I’ve had a few failures of “awareness” with both the pods and the Dexcom sensors. Things like walking too close to a door, taking a shirt off the wrong way, things like that. I haven’t lost any like that in a while, but sometimes its just in a place that gets snagged or hits something.
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And awareness does develop over time. Meanwhile, a little extra tape can help!
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Sorry for your frustrations! But me, I wouldn’t call these “pod failures.” Neither incident was the fault of the pod, and the pod was likely still working even though dislodged. To me a pod failure is when the pod stops and alarms and the PDM gives you some kind of error code. Which has not happened to me so far in my first year of podding. Though I too have knocked a couple loose on door frames and such. Even then I’ve been lucky – the cannula has never come out, and some extra tape keeps things in place until change time. Hope things improve (aka settle down) for you and EH!
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Thanks for your feedback! I did offer some extra tape, but by then Eric had pulled it off of his arm. I guess they feel like failures to me because the pod isn’t delivering insulin anymore. But I see all of your points that they are user error. I suppose I expected the pod to rip off if you crash into the doorway or what not, but neither of these experiences were rough handling in that manner.
I think will get the hang of it. In the meantime, we certainly need to be having plenty of extra insulin around. 
I was going to say maybe we should change the title of this thread, but I think if I were looking on the Internet for “pod failures” I would want to read about other people’s experiences like this. Although, I was attempting to research the the OmniPod alarm sounds and there’s so many complaints around the alarm sounds, it was hard to find the answer to what the three beep mean! I finally used the manual and found the answer. 
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If you are comfortable with this idea, you can just use a syringe and pull the insulin out of the old pod and add to the new one. When I do this, I usually add the old insulin to the new pod first and then follow with a separate top-up of fresh insulin.
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That’s good to hear you’ve done that with success. I’m pretty sure a while back I read a thread where @Eric said it was possible. But I wouldn’t hesitate if it was enough insulin to make it worth while. Do you use a regular dosing syringe or the one that comes with a new pod?
I usually use the syringe that comes with the pod. It is tricky but it does work.
Tricky, yes! Because of my finger injury (right index finger), I have managed to ruin 3 of those flimsy syringes and had to use the ones I buy for my cat’s vitamins (piggy-backed on his sub-cutaneous fluids). Having a small stock of extra syringes has been really “handy”!
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I also use the syringe that comes with the new pod. After withdrawing the insulin from the old pod, I use the same syringe (with the old insulin in it) to withdraw top-up insulin from the vial, then fill the new pod. I’m aware there’s some risk of “used” insulin mixing with the insulin in the vial. Probably @Aaron’s two-step method of filling the new pod is more sanitary, though so far I haven’t encountered any problems.
I also don’t withdraw from a pod after about the first full day. Not sure why; it just doesn’t feel like a good thing to do.
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Right. If the thing blows up soon after putting it on, it has a full 3 days of insulin in it and is new.
But each day of pod use gives the remaining insulin diminishing value - warmed over insulin that has been shaken up for days, and much less of it remaining in the pod.
If it is the first day, maybe it’s worth it. After a few days, maybe not.
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Yes - I only so this in the first day. I do not pay for insulin so my only motivation to saving insulin is helping my insurance company keep the costs down.
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You are a much nicer person than I am. I find that I want to thumb my nose at our insurance company at every turn possible. I find it very frustrating that it is so hard to get what we pay for out of them, and I am tired of being lied to and deceived on a regular basis by them. So I’d save the insulin, but only to have a reserve supply for someone who needs it down the road.
The vast majority of large employer provided group health plans are self-funded by the employer with the “insurance company” simply providing the administrative handling of claims and related paperwork with the “insurance company” being on the hook for none of the costs. The last stat I read stated that well over 90% of companies with more than 1,000 employees are self-funded. About 60% of mid-size companies with a couple hundred or more employers are self-funded. Almost always, self-funded companies have stop-loss coverage which the employee is generally not aware of but limits the liability of the self-funded company (ie - employer) to a fixed dollar amount person (depends on what sort of stop-loss coverage they purchase but $25k is a ballpark reasonable number) at which point the stop-loss provider picks up the bill for the remaining health care costs of the particular employee.
I could see being more interested in trying to save your employer money. Although still a bit removed, I think more tangible of a feeling as opposed to saving funds for a large national insurance corporation that covers millions of people or the Government that covers many more.
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