• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Type 1 diabetes. I'm researching Omnipod 5 in the UK, pump vs. pens/MDI (pros and cons)

C

cbooth5

Active Member
Messages
33
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I'm researching the Omnipod 5 after my diabetic team said its an option to look into. I want to be fully informed about the pros and cons, please add them to this chat if anything I've missed. Pump users or stories would be really appreciated! My family mentioned it to me too, but its frustrating how they advertise it as a brilliant system on TV with no drawbacks or negatives - of course there are. Don't get me wrong, I've heard how amazing and life changing it can be for people on this forum! I think the trouble comes when you get someone well controlled on pens, its hard to switch or debate the switch, as you'll likely have poor sugars for quite a while whilst it adjusts - does this take many days/weeks at first? I'm very anxious and paranoid about having my HbA1c well controlled to minimise complications. I've also been through a lot in the early stages of diagnosis like we all have, so don't want to go through going backwards again.

I've been diagnosed 2.5 years roughly, I'm medical also which is a huge advantage and head start on the management. Well controlled on the whole, HbA1c when I was diagnosed was around 7-7.5% (58mmol/mol+) so luckily I never went into DKA and narrowly escaped it.

Since my HbA1c has come down and has ranged between 6.4-6.8% - most recent (47-51mmol/mol) even though I've had only had four HbA1c's since diagnosis. I am finding the mental workload is higher but I much prefer pens, doing things to look after the mental side too to avoid burnout in the future and life is more balanced now (I changed job, few other things). Time in range I'm extremely hard on myself and try for 85% plus, MDI on Tresiba and Fiasp (Novorapid was too slow to pre-bolus). I'm finally after 1.5 years having no lows which is great, so I'm reluctant to change after 1.5 years of hard work and adjustments plus its finally settled down and more stable - maybe end of honeymooning?

PUMP (Omnipod 5 system)
Pros Cons
+ Manages DAWN effect brilliantly - Can disconnect and DKA risk goes up
+ Auto inject and calculations - Can malfunction and give you too high a dose
+ More control - The feeling of having something attached to you 24/7 during exercise, sleep
+ Reduces mental workload, for burnout folk - If you get a bad site, have to re-insert and sugars bad

PENS/MDI (e.g. basal bolus)
Pros Cons
+ Physical freedom and discretion (sleep, exercise) - Waking up at 3am for DAWN effect sometimes and need to check basal
+ I find echopens great devices to use - 5 or more injections daily, more mental workload
+ no risk of malfunction, complete control over doses - Injection sites can build up over the years
 
Last edited:
I was put on omnipod5 and Libre 2plus two months ago. I have relatively thin arms and it is a problem siting the pod and sensor on the arm and they have to be relatively near and in line with each other for them to connect. Currently I am placing them on my upper thighs. I have asked my team if we could consider the dexcom sensor as I think it has a better range and can be sited in more places than the libre. When the system works it is good at controlling glucose levels, particularly in the morning. But I have had numerous problems with the canula coming out and insulin nor being delivered leading to high bg. Correction factors given can be very slow in reducing high bg. In summary….I am thinking of going back to injections as I would know that the insulin was being delivered.
 
ianstead said:
I was put on omnipod5 and Libre 2plus two months ago. I have relatively thin arms and it is a problem siting the pod and sensor on the arm and they have to be relatively near and in line with each other for them to connect. Currently I am placing them on my upper thighs. I have asked my team if we could consider the dexcom sensor as I think it has a better range and can be sited in more places than the libre. When the system works it is good at controlling glucose levels, particularly in the morning. But I have had numerous problems with the canula coming out and insulin nor being delivered leading to high bg. Correction factors given can be very slow in reducing high bg. In summary….I am thinking of going back to injections as I would know that the insulin was being delivered.
Click to expand...


Hey, thank you so much for the input and experience of pumps closed loop! They sound such a clever system for example for the mornings and DAWN. But my hesitation are with this with things like disconnection happening regularly and travelling I would worry far too much. Im also not sure about swimming what I would do and if I would just disconnect or deactivate it during vigorous activity. Its really helpful, going to chat through with my DSN but still preferring the idea of pens too. My honeymoon phase is recently settling and ive gone from having 80-85% in range to 90%+, so im not sure if it will last but im going to see how the next 3-6 months go and get another HbA1c.
 
Hello- same for me, went back to pens after a few years on the omnipod. It’s good to hear I am not the only one doing this. Same reasons - I feel more safe knowing I have Tresiba in the background.
 
I probably shouldn't comment because I'm on a tubed tandem, but I do prefer it to pens by a large margin. But I was having issues with hypos and never got on with my basal (lantus). My sugars were actually quite good befre the change, not sure they are that much better now, but I do find hypos much easier and also less mental weight of diabetes.

After 55 years of injections I do have one permanent site with a lump under the skin / lipohypertrophy (spelling?), though I suspect that is less likely to happen to today's new T1s (just keep rotating those sites).

I've had one disconnection in the last 2 years, but I agree there is a lot more stuff to carry when travelling.
 
Back
Top