Tag: OmniPod

What Is That Ticking Sound?!

mollyt1d1 Comment

Tick, tick, tick…

It was approximately 8 A.M. on a weekday. I was in my kitchen, figuring out what I should eat for breakfast. I begin to take out all the things I usually put into a fruit smoothie – almond milk, protein powder, frozen fruit – when I noticed the ticking.

Tick, tick, tick…

My eyes wandered over to the clock affixed to my kitchen wall; certainly, that was the source of the sound. I walked up to it and held my ear close before remembering that said clock has not functioned properly since the day it was put up (that’s a long story, one that hopefully ends in me repairing it eventually). I could rule out the clock.

Tick, tick, tick…

It sounded like a small winged insect, maybe one that was drawn to light, repeatedly flying into my overhead kitchen light. I squinted up, trying to avoid getting blinded by the brightness, as I attempted to locate a flying insect. I couldn’t see anything.

Tick, tick, tick…

I was getting annoyed now. Where was this coming from? Was I imagining it? I felt like a character from the old Harry Potter Puppet Pals YouTube video that was popular when I was a teenager. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a watch for a little giggle, but basically it features main characters from the Harry Potter series goofing about and singing their names while Professor Snape attempts to identify what is making a mysterious ticking noise in the background.

It was only after this silly video popped into my mind that it dawned on me…

…the ticking was coming from my pod. I’d picked up my PDM and started a bolus before I went into the kitchen. I just completely forgot that I’d done so.

Tick, tick, tick…beep!

Soon after this realization struck me, I started laughing at myself, and then my pod declared that the bolus was finished delivering with a single “beep”. I found it funny how something that I do multiple times each day still has the ability to confuse all common sense out of me. My pod makes ticking sounds, sometimes one or two at a time, and other times a series of dozens, all the time. More often than not, I’m oblivious to the sound, and I really only ever tune in to ensure that a bolus is getting delivered or whenever it’s reaaaaaaally quiet all around me and it’s the only sound to be heard. But apparently, it can still catch me off-guard to the point that I forget it exists.

At least I found out the source of the ticking, though.

Molly and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Diabetes Day

mollyt1d1 Comment

(Gotta give credit where credit is due on inspo for this blog post’s title – Judith Viorst authored the children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day in 1972 and a movie that was loosely based on it came out in 2014. I admit that I’ve seen neither but as someone who has appreciation for books and movies, I can at least claim an awareness of both and a deep appreciation for such a memorable title.)

At the end of July, I had my worst 24 hours of diabetes in literal years.

I’m being a little dramatic, but really, everything that could go wrong pretty much did. And what made it that much worse is that it just happened to coincide with my girls’ weekend with my college friends.

It all started after dinnertime. I had flatbread from a local restaurant that I frequent, and I substituted traditional crust in favor of cauliflower crust – my hope being that this would have less of an impact on my blood sugar levels.

No such luck. In the 3-4 hours post-dinner, my blood sugar steadily climbed, reaching a peak of the low 300s at its highest. It just didn’t make sense! I had 4 pieces of flatbread. They weren’t massive. Veggies were the only topping. Maybe it was my pod? When I went to check my PDM to see how much insulin I had on board for what felt like the fiftieth time that evening, I discovered that I’d been burning through so much insulin that I only had a few units left in the pod, meaning that I’d definitely have to change it before I went to bed to ensure I didn’t run out of insulin overnight.

I was super annoyed as a result of my hyperglycemic state and the need to do a premature pod change, but apparently also exhausted by the ordeal as I lapsed into an early sleep in my armchair while my friends stayed up. By the time I snapped out of my slumber, I was groggy, thirsty, and upset that my diabetes was affecting my ability to hang out. When we all turned in for the evening around midnight, I went to bed hoping that my mood and blood sugars would be turned around by the time I woke up in the morning.

Except they didn’t. I woke up in the middle of the night with not one, but two separate low blood sugars. My broken sleep combined with the wild oscillations of my blood sugar caused me to roll out of bed with a stinging pain in my eyes and a defeated spirit that I tried my best to hide from my friends, but to no avail. In fact, I ended up in a heap on the floor, crying to them as I apologized for my grumpy mood and attempted to explain to them what had gone wrong in the last 12 hours. They were all very understanding and supportive, but I felt horrible for being so temperamental and curt with them; after all, none of this was their fault. I promised them that I’d cry it out, wash my face, get dressed, and spend the rest of my time with them with an adjusted attitude.

