Monday, October 17, 2011

Pod Ponderings, a year later

Last Friday marked the one year mark for Bean using the Omnipod insulin pump.

It's hard to believe it's been 365 (well, 368 now) days of button pushing instead of injections.  In fact, Bean hasn't received her insulin from a syringe or pen in all of those days.

Has it been fabulously wonderful; full of rainbows and glitter?  Um, no.  Would I go back to MDI?  Um, hell-to-the-no!

Our first shipment of pods had an alarming pod in it...yep, even before I had opened the box one of those little stinkers was beeeeeeping at me!  The rest of the box was alarm happy, too.  In fact, the first pod we put on Bean alarmed when we were getting in the car to leave our appointment.  And there was a week that we did five pod changes instead of the 'should have been' two.

Thankfully the boxes to follow have been way better.  The alarms have gotten fewer and farther between.  And except for the pods that alarmed, we've gotten the full life (72 hours, give or take a bit for ease of scheduling) out of all of the pods.

Bean has really enjoyed having only one 'shot' every three days instead of at least 4 injections everyday.  She doesn't enjoy the pod changes a whole lot, but even on the days when the split second, automatic insertion hits a tender spot and it hurts for a while, she still wouldn't trade it for any other insulin delivery system.  I LOVE the easiness of the pod changes.  In fact, Bean can pretty much do the whole process herself and even walked the new school nurse through a pod change at school when her pod alarmed.

As far as the BG numbers go....we've had our fair share of ups and downs, highs and lows.  The pod wasn't (and isn't) a magic fix for perfect, in range BGs.  However, it has made a big difference in how we manage Bean's numbers.  On MDI, we wouldn't give her an 'extra' shot to bring down a high.  That made things difficult for her and for us.  With the Omnipod, we are able to correct highs with a push of a few buttons; and it accounts for that insulin when calculating other doses within our set time frame.  We're also able to set multiple basal rates instead of having to hope her Lantus is releasing evenly or chasing lows during the night to keep from chasing highs during the day because of the amount of Lantus injected.  Now that we're pumping Apidra, we're seeing even better numbers.  Still not perfectly in range, but much better.  I'm anxious to see what Bean's A1c will be in November.

All in all, we are extremely please with the Omnipod.  Is it perfect? No.  But I don't think any insulin delivery system is without its faults.   Bottom line, it works for us...for Bean.  And that's really what it all comes down to.

9 comments:

  1. Happy one year of Podding!! :o) I'm curious about Apidra actually...i've heard a lot of good things about it from others...I need to do some research to find out more about it!

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  2. Happy one year of Podding!!!! (And hi sweety!, been too long :)

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  3. WoHooo for pumping AND love hearing about the POD. I always thought Joe would like to give it a go, but he is faithful to Animas. xo

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  4. I want to get Zane on the Pod so bad (currently on MDI) - but we learned at our Endo appt last week that he is still on too low of a dose of Levimir to go on the Pod...so in time when he ups his insulin dose we can look into the Pod again! Although, I won't lie, I'm fearful of the "change"...scares me to death, but I know that it'll be better in the long run to go the pump route!!

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  5. im so glad to hear its been a positive year, all things considered. hows this, we dont even have the pod available here! jules bittersweetdiabetes.blogspot.com

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  6. Sounds great! We're using Animus but keep eyeing the Pod. Do you ever run out of real estate? Happy podiversary!

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  7. We are about 3-4 months in to using the pod. About 2 years into pumping. You are so right. It's not perfect. Pumping inst magic. But - I do love it! And so does she. And we really love the Omnipod! :)

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Hey, Thanks for sharing!! Your comments make me :)!!
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