If you follow me on Instagram, you may already know, growing up I was taught to believe that pumps were for bad diabetics. My doctor used to threaten he would put me on a pump if I didn't get my diabetes under control. As a kid/teenager, I couldn't think of anything worse than wearing something attached to me 24/7 that told the world I was diabetic. Fast forward to joining the online community and seeing the benefits of pumping and I couldn't wait to get my hands on one, and the one I had my eyes on was an Omnipod!
When I first saw the Omnipod online, I couldn't believe there was a pump without tubing, that was small and discreet. By the time I had decided that pumping was the right move for my management, I didn't want to hide my diabetes, but the fact that it could be discreet was definitely a plus. It took me 2 years, 1 carb counting course and a lot of waiting around to be approved for the pump on the NHS but due to my persistent dawn phenomenon my nurse was in agreement that pumping would be worth a shot.
I started the Omnipod on the eve of World Diabetes Day 2018 and I was so excited. I attended a pump start appointment along with two other patients and remember feeling so overwhelmed by all the information especially after being on multiple daily injections for over 20 years, it was all alien to me.
After setting up, we were sent on our way and that's when my bloods began to rise. By the evening I had been high for hours and started feeling pretty sick. I kept correcting but it wasn't working. As my blood sugars continued to rise, I began to get ketones and my anxiety grew by the minute. I tried to get hold of my nurse but after getting no response I started having an anxiety attack and called 101 - the non-emergency helpline - who immediately sent paramedics out.
It was just my luck that my very first site was a failed pod. The situation could have been resolved pretty easily, with a pod change and a correction with an insulin pen but since it was my very first night, I was unexperienced and couldn't deal with situation rationally.
From that night sadly my experience with the Omnipod didn't get any better. I quickly discovered that I wasn't able to get three days wear out of a pod because of the 200 unit limit and the cannulas caused extremely irritated sites, which were super painful and led to scarring. The Omnipod is an amazing piece of technology and I wish it had worked for me, but sadly after a year, I decided I could no longer persist and changed to another pump. Stay tuned to find out more about my new pump the Dana rs.
| PROS | CONS |
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Discreet & Remote Bolusing - since the Omnipod is a patch pump, it can be worn quite discreetly and you are able to remotely bolus from the PDM Waterproof - the pods are completely waterproof, so you can shower and swim without having to remove them Blood Glucose Monitor - the blood glucose monitor on the PDM is the best I've ever used. It only requires the tiniest amount of blood and even has a light so you can test in the dark. |
Cannula - there is only one cannula type on the pods and this can't be changed. If it doesn't agree with you there's no alternative Large Bolus - the Omnipod is known to not react well to large boluses - over 10 units has been known to cause leaky/failed pods. 200 unit limit - the total amount of insulin that can be filled is 200 units. Which is plenty for some but not for others. |
