have eight weeks to go and I’m afraid I might hit the 200 unit
limit for the Pod before all is said and done. I really don’t want to
resort to changing out my pod everyday because I know it’s going to
eventually irritate my skin as a result. Anyone got any ideas, tips or
gone through this experience before?
Have you considered just using the Pod for your basal and switching to MDIs for bolus? That’s probably what I’d do.
I tried that for a week or two and it helped stretch my pods a lot longer. Good suggestion, Shannon. Ultimately, when I ran out of syringes and got tired of mentally calculating my IOB, I switched back to my Cozmo for the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy and switched back to my pod on delivery-day.
Another suggestion is to get your endo to change your Rx to every 2 days if you currently have it at every 3 days. Got me an extra box by doing that.
Insulet needs to come up with a plan for those of us who reach the third trimester. I had called to see if I could get my shipment early, but the most they could do was send me a courtesy box of ten pods.
Yes and maybe no. Yes, you can use U-500 during pregnancy. It is regular insulin, just 5 times more concentrated, so nothing that is unique about it that would be harmful to the developing fetus. Technically, U-500 in a pump is not FDA approved, so that may be the sticking point why an endocrinologist wouldn’t be so excited to use it. It isn’t disapproved for use in pumps, just the effort hasn’t been finished to gain approval. Controlled blood sugars are the end and final goal; particularly in pregnancy, and the device has to take second place. When the total daily dose of insulin exceeds 200U/day, the most effective insulin for delivery of total daily doses exceeding 200U/day is U-500 insulin. The inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the insulin really starts to become apparent in pumps when the total daily dose is greater than 100U/day. But you raise two issues, so that’s why I mentioned the FDA approval issue with the U-500 in the pumps. Being pregnant, may make that “technicality” just a little more noticeable to an endocrinologist.
Thanks for the heads up about IOB. I didn’t take that into consideration. How did you ensure that you kept track of your IOB? Just mentally or did you keep a log? I’m keeping a log…just not sure if there is a better way. I have five weeks left, still haven’t hit the 200U/day yet and I’m hoping that my TDD levels out before that happens, but I am trying to anticipate any bumps down the road. I was able to get a new script for 1 pod a day from my doc and more Humalog ( vial and pen ) just in case.
I called Insulet to see if they had a pod that held more than 200U for special circumstances such as pregnancy and that’s when I found out that they had a smaller pod coming out this summer. I’m looking forward to that for sure.
At this point I’m keeping my fingers crossed.