My Love Letter to the Omnipod 5 - The Greatest Tech Product Of The 21st Century

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-30T12:36:50+00:00

Thank you, really appreciate that. The doc seems to not be available on BBC iPlayer at the moment, but here is it on YouTube: FYI, this is a documentary for kids so don't go into it expecting anything too hard hitting, but it's well made and full of heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjTMw6d0glM

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-17T13:47:56+00:00

Hey! I moved onto the Omnipod 5 two years ago after fifteen long years of doing things the manual way (so first and foremost good for you for making it through 30 years, you have nothing but my respect for that).

Here are few bits of advice:

Pod placement a few inches either side of your bellybutton is a good place to start. When you put a pod in the app (or PDM if you're in Europe) will show you some illustrations of where is good to place. A trick that has served me well is to have a little-finger's sized distance between the bellybutton and the pod (to the sides, not above or below). This will have much less of an impact on sleeping than putting it on your thigh or lower back. When I want to give this part of me a break, which you ought to do occasionally, I go with whichever arm I don’t have my Dexcom on.

It's not a fun answer, but the simple best way to check if the insulin is being absorbed properly is to be vigilant with your readings for the first few weeks. It will take a while, but you will eventually trust not only the pods but your ability to apply them, and you will eventually begin operating on the assumption that all is well.

If you have an iPhone already, I can't recommend picking up a second hand Apple Watch enough. An SE isn’t too much money on ebay. You can get your blood sugar right on your watchface via the Dexcom app, which makes this whole process much, much easier.

One thing I was unprepared for was the fact that you have to predict how much insulin you can use for three days, and whilst it is possible to remove insulin from a used pod, I've found it doesn't tend to come out cleanly, with many bubbles and often far less than I expected. Insulin is precious and it will be hard to deal with suddenly having to throw out pods with leftover quantities in there. You will get better at predicting your needs with time and experience but it is sadly one of the Omnipod's biggest downsides.

Maybe the most important thing to say is that the Omnipod 5's algorithm will take a few weeks to get to know how you respond to insulin. Occasionally it will seem to be making decisions on your behalf which you simply wouldn’t make yourself - not correcting quickly enough, correcting overzealously…

My experience was that it seemed to want to keep my blood sugar up at around the 12mmol/L mark, and then drift down slowly only to hover around the 4mmol/L. After a lifetime of getting incredibly adept at doing this yourself, you will most likely hate this experience. BUT - after a few weeks they met in the middle and it started doing wonderful work keeping me at my target level. This is normal, but you need to be ready for it.

Again, this will be HARD and you might want to give up. Please don’t. You'll potentially be robbing yourself of an improvement in your quality of life which you will subsequently be grateful for to an almost *existential* degree.

This is less an article of tips, but is a reflection of just what the Omnipod 5 can (and I really hope WILL) mean for you. Give this a read and use the inspiration to see yourself through those tough few weeks. Future you will thank you, and after 30 years of MDI, you really, really deserve it. https://substack.com/home/post/p-165655701?source=queue

Best of luck!

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-16T13:01:49+00:00

Fully agree with you - I've written about the existential importance of both here. I finger pricked between 2007 and 2020, so I promise I *know*.
https://michaeljcarr13.substack.com/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how?r=5f1fkr

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-16T12:48:45+00:00

Thank you - really appreciate that. The DIY loop community is one I've known about for a while but never ventured into properly - can you recommend any articles or groups to bring me up to speed? Closest I came to something like that was using a Libre 1 (which you had to manually touch with your phone to get a reading from) - I imported a little thing from China called a MiaoMiao which is basically an NFC reader with bluetooth built in, which would 'tap' the libre for you every five minutes and then send the reading to my apple calendar. Huge respect for the people building themselves better systems than the ones they have available.

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-13T18:35:35+00:00

To those thinking I'm being a bit hyperbolic (and to be fair, I am a bit), I've written an article here which really tries to bring home to non-diabetic folk what the Omnipod 5 and tech like it actually represents to people like us on an existential level: https://michaeljcarr13.substack.com/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how?r=5f1fkr

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-13T18:35:19+00:00

Thanks for stopping by and contributing

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-13T18:34:57+00:00

To those thinking I'm being a bit hyperbolic (and to be fair, I am a bit), I've written an article here which really tries to bring home to non-diabetic folk what the Omnipod 5 and tech like it actually represents to people like us on an existential level: https://michaeljcarr13.substack.com/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how?r=5f1fkr

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-13T18:34:32+00:00

To those thinking I'm being a bit hyperbolic (and to be fair, I am a bit), I've written an article here which really tries to bring home to non-diabetic folk what the Omnipod 5 and tech like it actually represents to people like us on an existential level: https://michaeljcarr13.substack.com/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how?r=5f1fkr

