I am wondering does Omnipod continue to inject basal per active setting after a pod expires?
The reason I ask is I experienced really surprising results today. I was driving to the beach this morning for a run, when my pod beeped to alert me that it just expired! I didnât want to waste time driving all the way back home, so I decided to just continue on my way. I did not have an extra pod, nor did I have insulin, but I did have a syringe. I thought if needed, I could always give myself a bolus from the expired pod. It turned out that wasnât needed.
By the time I started my run, my BG was 70 and my pod had been expired for 1 hour. Also, I skipped breakfast so I had no IOB. I finished my run of 1 hour, 20 mins, then walked back to the car. My BG was 53! I was without insulin for 2.5 hours so I had expected to rise. I got home an hour later, and BG was 50, so it decreased!. Since I wasnât high, I decided to walk to the farmers market before changing the pod. Finally, on return, I was 62. This was nearly 5 hours without insulin, when I finally changed the pod.
Could it be the pod was continuing to inject basal even though it was expired?
Your pod will deliver for 8 hours after it expires. But it will NOT deliver after deactivation.
8 hours after expiration it will be deactivated. So your pod can deliver even after it âexpiresâ, but not after it is deactivated.
At 72 hours your PDM alerts you that your pod is expired, but it still works until 80 hours, if you do not deactivate it.
Does all of that make sense?
If your pod was deactivated, the other thing to think about is that you have residual insulin. Depending on your insulin duration, basal ânowâ is also basal up to 4 hours from now. So even after your pod stops delivering, the insulin that was in your body is working for several hours.
On top of this, exercise amplifies everything.
And there is also contraction mediated glucose uptake from exercise, that means your body can still process some glucose just from the exercise.
Oh, wow, thanks, I didnât know this! I did NOT deactivate the pod. I just left it on and went running. So, as I suspected, it did continue to inject the active basal. I thought (prayed!) for a moment that I no longer needed basal after 5 hours passed! Iâm really glad to hear though that the pod continues to work! No wonder my BGs were not going up! I would have eaten something to resolve the slight low had I known I was really getting the basal!
Sorry I should have researched on FuD before asking my question as it looks like you already made a post about this! Still, thank you so much for confirming this.
Yes, I was counting on the residual insulin to get me to the beach before I started running because by then it would have been something over an hour w/out any insulin. Normally, Iâve only been suspending my insulin for 1/2 hour before I run. Today, I didnât suspend it of course because I thought the pod was no longer providing a basal. Hence I had somewhat of a low as a result of the exercise. But not too bad.
Pods work for 80 hours after the time you hit the 85 unit mark when first filling it. Unless you deactivate it or it runs out of insulin.
You get a expiration notice at 72 hours, it says the pod has expired. But you have another 8 hours before it stops working. A total of 80 hours of pod life from the time you first fill it.
Yes, the pod is fully functional up to 80 hours. You can program it, change basal, bolus, all of that.
I didnât want to waste time driving all the way back home, so I decided to just continue on my way. I did not have an extra pod, nor did I have insulin, but I did have a syringe. I thought if needed, I could always give myself a bolus from the expired pod. It turned out that wasnât needed.
No wonder my BGs were not going up! I would have eaten something to resolve the slight low had I known I was really getting the basal!
Still, thank you so much for confirming this.
Thank you for the clarification!!