This mostly worked – we were able to enjoy bagels and lattes for breakfast, as well as a long walk in the first truly gorgeous morning of weather we’ve had since May. My attention was absolutely still partially focused on my diabetes, especially since bagels are notoriously tricky to bolus for, but my resulting spike from indulging in one wasn’t too bad since it was offset by the walk.

By the time my friends departed, my blood sugar was mostly back under control. This must be when things started turning around for me, right? Wrong! As I cleaned up my condo, I ripped my pod – the one that I had just applied the previous evening – clean off my leg. Cursing, I tried to calm myself down because this was something I could easily fix. I decided to call my boyfriend while I did the pod change routine, which was yet another mistake on my part as I accidentally deployed the cannula before the pod was even on my body.

It was like a comedy of errors. I shouted – yes, legitimately yelled – to my bemused boyfriend that I had to go. I needed to get this pod change done and over with, distraction-free. So I repeated the process, only to find that pod #2 was unusable because the cannula was poking out.

Was the universe laughing at me at this point? It sure felt like it.

Third time’s the charm, I told myself as I audibly sighed out of frustration. And thank goodness that it really, truly was – the third attempt at putting a new pod on was the one that did the trick. I remember falling back in my chair after the pod was securely attached on my body. The rollercoaster blood sugars and the unpredictable technology demands truly drained me, and this was just one 24-hour window of dealing with diabetes.

Thank goodness most days aren’t like this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad diabetes day!

My Tips for Identifying a Malfunctioning Pod

mollyt1d1 Comment

When my pod fails, it’s pretty obvious due to the fact it’ll emit a long, loud, impossible-to-miss BEEEEEEEEEEEPing sound. (Said sound tends to inspire immediate rage, but also relief because at least my device is letting me know that it’s not working properly.)

What’s less obvious is when a pod is malfunctioning, and the beeping sound doesn’t get triggered. In this context, I define “malfunctioning pod” as a pod that’s leaking insulin, or a pod that appears to have deployed the cannula correctly into my skin, but somehow it’s become dislodged.

Both of those scenarios are infuriating because they’re much more difficult to discover.

But lately, I’ve found myself dealing with both – more than likely, it’s just totally random, but it also may be due in part to the fact that I sometimes have more trouble with pods in the summertime. Heat and humidity don’t always bode well for my pod’s adhesive, and my pods have fallen victim to peeling up and off my body as a result of my sweaty summertime skin.

Since I’ve got recent experience with both types of malfunctioning pod as described above, I decided to share my tips on how to identify (and then deal with) these phenomenons:

  • Leaky pod: The first sign that my pod is leaking insulin is my blood sugar being higher than usual. If I’m bolusing for foods that I consume on a regular basis and seeing serious spikes afterward, I check my site by lightly running my fingertips around my pod, and then sniffing them to see if I can detect the pungent scent of insulin. It might sound kind of funny to go about it that way, but it really is the best way to confirm a leak as it’s riskier to just up and rip the pod off my skin to look for puddled insulin underneath. If I do smell insulin after my sniff test, then I will go ahead and change the pod – and double confirm my suspicions by looking at the leaky pod’s adhesive at that point in time. More often than not, the adhesive will be visibly wet around where the cannula is, and that is always a signal to me that the pod was indeed leaking and therefore responsible for my high blood sugars. And on a very rare occasion, a leaky pod will be obvious before it even goes on my body (as shown in the below photo), making it much easier to handle as I can address it before it starts to negatively impact my levels.
  • Dislodged cannula: You would think that I would immediately know if a cannula was no longer poking my skin, but honestly, it’s difficult to tell when it gets jostled out of place! And it’s even harder to figure out if the adhesive surrounding the pod is fully intact. So what are the signs of this happening? Well, high blood sugar is the main one, but I’ve also realized that itchy skin is another. It’s strange and I don’t have an explanation for it, but when my cannula is on the cusp of ejecting (or already has), my skin gets super itchy. If I’m experiencing that itchy sensation and my adhesive has already begun to peel around the edges, I don’t even question going through with a pod change, as I’m almost always able to visually confirm that my cannula is out of place. When I don’t have that visual guidance, it’s much more of a crapshoot and I still almost always end up changing my pod in an attempt to stabilize my blood sugar levels. After removing it, I can sometimes see that the cannula was bent at a funny angle or something to that effect, but I don’t always get that verification. In that instance, I just chalk it up to a fussy pod and then do my best to move on from it.

