That really wasn’t that long of a story. Must be the readers digest version.
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That can be stopped. With the minimalist settings on the PDM these beeps happen:
- A beep one hour before the nominal “expiration” (you can control how many hours).
- A beep one hour before termination (I don’t think there is any control over that.)
- A continuous nailed-to-the-perch beeping at 80 hours, and cecessation of all activity (other than the beeping).
I don’t think there is a beep at the actual expiration time, but I might be wrong; they’re difficult to tell apart and they frequently happen while I’m asleep.
These beeps happen, unfortunately, in two places. The pod itself does one then a few seconds later the PDM does another. You need to wake the PDM each time and you need to wake it after the few seconds delay (or just wait for it to beep), then acknowledge the alarm. Failing to acknowledge the alarm causes the repeated beeping.
If you follow the 80 hour routine (as I do) sooner or later you will end up changing the pod at 2AM in the morning.
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Can’t you just toss the thing through the sunroof and it goes away ?
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I know what you can’t do… You can’t drop it in the trash and hope the trash atop of it will muffle it. I remember that from last time… hearing the screaming from deep inside the can.
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I can make any story long. My thumbs can’t handle the word-load, so it was the highlights. 
Indeed, however the PDM is doing it too. The only way to stop the PDM is to turn it on, put in the four digit code and click on the “deactivate pod” button. If you’ve already ejected the pod you then have to wait until the PDM figures out it can no longer talk to it, something that takes a lot longer than deactivation would have. On the UST400 it was possible to pull the batteries on the PDM with one hand, not so on the Dash PDM; fingernails and two hands are required to detach the back from the case.
The four digit code is a big problem when driving. My cellphone doesn’t require one because it is connected to the car which acts as an Android “unlock” device.
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John,
I don’t always run it to 80 hours. It’s more a matter of timing convenience for me.
If you are doing the 10am, 6pm, 2am cycle, that late night one sucks.
What basal insulin do you have?
When I have an expiration at a lousy hour like that, my simple solution is a single shot of Levemir at night and swapping it out in the morning instead.
Levemir works great for me because at my dose it lasts the right length to just cover the night.
Maybe you want to consider that for every 3rd pod?
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The underlying problem is that I typically sleep 10 hours a day. I could just run 3 days/72 hours, it would probably be a lot easier, but I just can’t be asked; I know when beep (1) happens that I don’t have to worry for 9 hours so inevitably I end up not changing it before I go to bed. I firmly believe that delaying tedious tasks is the key to a happy life.
I could delay the change arbitrarily using Lantus in my case, however I’m frequently running a temp basal overnight to cover evening snacks (nuts). I do typically get woken up around 3AM anyway to deal with a high alert. In some sense it barely seems more work to do a pod change than to do a basal injection.
Time to introduce the Omnipod Dash dash to the Diabetic Olympics; first person to get 0.05IU of insulin delivered from a standing start.
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Ah, but I want the reminders. For me it would be too easy to forget I need to change my pod, and then I’d be caught by the screamer alarm at the end. I rarely go an hour or two beyond the expiration time, keeping to a fairly regular mid-afternoon pod-change schedule, so the beeps aren’t a nuisance.
You can ignore the PDM one. If it’s not acknowledged, it just waits for its next hourly alert. It does not require acknowledgement until it’s woken (which in my case would be to change the pod anyway).
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I agree completely. I want the reminders too, but I want different ones 
from you. In fact I think Insulet have got it pretty close to correct. I would not criticize them so frequently if I thought they couldn’t listen, why waste my breath?
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This was a good one @Sam. Got me loling 
Nicky, did you have to make any basal or bolus adjustments going off of basal IQ??
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