Trashy Lady

So here lately I’ve been feeling trashy will all of this dexcom, Omnipod, butterfly test strip waste filling up my house…haha. I know some of you can relate, especially if you use the pod system. Sometime I cringe when every three days I have to just toss such a neat device! I also feel that with all the extra supply boxes and trash that mounts up from supplies that I have to take out the garbage even sooner than if I didn’t have all this supply junk! Not to mention the kids continuously finding butterflies around the house, Freestyle Lite users will know what I’m talking about. :smile:

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In Canada you can return 50 pods at a time to Insulet, for free, in a supplied bag and FedEx envelope. Does such a program not exist in the States?

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I believe they have a similar program. I was given a bad to send in used Pods when I used Omnipod. (Excessive trash was not why I stopped being a Podder :slight_smile:). Al lthe other trash - guilty as the next PWD!

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Why did you stop Podding Thas?

Several reasons. First, I tend to need to change sites every 2-2.5 days. Changing pods every other day was not ideal and ended up resulting in a lot of wasted insulin, etc. Also, I don’t understand why, but I seemed to need a fair bit more insulin to maintain my level of control when using Omnipod than I do when using 90-degree canulae - more insulin meant (for me) more skin irritation. Even with that, I felt like I was not getting quite the results I’d gotten on the previous pump. I also did not like the form factor - I hated the insertion hit, and felt MORE encumbered by the Pod than I did with a tubed pump - it felt too heavy on my skin. (I guess I have sensitive skin! :blush:).

I’m sure most of those issues could have been resolved, but I was also on a time constraint to change my mind before the available offers for replacement of my then-orphaned Asante Snap pump ran out, so I went with the Animas Vibe…

… and now, I’m once again pump-orphaned and will have to pick what to go to from a smaller field… Or wait for more players to join the fray?

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It’s so interesting to read how different we all are. Thanks for your input Thas I hate that it was uncomfortable for you how frustrating! I take less insulin in the pod but that’s because I always got air bubbles, I tried everything but those air bubbles were the final straw. No one else I know had trouble with those like I did and no matter what temperature, how many bubbles I flicked out, how I held the vile, they found their little way in there. I think I’m going to start making Christmas decorations with the pods. :joy:

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We did that several years ago. Still have them and friends send me photos every now and then of the ones we made for them. :slight_smile:

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I fill my pump from pens – I’ve never used vials. Perhaps that’s why I’ve never had air bubbles. Well that’s not entirely true… I push the cartridge’s needle through the membrane on the pen, then dial up the amount I want to insert into the cartridge and push it in. I get ONE big bubble from the first push of insulin from the pen, which I easily push back out of the cartridge. After that, I finish filling the cartridge, bubble-free.

If (ok, WHEN :slight_smile:) I re-fill a cartridge, I get no additional bubbles - just clean, clear insulin.

While I’m talking about my cheats, I’ll add the other: I carefully also overfill the cartridge by 15-20 units – enough to handle priming the tubing, but not enough to push the O-ring out of the cartridge (and lose all the insulin!). This way, loading the cartridge also pushes all the air out of the tubing, so I only have to do a 1-unit prime step…

What can I say? I learned some really “bad” habits from the very well-designed Asante Snap pump! :sunglasses:

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I would love to see pictures of the pod decorations! Let me know if you’ve shared them anywhere.

Here are some of them. :christmas_tree:

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Beautiful, how do you get the little hanging ribbons to attach so perfectly?

Dexcom supplies (especially the one sensor-per-box box) even outdo MM supplies in the amount of waste. It just means I have to empty the bathroom wastebaskets more frequently. Luckily I never come close each week to filling our recycle container.

Keri Sparling over at sixuntilme did Christmas lights with insulin bottles. So very cute!
And yes the waste we produce kills me.

most of the waste I have from medical supplies is recycled. Cardboard, paper, glass. Volume-wise, I can’t think of a lot that should be going to landfill.

Just used a glue gun. :slight_smile:

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