The big takeaway here? More often than not, my pods work exactly as they should. Every now and then, though, I have to deal with one that malfunctions – whether it’s a total failure or one of the other situations I described above. I’ve found that when I’m in doubt or suspicious that my pod isn’t working right, then it’s best to troubleshoot within reason before making the judgment call to change it. I’d much rather have to change my pod prematurely in order to maintain in-range blood sugars than deal with 3 full days (the lifespan of one pod) filled with highs and frustration.

My Thoughts on the Discontinuation of the Omnipod Eros System

mollyt1d3 Comments

Too soon.

Those were the first words that came to mind when I learned that the Omnipod Eros system – the one that comes with a bulkier, non-touchscreen PDM – was going to be discontinued at the end of this year. (You can get more information about this decision here.)

Now, you might be wondering why I’d have that reaction, especially considering I haven’t been on the Eros system in over two years. And when I am fully aware of the fact that the Omnipod Dash and 5 systems are out, available, and the latest/greatest offerings when it comes to pump therapy from Insulet.

The main reason why I think it’s too soon to nix the Eros system? It’s because of how it affects choice. By discontinuing it, this means there’s one less option on the market for people who are interested in Omnipod’s tubeless insulin delivery. Not so much in terms of the pod itself, as that design has largely remained unchanged as Insulet innovates products over time, but certainly regarding the PDM device.

It goes without saying that the Eros PDM is clunky, uglier, and overall out-of-date compared to it’s newer counterparts. The Eros PDM is a behemoth in size that relies on AAA batteries to keep it running and features chunky buttons that need to be firmly pressed in order to navigate from one screen to the next. Meanwhile, the Dash and 5 PDMs are sleek, touchscreen models that can be charged just like a cell phone. So I can’t deny that the Eros looks like it’s from the Stone Age when comparing it to the Dash and 5.

But this is actually favorable to some people. One thing that kept me from transitioning to an insulin pump for a long time was that I didn’t want to feel super attached to yet another physical piece of equipment I’d have to carry around; at that point in my life, I was already toting around my phone and separate CGM receiver (this was pre-Dexcom app days) everywhere I went. When I finally did start using the Omnipod Eros, it took time for me to get used to the PDM, but I came to appreciate it for its distinct heft, and could quickly and easily grab it from my bag without really having to look for it due to its size.

I liked my Eros PDM so much that I have more than one image of myself holding it up in my photo archives…

Now, I constantly get my PDM and cell phone mixed up – sometimes, I even go to text someone from my PDM, only to realize after I unlock it that I grabbed the wrong device. And I hate that I have another piece of tech that needs to be recharged so frequently. I monitor the battery life all the dang time, and have to plug my PDM in every few days to fully recharge it, whereas with the Eros all I had to do was swap out the batteries every 3 or so months. It doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, but I already have so much to monitor when it comes to my diabetes that I sometimes resent that I have to also keep an eye on the technology that’s supposed to help me simplify my management.

Moreover, a reason why the Eros PDM was so bulky was that it also doubled as a blood sugar meter. Admittedly, I scarcely ever utilized it as such, but it was always nice to know that I had the option of doing so if I wanted. Since the Dash and the 5 PDMs are essentially repurposed smartphones, the blood sugar meter function isn’t available on either, and I know this is probably a bummer to some people with diabetes who preferred using the PDM device as an all-in-one type of technology.

So while I get the decision to encourage more folks to upgrade to newer Omnipod systems, I’m also a little bummed for the individuals who were deliberately postponing that move, or not wanting to make it in the first place. I can totally relate to not feeling ready to make a diabetes tech change-up; after all, I waited almost 15 years of having diabetes before I even thought about trying an insulin pump. I benefited from being able to make that transition when I felt ready, and I just feel that it’s a shame that others won’t be able to do the same due to the pending discontinuation of the Omnipod Eros.

