Initial Pump Referral

[Dan87]

As always, thanks to everyone for the informative replies.

I'm currently wearing a sample of the Omnipod which the DSN at Russells Hall hospital gave me, have had it on for 3 days and played football in it for over an hour last night with no problems whatsoever. Wearing it on my arm and will remove soon as I know if it was the real thing it would be coming to the point where it would now be removed, ready for a new pod to go on my other arm, my stomach or legs.

I'm very much leaning towards this pump now, it feels very similar to wearing a Libre to me, which I had no problems with. I'll happily wear a Libre as well when I want to use CGM, and other than not having CGM built in I can't see/haven't read any real negatives of the Omnipod as far as I'm concerned.

 

[noblehead]

I'm currently wearing a sample of the Omnipod which the DSN at Russells Hall hospital gave me, have had it on for 3 days and played football in it for over an hour last night with no problems whatsoever.

That is good news, didn't want to give you a definitive answer earlier as I've not played football since using the pump

 

[Dan87]

Update on this, just awaiting a call from the DSN once the omnipod arrives to get up and running hopefully this month, exciting times!

Will be ideal for my sport for starters. Food wise do people find you can be a lot more flexible with what you eat? Eg at the moment at a restaturant I never have a dessert after a main (almost impossible not to go high), is it manageable with the pump to eat more like a non-diabetic?

 

[Juicyj]

Hi @Dan87 Great news !! Yes the beauty of the pump is that you can bolus to suit your food so you can do a square or dual blues pattern which is ideal for say high fat food which would have a delayed absorption of carbs over a longer time frame, it's not a perfect science as you would need to trial what works for you, but the fun is working it out and gaining confidence with the flexibility of micro managing your control, you can also bolus for single units of carbs meaning more accurate bolus delivery. I run, cycle and swim so I find the pump brilliant to use in managing exercise and putting a temp basal pattern in to do these. Have a look at YouTube and see how others find the omnipod too ?

 

[Deleted Account]

I'm a bit late to this party but wanted to add a comment about using a tubed pump with exercise for anyone else who may read this thread later.

I am a tubey pumper and a regular exerciser. How I manage it depends on the exercise I am doing.
When I go to the gym, I reduce my basal and keep my pump attached unless I see my BG falling. Then I just take it off and have zero basal.
When I am climbing, I increase my basal and keep my pump attached and out of the way. I may not be getting bumped but I don't want the pump swinging as I try a difficult move or risk falling on it.
That said, I have found my pump to be very rugged and it has taken a few small falls.

Regarding removing the pump, as I said above, I sometimes remove it at the gym and have done so when swimming or at the spa. On the latter occasions, I connect it about once an hour and give myself one hour's worth of basal as a bolus then disconnect and get back to what I was doing.
If I was to do something like play football, I may be tempted to do something similar - remove it whilst I am playing and give myself a basal top up at half time. It is so easy to connect and disconnect this is no bother.