On Omnipodding

I’ve never had a pod fall off. I really have to yank it off of me after 3 days. But I do have trouble with my Dexcom and started using Skin Tac which works great and one bottle lasts forever! I now have a dog on the Libre, and while we shave her where we put it, her hair growing started to loosen it pretty fast. We used the Skin Tac for the second one and it is working like a charm, it really doesn’t want to come off of her even after 14 days. We have to use the Tac Away to loosen it off of her.

That said most people do use less insulin on a pump but you were on one already? Humalog has a concentrated insulin U-200 (or even stronger ones) so you wouldn’t have to change it as often.

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I do shave, but I do so because otherwise the adhesive pulls the hairs out, or, painfully, fails to do so when I remove the pod. I also use alcohol (not a wipe, 90% propanol in a spray bottle) and make sure it has evaporated, or wiped away, before I put the pod on. I would not expect it to have adhesion problems unless I was both sweating, a lot, and had clothing over the pod that moved it while my skin was wet so I think the lack of adhesion must have been something else.

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I don’t use pods, but for my Libre CGM i always wipe before applying it. In fact, the instructions say to do it twice, and two swabs are included in the package. I wipe quite vigorously, and I believe that takes off the topmost layer of dead skin cells. That might be worth considering.

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Update after 4th pod change. All pods have stuck well since wiping skin with alcohol. I’m extremely happy with the system. I have phantom tube incidents, like checking my pocket for the pump or reaching to take it off before a shower.

Often I forget the pod is attached to my arm.

But even better my test numbers have never been this good, only over over 12 (mmol/L) most everything else 7 and under. I also have been able to reduce basal and bolus amounts, either the pump is more efficient or its the effect of using sites that have not been used in 12 years.

And this means my last pod lasted 66 hours before running out, so pretty close to the 3 day mark.

Thanks for all the help.

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Glad you were able to solve the issue. Life is hard enough without the hardware falling off.

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