The Worst Time to Change a CGM Sensor or Pod

mollyt1d5 Comments

I’m not kidding when I say I think I’ve definitively identified the worst possible time to change a CGM sensor or pod – of course, I can only speak to a Dexcom CGM sensor and an Omnipod, so it’s probable that the worst time to do a site change may vary depending on the specific piece of equipment being used.

But I’ve learned from my own experiences that the worst time to do a site change is within a one-hour window of taking a shower.

Unless you want your pod to fall off and look sad like this one, maybe avoid changing it before taking a shower.

This is because I’ve found that the sensor or pod adhesive needs a solid block of time to firmly adhere to my skin. If I shower soon after completing a site change, I can almost guarantee that the heat and steam from the shower will be enough to dissolve the adhesive and cause the sensor or pod to fall off.

I’ve played around with the timing, too, and I’ve discovered that the more time I put in between a site change and shower, the better – an hour seems to be the absolute minimum. It can be a little inconvenient in the times that I have to forgo my CGM data for a longer period than I’d like, but my goodness, is it wonderful when the stars align and I can take a completely device-free shower. This doesn’t happen often as my sensor and pod change days don’t usually happen on the same day, but it’s undeniably a nice break when it does.

So, there you have it – a word of caution from me, a semi-pro CGM and pod wearer with about a decade’s worth of experience wearing both devices – the worst time to undergo a site change. A pod or CGM failure almost always can’t be helped, but I think it’s worth knowing how to prevent the likelihood of one or both of them needing to be replaced sooner than expected.

Feelin’ Odd About my Pod

mollyt1d1 Comment

I don’t often perform pod changes in public. This is mainly due to the fact that I’m most comfortable changing my pod in my own home, where I have all my supplies readily available…and more importantly, it’s where I feel safe taking off a pod from an old site and putting a fresh one onto a new location.

So you can imagine the level of unease I felt when I had no choice but to change my pod at my office for the first time since starting my new job.

I did this plenty of times at my last office job, but that was always behind the privacy of a closed conference room door that I could lock and that nobody could see into. This level of discretion meant that I could take my time with my pod changes without worrying about someone seeing me and getting the wrong idea about what I was doing (even I can admit that it looks a bit suspicious to see someone in a non-hospital setting drawing an unidentified liquid out of a vial with a syringe).

Both fortunately and unfortunately for me, my new office space is so modern in its design that every single conference room is encased with glass walls and doors – making it all too easy to peer inside each one to determine whether or not it’s occupied. That’s great for off-the-cuff meetings, but not so much for someone who needs just 5 minutes to change an insulin pump site.

Due to the lack of privacy in my office suite, I had to venture out to the main building bathrooms as a next resort. But I wasn’t just going to use any old bathroom. No, I sought out the one that had what I suspected to be the least amount of foot traffic and also the cleanest sink, because I most certainly was not going to lock myself into a stall to ensure more privacy when changing my pod. Absolutely not. Sure, it would mean that I had the stall door blocking me from view, but it also meant I’d have to change my pod without a table in front of me to put my supplies on, and I wasn’t about to do that because it would virtually guarantee that I drop something on the unsanitary bathroom floor – or worst-case scenario, maybe even break my vial of insulin. I wasn’t about to risk that, so I set about changing my pod at the bathroom sink, keeping my fingers and toes crossed the entire time that nobody would walk in while I was at any stage of the process.

My mission was accomplished; a few moments later, I was rocking a brand-new pod and also marveling over how something fairly mundane (because I do it every 72 hours or so) could cause me such anxiety and make me feel self-conscious about needing to do this medically necessary routine in public. I’m not accustomed to feeling odd about my pod and the maintenance actions I take to keep it running smoothly – and to keep myself healthy, to boot – but there’s a solid, highly realistic chance that I’ll have to publicly change my pod again in the future. Hopefully, I can work on it so that changing my pod, whether within the walls of my own home or in the most public of locations, is something that I feel normal about doing, and worry less about whether or not people are judging me over it.