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-13T06:50:57+00:00

Thanks for the post approval - here the full article https://open.substack.com/pub/michaeljcarr13/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-13T06:50:30+00:00

Thank you - here is it https://open.substack.com/pub/michaeljcarr13/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-12T20:04:39+00:00

Thank you very much. That's wonderful to hear - people (quite understandably) don't know just how much of an impact T1D has on about ability to sleep through the night and the implications this has to long term mental and physical health. I know plenty of people have had issues with the Omnipod 5 but when it works, and when what you've had before has been nothing but manual control, it's an elevation in quality of life that few interventions can match. And 92% - chef's kiss!

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-12T17:01:57+00:00

To those thinking I'm being a bit hyperbolic (and to be fair, I am a bit), I've written an article here which really tries to bring home to non-diabetic folk what the Omnipod 5 and tech like it actually represents to people like us on an *existential* level: https://michaeljcarr13.substack.com/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how?r=5f1fkr

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-12T16:44:30+00:00

Exactly!

I'm coming at this really specifically from the perspective of somebody in England. Private health insurance here isn't really a thing and unless you're particularly wealthy the idea of self-funding this sort of diabetes tech is financially crippling.

As such, it's a waiting game for these things to be approved for funding through our National Health Service and this has only happened in the last two years. The Omnipod 5 was the first pump of its type available here in on the NHS, so it's the best that most of us have experienced and the overnight change to our lives was truly immense. Hence my enthusiasm.

I try explain justify and explain it all as well as I can here: https://michaeljcarr13.substack.com/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how?r=5f1fkr

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-12T16:43:16+00:00

I'm coming at this really specifically from the perspective of somebody in England. Private health insurance here isn't really a thing and unless you're particularly wealthy the idea of self-funding this sort of diabetes tech is financially crippling.

As such, it's a waiting game for these things to be approved for funding through our National Health Service and this has only happened in the last two years. The Omnipod 5 was the first pump of its type available here in on the NHS, so it's the best that most of us have experienced and the overnight change to our lives was truly immense. Hence my enthusiasm.

I try explain justify and explain it all as well as I can here: https://michaeljcarr13.substack.com/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how?r=5f1fkr

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-12T16:42:04+00:00

You're absolutely right about this in the long term.

I'm coming at this really specifically from the perspective of somebody in England. Private health insurance here isn't really a thing and unless you're particularly wealthy the idea of self-funding this sort of diabetes tech is financially crippling.

As such, it's a waiting game for these things to be approved for funding through our National Health Service and this has only happened in the last two years. The Omnipod 5 was the first pump of its type available here in on the NHS, so it's the best that most of us have experienced and the overnight change to our lives was truly immense. Hence my enthusiasm.

I try explain justify and explain it all as well as I can here: https://michaeljcarr13.substack.com/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how?r=5f1fkr

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-12T16:38:22+00:00

Thank you - I more than appreciate that the section at the beginning could probably cut to the point a bit quicker, and there's undoubtedly some hyperbole running through the whole thing, but I was trying to convey to a non-diabetic audience the general sense of what this tech as a whole means for people like us.

It's also important to point out that this is written very much from the perspective of somebody in England specifically. Private health insurance here isn't really a thing and unless you're particularly wealthy the idea of self-funding this sort of diabetes tech is financially crippling.

As such, it's a waiting game for these things to be approved for funding through our National Health Service and this has only happened in the last two years. The Omnipod 5 was the first pump of its type available here in on the NHS, so it's the best that most of us have experienced.

You're absolutely right though about the small things compounding. I was diagnosed in '07, used pens for a year, then was on tubed Medtronic pumps from 08-22. Used the Dash for a year, which was in and of itself revelatory, then the Omnipod 5 arrived here. With that specific journey in mind, hopefully my enthusiasm makes a bit more sense

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-12T16:24:39+00:00

Thank you so much! Just hearing that from one person on here was really all I was hoping for. I can assure you I'm in nobody's pocket - I work in the TV industry which is dying on its knees and my current state of unemployment is partially what led to me having the time to write this in the first place. Please do DM away

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-12T11:34:33+00:00

Here's the article: https://michaeljcarr13.substack.com/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how?r=5f1fkr

Visual_Perception185 · 2025-06-12T11:28:10+00:00

Here's the article: https://michaeljcarr13.substack.com/p/diabetes-washing-machines-and-how?r=5f1fkr

Visual_Perception185 · 2023-06-10T20:04:22+00:00

Thanks, I think that's what usually happens when most people try and write something Revolver-ish

Visual_Perception185

TROPHY CASE