Omnipod users - Pod Changing & higher BG

Hi omnipod,
Not an omnipod user but I usually do a bolus and run my basal 130% for the first 2 hours after a set change. i've had it run higher for 10 hrs though unless I've messed up and put it on wrong. How did it feel having a pod in you're calf? Was it comfortable? I had imagined that it wouldn't be as it's mainly muscle on my calfs but I've heard of a few other people that have done this. Whenever I put mine in my thigh I usually adjust the timmings on my basal settings to adjust as I think it's slightly slower adsorbed in legs.

 

I'm a Medtronic Veo user for nearly 5 years now. In the last year I have found that in the first 12 hours after a change I need to run basal as high as 200% normal dose and also take massive amounts of bolus doses to prevent my blood sugars going sky high. There doesn't appear to be a physical problem with delivery and after 12 hours everything reverts to normal but those first 12 hours are nuts. I try and do as much exercise as possible and restrict my carb intake following a change to attempt to limit the increase but I seem to still need substantial bolus/basal doses.

The diabetes team I am under claim they have not come across this before.

It's a relief to find I'm not the only one though!

 

I have 2 temporary basal programs for pod changes, one is 75% increase for 3 hours and the other is 45% for 2 & a half hrs depending on where I put the pod. I've used the calf with various degrees of success but find it takes longer to bed in, the same with thighs and buttocks, the usual trial and error I guess.

 

I just switched to the OmniPod last week, and was very surprised when I changed my site from my abdomen to my thigh this past weekend and my BG went from a steady 90-130 range to a shocking and steady >250. With the abdomen, I kept my basal at 0.5u/hr during the day, but now I'm finding that even at 1.0u/hr, my BG is consistently remaining between 200 and 250 (no change in diet or activity), so I'm slowly increasing my basal rate to ease it back down. I'm a bit frustrated with the amount of variability in insulin absorption among different sites. It makes using the OmniPod much less of a tool for freedom than was advertised, and I'm not sure if this is something I can stick with since I never had this much inconsistency when I was taking injections.

 

I wear a pod, and leave the old one on for a few hours after applying a fresh one to allow the insulin from the site to absorb while the other is getting going. No spikes!

 

How does Looping cope with the Omnipod site changes? I don’t loop as I have an Android phone so not possible yet but have Miaomiao, Libre, x drip and Versa and would like to when this becomes possible. I set different temp basal depending where on the body I've placed the pod to counter the spike in bloods that happens 80% of the time, would Looping cope with this? Am so interested in what you do, thanks.

 

I’ve not noticed any difference in pod location, tbh - possibly for two reasons. I haven’t been pumping for long, less than a year - so I haven’t built up scar tissue; and my doses are so small that absorption seems very even. The version of Loop that I use has the ability to set % overrides, so you could set one for the spike you get.