Battery Blues…No More?

mollyt1d1 Comment

Earlier this year, I wrote a post about my dissatisfaction with my Omnipod DASH PDM’s battery life. Basically, I was frustrated that the dang thing needed to be recharged practically every day. But what bothered me even more was how suddenly the battery life would seem to drop – it would dip from 100% charged to 40% in the matter of a few short hours, and worse, it would do this totally inconsistently so it was nearly impossible to predict when my PDM would need a sudden charge.

I thought my PDM problem would be solved when I got my new Omnipod 5 PDM; however, it persisted. And that’s what indicated to me that there was some type of user error going on that I needed to get to the bottom of before I resigned myself to having to charge my PDM everyday.

So I called customer support and told them about what I was experiencing, and explained that on paper, I was doing all the right things to preserve battery life: using the dedicated charger, using minimal screen brightness, hitting the power button to shut off the screen when it wasn’t in use…I wanted to know, could they offer me any battery-saving tips?

Little did I know that a simple solution to my battery blues was just one phone call away!

That’s when I was informed that disconnecting my PDM from Wi-Fi would be a good starting place; after all, the Wi-Fi connection only comes in handy when uploading my data via Glooko. I was amazed, but the moment the customer support rep said this, it made total sense. This whole time, I’d been connected to my home’s Wi-Fi for essentially no reason because it has nothing to do with how my insulin is delivered (the system uses Bluetooth for all communications). I only ever entered my Wi-Fi information in the PDM because silly me thought it was needed for effective operation, but nope, turns out the only thing it’s good for (besides uploading data, of course) is sucking the life out of my PDM battery.

As soon as I ended the call with customer support, I turned off my PDM’s Wi-Fi settings and charged it to 100%. Nearly 24 hours later, it’s sitting pretty at 80%, a much better battery life than it was displaying previously. Problem solved, and proof that I definitely have more to learn about how to best utilize all aspects of my Omnipod 5 system!

Imaginary Beeps

mollyt1d1 Comment

While busy at work one afternoon, I was listening to a Spotify playlist (as I often do), when I could’ve sworn I heard my Omnipod beeping to alert me to a failure.

Oh noooo…I thought. I remember sitting in my chair, with my head cocked and music blaring, as I tried to confirm that the beep was indeed emitting from my pod.

I was so certain that my pod was failing that it didn’t even cross my mind (at least initially) that it could’ve been my music playing a little too loudly.

And then I realized…it wasn’t my pod after all. It was the song that I’d been listening to. Roughly 2:45 into the song “Honestly” by Cartel, the music rose to such a crescendo that I could’ve sworn that it was my pod failing, but nope, it was just the pitch of the sound emitting from my speakers.

What a relief! But also a stark reminder that this phenomenon occurs on the regular. I mistake beeps from standard household appliances, alarm clocks, television commercials, and the outside world in general for Omnipod beeps. And I’m struck by it every single time.

The sounds of diabetes, just like diabetes itself, are just something I’ve come to accept – in the many unique forms they appear in.

High…Why?!

mollyt1d1 Comment

Ugh, high again? Why does this keep happening?!

I mused to myself as my Dexcom vibrated incessantly, alerting me to the state of my blood sugar.

I’ve actually been wondering that very thought (and cursing out loud about it) more often than I’d like in recent weeks.

High blood sugar = the diabetes version of kryptonite, at least for me.

It’s been about 3 weeks since I started the Omnipod 5, and I guess my high hopes for the system to revolutionize my blood sugars came to be a little too literally. The 5 has been a godsend in terms of 1) helping me sleep through the night as I’ve only woken up once this month to correct a low OR high blood sugar and 2) catching lows before they happen or before I have to eat something in order to bring my BG back up.

But what the 5 and I are struggling with is the exact opposite of the latter, and that is catching highs before they happen – and then reacting accordingly. I’ve found that I’m dealing with more rapid and prolonged spikes than I thought I’d be. I’m doing what I can to proactively treat them myself by bolusing when they occur, but for some reason, it seems to take a solid 2-3 hours for my blood sugar to come back down nearly every time.

