With my Animas Vibe (Which I loved. Best pump on the market IMO) officially out of warranty, and no hope for the future of Animas, it was time for an upgrade.
A bit of background, I have been on a pump for about 20 years now, Minimed 507C, 508, 2 Paradigms and the Animas, and have used the original Medtronic CGM, which was horribly painful and inaccurate, and a Dexcom G4 since I’ve been on the Animas.
I contacted Insulet and Tandem in late January to get info on the Omnipod and T-Slim. Tandem said they couldn’t talk to me until my pump was out of warranty, while Insulet offered me a free PDM and 30 day supply of pods. The PDM also makes me eligible for the Dash upgrade when it becomes available.
So I decided to give the Omnipod a good workover. The best part was, since they sent me everything free, and it wasn’t billed to my insurance, if I didn’t like it, my insurance could still cover the T-Slim.
I also just received my Dexcom G6 upgrade. I am waiting for the G4 sensor I’m wearing to give up the ghost before switching to the G6.
Thoughts on the Omnipod after my first 30 days:
The tubeless design is actually better than I thought it would be. Having a tube never bothered me, but now that I don’t have one I realize things that are a bit better. First, I didn’t realize how much I woke up in the middle of the night, when turning over, to adjust my tubing. Second, this:
I thought the PDM would be a pain to keep track of. I found a 3D printed PDM belt case on Shapeways (https://www.shapeways.com/product/5FEQQ6DHW/omnipod-pdm-clip-case), and that mitigated the issue. Now that the weather is warmer and I’m rocking super-fashionable cargo shorts, It’s even less of a problem.
The PDM is very user friendly. Look, it’s my 6th insulin pump, so I get what’s going on, but, I think even if it were my first pump, it would be pretty easy to learn and use.
I do miss the CGM integration on the Animas, but once I have the G6 on my phone, I don’t think it will be a big deal.
The adhesive on the pods is super strong. And while this is great, they’re a little painful to take off. even after a day or two I still have a red ring where the pod was.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing what happens with Tidepool/Horizon.
When it comes down to it, it’s a pump. The low cost of entry is great, and so far it has worked very well. I’m going to stick with it for a while. Maybe I’ll post a follow up once I get G6 up and running for a bit.
Apply either and let them sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Then the sides should be lifted up nicely. After that, apply a bit more under the POD all around and let that sit for an additional few minutes. It should fall right off if you let them sit long enough under the POD.
I made the same move over a year ago (from Vibe to pods) and I love it. I also figured that I would give pods a try since there was no upfront cost involved (and I could always get another pump with my insurance). Now I think it would be very difficult to switch back to a pump with tubing, so for the moment, even though the other pump companies are coming out with some interesting functionality, I am sticking with Omnipod.
Unwinding myself interrupted my sleep for years. Tubeless was the clincher for me. A pump would have to have some pretty fancy features to get me to go back to tubes.
I read a lot of people say this, and recommending various lotions and potions to help ease them off. Personally I have never had a single problem. Band-aids are worse! So it’s obviously a very individual thing, which only makes sense since it’s our skin.
Personally I don’t see any advantage to Dash, since I’d have to carry two phones plus a meter, and there’s no CGM integration. I’ll sit that one out and wait for the hybrid closed-loop Horizon release. Although the Tidepool Loop is a big jump forward for Omnipod, it still won’t have the CGM integration, will it?
It looks like it will. From my understanding of Tidepool, the pod will talk directly to the CGM, and both the CGM and Pod will be viewed/controlled from the tidepool phone app. There will be no need for a PDM whatsoever.
Also, there are rumors that some of the holdups on Dash are due to Insulet trying to add phone control, so you wouldn’t need the Dash PDM. Granted, they’re just rumors, but here’s hoping.
