The week I am about to move onto the T:slim X2, the Omnipod 5 is made available for everyone.

I assume most people have seen this announcement. It includes the following:

Omnipod 5 is now available on the NHS frameworks and Insulet is working with NHS Trusts to make Omnipod 5 available locally as rapidly as possible. You can check with your local diabetes team to see if the device will be available for you.

This is obviously good news but for me it's complicated. I was persuaded to move to a pump but at the time I was making that choice, the only ones available were the old-fashioned kind: i.e. the ones with a tube. I am about to have the T:slim X2.

I am sure it will still bring better control than pens but if I'd known that by June 2023 the Omnipod would be rolled out to everyone, I absolutely would have stayed on pens for longer.

I play sport and am dreading how it will work with this pump. It's going to be complicated to do a little dose, take it off, maybe put it back on for a second to do another. Obviously if I had an Omnipod, none of this would be a concern. I am also not looking forward to how it will work with sex. I mean, it can't exactly be spontaneous when you've got a tube coming out of you linked to a plastic box. If I had a girlfriend or wife it would probably be less of a concern, but I don't.

What I fear now is that I will be right at the back of the queue for the Omnipod. After all, my diabetes team has invested lots of money in all the equipment for the T:slim, so I guess I'll have to be on that for several years now?

searley said:

As for sex.. the same as a shower/bath. It only takes a few seconds to detach and reattach

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Thanks but how do you avoid your BG creeping up while it's unattached?

In Response said:

I have used both tubed and tubeless pumps and consider pros and cons with both.
I certainly would not consider tubed pumps as old fashioned.
I consider the ability to disconnect a tubed pump to be one of the advantages, especially when playing sport.
If you think disconnecting the pump to be an issue for sex, think about what it is like having a box attached directly.

One of the huge advantages of a tubed pump is the ability to chose the cannula. This is probably the weakest link for a pump but, with a tubeless pump, you have no choice.

I think you are incredibly lucky to have what is considered to be the best closed loop system. Go on, use it and make the most of this privilege.

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Thank you, you are right. I am grateful, and after chatting to the pump educator today it seems like funding issues mean the Omnipod is miles off for most people. Just to clarify, though, I am not on a closed-loop system. I have a Freestyle Libre alongside my pump.