After consulting with some of my diabetes pals about this, and giving it some further contemplation, I’ve got a 3-step action plan to combat these highs:

  1. Give my Omnipod 5 more time to learn my body’s patterns – I’ve heard across the community that it can take several weeks for this to happen most effectively, so I need to try to be patient and wait for the results to occur.
  2. Continue to correct for highs when they occur, and do so swiftly. One of my colleagues said this helped a lot in the beginning, so I will continue to monitor for highs diligently and not be shy about bolusing for them (as long as I’m not stacking insulin too much).
  3. Pre-bolus, pre-bolus, and pre-bolus some more. I’ve always been a believer in the power of the pre-bolus, especially since I know that Humalog typically takes 60-75 minutes to start working in my body. I’m going to build pre-bolusing into my schedule and try to do it at least 30 minutes before I actually eat each of my meals, and we’ll see where that takes me.

Hopefully, this plan of mine coupled with my automated insulin delivery system will nip these high episodes in the bud before long. I can’t wait for “why, high” to become “smooth sailing” and translate into beautiful, level Dexcom graphs!

Omnipod 5: My Initial Impressions

mollyt1d1 Comment

As of this writing, I’ve been wearing my new Omnipod 5 pump for about 2 ½ days. I will be changing my first Omnipod 5 pod later this evening, but before then, I wanted to jot down my initial impressions of the system as a whole so far.

The PDM: A bit larger and more brick-like compared to my Dash PDM. Actually, the size is pretty on par with my iPhone. I like that the screen is larger and it seems more sensitive to touch than my Dash – all good things. Except I can’t figure out why it makes chiming sounds only sometimes after I enter my PIN! I’m sure I’ll learn the cause of that eventually…

The pod: Basically indistinguishable from my Dash pods – the only difference I’ve spotted (or rather heard) has to do with the mechanical ticking sound my pod makes when it’s delivering my basal insulin. The old pods had a set frequency, whereas the 5 pods seem to go “tick, tick, tick” in bursts of three or so. Not sure why, but I know I’m still getting my basal rate delivered, which is what counts.

The set-up: Inputting all of my settings into the 5 only took me about 15-20 minutes. It was so easy that it likely would’ve taken me less time if I wasn’t so thorough and careful about triple-checking my settings. I also think it was relatively seamless for me because I was already familiar with 90% of the PDM’s functionality – the only thing I had (and still have to) explore further is automated mode…see below.

Baby’s first automated insulin delivery system!

Automated vs. manual modes: I can go back and forth between automated (insulin delivery is automatic and the system responds to highs and lows based on data it receives from my Dexcom) and manual (I have to make my own adjustments, just like I did with the older versions of Omnipod). This was a helpful feature for me because I inexplicably got scared of automated mode the first night I wore the pod. I didn’t know what to expect from it – should I trust it right away? Would I notice it working? What if it didn’t? Ultimately, I decided I wasn’t comfortable going to sleep in automated mode, so I kept manual mode on because I wanted to have more control. I waited until the following morning before I turned it on, and since then, I’ve been on automated mode and I’ve spent a solid chunk of my time in range. A few highs here and there, but all my lows seem to be detected before I drop too much, which is just awesome.

Dexcom integration: Similar to the overall set-up of the system, it was extremely easy to get my Dexcom synced up with my Omnipod. All I had to do was enter the 6-character transmitter ID into my PDM and give it a few moments to pick up my Dexcom’s signal. And that was it! I’m sure things will get a little more dicey on days that I have to do both a pod and CGM change (coincidentally, I’m going to do just that in a few hours for the first time…eek), but I do have confidence in my ability to time the changes well so I don’t go without automated mode or Dexcom data for too long.

Let’s talk about sleep: The indisputable best part of this system so far is that I’ve slept soundly the past 3 nights. No CGM alarms going off and waking me up, no frantic shoving of food in my mouth from my bed or late night bolus delivery. And best of all, no waking up in the morning out of range. Now it’s not like that before the 5, I was waking up every night to do something diabetes-related, nor was I starting off each day with a high or low. But I was getting to a point where these things did happen at least on a weekly basis, and naturally, I was getting tired of it. So while I’m acutely aware that I need more time to get to know the system (and it also needs to figure me out), I have hope that it will help me make a major improvement in my diabetes care and management.

All in all, it’s been a relatively smooth start for me and my Omnipod 5. I totally expect some bumps down the road, because that’s normal when starting up any new piece of diabetes technology. But for now, I remain grateful for a comfortable transition to the system.