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Any advice using Omnipod on your arms?

Didnt plan for this

Member
Messages
20
Location
Bristol, UK
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Diet only
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Where to start?....
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Hi there, has anyone tried using the Omnipod on their arm? Did it work well or was it problematic?
I've spent last few days trying to use the back of my upper arm as a site for my Omnipod, instead of my (trusted) stomach, just to give it a break! Initially seemed to go well, not too painful and adhered well when first attached .....but found over the weekend I had some sky high BG and when removed the pod from my arm, there were small blood stains. Removing the pod from the back of the arm was quite painful (though maybe that's due to flabby arms! . But I could cope with discomfort if otherwise successful.
The pod itself didn't bother me on my arm, but I was slightly concerned the about the pods adhesion there compared to my stomach - not sure if that's just getting used to it, or if it genuinely is less secure due to positioning and the fact we move our arms around a lot..
Anyone else had problems with using your arms? I'm just wondering if I should try again or quit there. Any advice welcome if you can share anything that worked for you. Thanks
 
I've used my arms quite a few times now and not had too many issues, about 2 weeks ago I'm sure the cannula was hitting a nerve, muscle or tendon as it hurt when I moved my arm suddenly or when lifting anything so may have positioned it wrongly, even when I removed the pod it was sore for a couple of days so something wasn't right.

What I find when wearing the pod on your arm is to wear a tubular bandage or arm band over it to stop it moving around, nothing to do with the adhesion as I find the pod stick like glue and take some removing once you have to do a pod change but with using my arms a lot I find that even though the pods are light they can drag on the skin, so by wearing a bandage/band this stops the pod moving and holds it close to the skin.

I'm just wondering if you positioned the pod on a site where you have poor insulin absorption if your blood levels went sky-high, I've have absorption issues from over-using the sites when on MDI and have to be careful where I position the pods much the same as I had to be careful where I injected before moving to a pump, the bleeding when removing a pod is something I've had on a few occasions but I believe this can happen when removing cannula's with insulin pumps so don't think its anything to worry about.
 
I trialled a pod for about three months and used my arms after first two weeks for the rest of the trial and had no issues. Guess you'd need to rotate with other area's though as arms don't give much area to rotate around.

Had one arm with pod and other with Dex, a few times (but not many) had both on same arm.
 
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