My son always has an additional site in his bag, in the car, in his supplies at school, etc. We don’t keep insulin in all those places, but pump sites, yep.
1 Like
I always have the PDM with me.
Isn’t this the recommended method? Nowadays I pinch up as much as I can; I find I get more reliable absorption if I “grab a handful” rather than “pinch an inch”. Even if places I can grab a handful are limited.
And the reverse: if you’ve recently delivered a largish bolus but need to start a new pod, go ahead but leave the old one in until your intuition tells you all the insulin has been absorbed.
3 Likes
And when I have to deactivate the pod in the middle of the night, most of the time I will bolus Liam .25 to .40 before deactivating just to compensate for the basal that he would be getting for the next little while. Many times I will still have to change out the pod in the middle of the night when he sleeps but I try to prolong it for as long as possible.
The bolus prior to deactivating staves off any immediate rises.
4 Likes
You can silence the pod alarm manually with a paperclip if the PDM can’t deactivate it due to a communication error. There’s a hole in the back of the pod that if you push an extended paperclip in there, it turns off the alarm.
Although hitting it with a hammer can be fun, too.
4 Likes
@kpanda01, I keep two spare pods in my purse all the time. I’ve had more spontaneous pod failures, it seems, than what I read from other FUD’ers. And sometimes I have had them get ripped off my arm while crawling under my van looking for the most important Lego piece ever that my son dropped in the garage while we’re trying to get out the door in the morning. In that case, I went ahead and got him dropped off, got my other son dropped off, and then went about replacing the pod b/c I knew I’d only be without it for about 12 minutes.
3 Likes
Thanks to all you guys for such great feedback and advice! As it gets closer I’m getting a little more anxious about the switch but reading that so many of you have found pumping to be beneficial and are using it despite the hassles is reassuring.
1 Like
Do you find there’s any difference between bolusing before deactivating or bolusing right after activating? Is it just personal preference or do you find you have different results?
Yes, the difference in the situation I’m talking about in my example is that I can SOMETIMES not even have to put on the new POD until the morning…or at least 3 or 4 hours after the old POD has fully expired. And I tend to give more insulin with a new POD because, for us, they aren’t as effective when first applied…it takes some hours/a day for the site saturation to get dialed in.
It’s a preference thing I guess, but during the night only (the only time we do this), we wouldn’t do it the other way because we aren’t wanting to put on the new pod immediately.
1 Like
I always do an “activation bolus” on a new pod. Just a small amount to get it all started.
3 Likes
So this has me thinking. If things are going as expected (whatever that means) with your current pod, and it’s time to change it out but it’s also approximately mealtime…Do you bolus with the old pod, eat, then change? Or swap it out and start your meal bolus with the new one?
I may be an outlier, but I learned that for my body I’d bolus w the “old” pod, start the new one, but leave the “old” one on for an hour or two to avoid bolus leakage. Again, I might be an outlier, but the new one wouldn’t be “soaked” enough for a fresh bolus to work for a meal for me.
1 Like
If the old one still has insulin in it, I would absolutely use it unless you think the site is compromised. Being the cheap person I am, I would probably still pull out what I needed from that pod and inject it with a syringe if it had enough insulin I could retrieve.
1 Like
I concur with what these smart people 
said:
As long as it is still working well (meaning your BG has made sense for the last 24 hours), stick with it.
2 Likes
Hi guys… thanks for all your advice! I started the Omnipod this morning!! Was super nervous to get started, but so far, so good in my whopping 5 hours with it.
They dialed back my basal by a good bit, as expected, but I’m surprised to find I’m drifting low today anyway. I just had a few carbs to bring up a second mild one, so we’ll see if it tries to wander back down again.
I don’t usually stress over mild lows during the day, but I’m a little nervous to sleep later if I’m still drifting lowish at that point. Also, I have really poorly-timed fasting bloodwork scheduled for the morning (that I really can’t reschedule) so I ideally need to stay away from food late this evening/overnight if possible.
I don’t really want to start messing with things so soon, but I’m not sure what to do here. If it were you, would you just wait it out and see how it goes? Temp basal overnight to back it off a little? Something else?
Thanks in advance. I was really thinking I could make it longer than a few hours before I had questions 
4 Likes
If you are still drifting low when you go to bed, try dialing it back a little. Maybe a 75% 8-hour basal while you are sleeping, until the tests are done?
1 Like
Giving this a try! Thanks for the advice!
2 Likes
Yeah, those fasting tests suck for diabetics! No doubt!
1 Like
@kpanda01
Hey KP, how did it go last night?!
I’ve been meaning to pop on here today and let you know it worked like a charm. I hovered in the 70s all night, so I’m glad I reduced it and didn’t go any lower.
I ended up changing my basal rate this morning, because it was clearly too much. I havent been snacking away little lows all afternoon, so I think I’m headed in the right direction.
8 Likes