I’ve been podding since 2014 with the dash and recently switched to the 5 when it came out. Does anyone know what you normally do if the pod is correcting and when you’re ready to eat you have more than 1u on board from the micro blouses. Do you give yourself regular bolus or let the pump calculate the amount. I’m afraid I’d stacking but I don’t want my sugar to rise.
Also any tips you have that you’ve discovered or learned please feel free to share with me here! I really am trying to get my a1c down and prepare for another baby I have a long way to go but I’m struggling with my numbers and trusting the pump after having too many potential lows out of no where from my pump correcting my highs.
Enter your glucose and the number of carbs you will be taking in. The system will adjust for IOB, so if you have 1 unit on board and you need 5 for your meal, it will give you 4.
Stacking is when you take additional insulin over and above what should be needed for the carbs you took in. It typically happens if you see your numbers rising and add on some more to help out what you took before.
If you’re eating another meal or snack you’ll usually need to take insulin to cover that, so it’s a regular bolus, not stacking.
Also, if corrections are doing you too much you might want to look at your correction factor or your target BG in your background settings. It sounds like you might benefit from a refresher with your trainer - I was in contact with mine for several weeks after I switched to the Omnipod5. I also found this Juicebox podcast helpful: Omnipod 5 — JUICEBOX PODCAST
Hi! Well, yes. It all depends on if the pump correction is working and the type of carbs for the next snack and how active I am going to be in the 4 hours following.
Pumps will figure out you iob, and then with your current blood sugar it’ll give you insulin for the carbs you are about to eat, adding for higher blood sugar and or subtracting for the iob. But it’s a pump and it has no idea if you are going to bed or going to compete in the regional sprinting time trials afterwards. So it’s only a guess.
Dorie already said it’s not stacking if you are bolusing for “new carbs”. Stacking in this case would be if you were taking insulin for your carbs plus your blood sugar, and ignoring iob. Then you are only really stacking the correction.
Stacking is slang anyway don’t get too upset over it, you can take 5 bolus (or injections ) in a row it’s still not stacking if each bolus was for a certain amount of carbs you ate or are eating.
Sugar happens and if my bs goes up by 50-75 mg/dl and then comes back down I don’t get upset over it. My favorite doctor says “you can always take more medicine “ meaning if your bs goes up you can correct for it, or I just go for a brisk walk and with iob I can stop a high trend in 10-15 minutes.
There is an option on the pump to reverse correction what does this mean? I asked my dr and she said oh just leave that off without explaining why to leave it off.
I was hoping to copy the text from the product manual but wasn’t able to, so I’m attaching a screenshot. The Omnipod5 is so different from other pumps - there’s a lot to absorb and it sounds like a little more training would be helpful. I was going back to my trainer frequently my first few weeks on it (my doctor had not been trained on it when I started).
I used Medtronic and it will automatically adjust for any active insulin. It subtracts out that number of units from the bolus you would have normally been given.
I’ve been using Omni pod for a few years and had the Omni pod 5 when it came out. Still using it now and love it along with the dexcom g6. However, a lot of my pods seem to fail periodically. I’m wondering if it’s because of my arms and legs having scar tissue on them. I’ve had type 1 diabetes for 14 years. I love the tubeless pump. I’m not sure what’s going to happen in 2 years when I’m off of my parents insurance. I do not currently work because I also have a second chronic condition I’m living with. Wondering if anyone has any thoughts.
hi @hannahsz welcome to the forum! rotate the pod locations as best as you can, Ive had T1 for 40+ years and the scarring isnt too bad if you can rotate. Sorry about the failures hope it is manageable. Well if you cannot work, perhaps you can look in to disability? SSA (social security) may be able to help. good luck!
I noticed I have sensitive skin which is why I scar sometimes. I actually did work for a year and a half but the job wasn’t for me. I’m very creative and it was an office job. I’m working with a job coach to try and do something. I used to be a level 7 gymnast and competed at worlds for cheerleading in 2016. Not sure if I can work full time right away as I think part time would be better for my situation. I am looking into some programs. Thanks!
Hi @hannahsz and welcome to the forum!
I’m on the Omnipod5 as well. I’ve had diabetes for 60 years (actually 61 now that the calendar has flipped😊) and don’t get very many failures. I’m wondering if you need a deeper insertion than the Omnipod uses? Unfortunately while infusion sets for other pumps give you options, the Omnipod5 has only the one length; so inserting on leaner parts of the body might help. Hopefully you call for replacement each time you get a failure - Omnipod will send another one.
Wishing you all the best in finding a career than matches your passions! Are there any opportunities for coaching or teaching gymnastics?
I will have to try that out for future uses. I think there are opportunities to coach gymnastics. There’s a gymnastics gym in my town not too far from where I live. I am just a little concerned about the activity level with my Omni pod. I know I will go low if I over exert myself. I had to be really careful when I used to partake in sports. Cheerleading was a lot of fun but I have had a few coaches not have any idea about my pump. Also when I was at a hospital even some of the nurses had never seen an Omni pod. I was very surprised. I don’t think there’s a lot of educated people on type 1 diabetes where I live, but there are definitely a few.
I was my doctor’s first patient on the Omnipod5 (I’m not sure about prior versions). My numbers drop with exercise as well - you’ll need to experient with activity mode to see how far in advance to start it and how long to leave it in place - it’s a matter of trial and error🤪.
Check out the Resources tab at the top of the page - you might find some community groups in your area where you can meet people live and in person.
I highly recommend you check out the book Think Like a Pancreas by Gary Scheiner. He has Type1 diabetes and works in the field so has a unique personal perspective that is particularly helpful. I read it for the first time a couple of years ago and learned some things even after living with Type1 for so long! You might find some information that can give you a starting point for your exercise settings.
Looking forward to reading your contributions here!
@wadawabbit@joe I also want to know when you start a new sensor on the Omnipod 5 I have heard some say they go back into automated mode, but I don’t trust a pump to give me a correction if my sugs are at 150 and the sensor is saying 190 (just as an example) the accuracy for the G6 is just not there on the first day. I have been changing my pump at like 6 am so it has alllll day to calibrate and then put it in auto mode while I’m sleeping. Recently I have been doing this and I wake up at 80 or 90 simply because the G6 is reading higher than my actual BG. (waking up low feels so weird!) I like waking up at my normal BG 115-120. I try and calibrate but that doesn’t always seem to work. Any tips on this? I think the Omnipod is really good at preventing lows b/c when I do go low I notice those micro boluses during the time I had a low decreases, it’s quite interesting it’s like the pump says oh no im not giving you more I know what happened last time! It remembers the low you had.
@KayD I have plenty of g6 experience but none with Omnipod.
When I start a sensor it typically reads very low for the first 4-12 hours so I would not start automode for the opposite reason
Not starting auto is a reasonable (imo) strategy when the sensor is not reading accurately I am positive there is a way to leave it off until you like the readings you are getting from dexcom.
As @joe suggested, if you’re afraid your sensor is still warming up you can activate manual mode - there is no timer so you have to remember to turn auto mode back on when you’re ready. Also, when it comes to calibrating remember that the sensor is considered accurate if it is within ± 20% of the fingerstick reading: so if Dexcom reads 100 and your fingerstick is 80 no calibration is needed. Here’s a link to Dexcom with a handy dandy chart showing where readings fall in that 20% range.
20% is a wider variation than we would like (particularly with higher numbers) but calibrating when the difference is less than that could actually confuse the system🤪.
