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Sceaming pumps

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Tdm

Tdm

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My understanding is if anything goes wrong with an omnpod it screams at you. Is that the same with all pumps? Can some be set to vibrate instead? Or turned off?
 
OMG I am so so glad my pump beeps at me if something is wrong.
The idea of getting no feedback when I am getting absolutely no insulin (with no long acting basal) is incredibly scary. Why would anyone want to turn off such a warning?

My pump has beeped at me in awkward situations but I am happier to deal with the slight embarrassment than something far more dangerous.

But, to answer your question - not all pumps scream: some beep and I had one that vibrated. I really really hope that there are no pumps that allow you to turn off incredibly important alerts.
 
I have only had one pod scream at me in 3 years. Right at the beginning of using Omnipod (my first pod) stopped communication with the PDM. I rang tech help who told me to take it off, but didn't explain that I should deactivate it first - if indeed I had been able to since it wasn't communicating with the PDM. After about half an hour of having taken it off it started alarming and at first I thought it was the smoke alarm until we finally tracked the noise down. I made a further call to tech help and they told me to remove the backing, look for a small hole at the opposite end to the cannula and stick a paper clip or pin in it, which stopped it. So honestly I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Tdm said:
My understanding is if anything goes wrong with an omnpod it screams at you. Is that the same with all pumps? Can some be set to vibrate instead? Or turned off?
Click to expand...

I’ve had two Dana pumps and, amazingly, in the approx 7 years I’ve had them nothing has ever gone wrong! Previous pumps have had occasional alarms like occlusion alert, etc, and then they did a prolonged kind of low toned beep and vibrated strongly, so it was clear something important was up. I didn’t need any screaming to realise that.
 
The downside of pumps is that if anything goes wrong, your blood sugar can rise to dangerous levels very quickly, because you have no long-acting insulin. So they have to be able to tell you if there is a problem. Most pumps have a volume control I think, although turning such warnings off completely could potentially be dangerous. We’ve never had a total pump failure, cannulas seem to be the weak spot in the whole system (occlusions, leakages), but the pump also has to warn you if battery level is low, insulin running out etc, just in case you hadn’t noticed
 
I only rake 2 units of basal so its likely i wouldn't rise v quickly, but its reassuring to hear pumps only alarm very occasionally so prob worried about nothingq
Thanks all for the info
 
I think I've had three "screamers" in just over four years. So that's 3 in nearly 500 pods. Not bad odds and certainly not worth worrying about.

You definitely can't ignore it when it happens, although the first time it happened to me I was searching the house from top to bottom to find out where the noise was coming from. It took a bit of time to realise that the noise was following me around, and maybe it was coming from me. Doh! The second time, I was in a group at a restaurant and the proprietor tapped me on the shoulder and pointed it out. The poor fellow had been searching the place to find out which bit of his apparatus had been alarming. Very embarrassing, although we did see the funny side and he was relieved that the fire brigade weren't on the way.
 
m1dnc said:
I think I've had three "screamers" in just over four years. So that's 3 in nearly 500 pods. Not bad odds and certainly not worth worrying about.

You definitely can't ignore it when it happens, although the first time it happened to me I was searching the house from top to bottom to find out where the noise was coming from. It took a bit of time to realise that the noise was following me around, and maybe it was coming from me. Doh! The second time, I was in a group at a restaurant and the proprietor tapped me on the shoulder and pointed it out. The poor fellow had been searching the place to find out which bit of his apparatus had been alarming. Very embarrassing, although we did see the funny side and he was relieved that the fire brigade weren't on the way.
Click to expand...
You've reminded me that there was an episode called 'Screamer' in the 1970s ITV series 'Thriller'! Does anyone else remember 'Thriller'? It had very spooky title music 😱.
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Tdm said:
I only rake 2 units of basal so its likely i wouldn't rise v quickly, but its reassuring to hear pumps only alarm very occasionally so prob worried about nothingq
Thanks all for the info
Click to expand...
Bear in mind, if you were diagnosed three years ago, you are likely to still be in the honeymoon period.
So, I would say you “only take 2 units of basal, today”. It may increase.
Or may not.

But insulin doses do not stay the same.
 
Only had 2 screaming pods, first one didn't have time to fiddle with it with a paperclip so chucked it in a bucket of water & left it in garage, it silenced it wee bit but thing was still going off hours later.

Goes to show that are waterproof longer than manufacturer says.
 
helli said:
OMG I am so so glad my pump beeps at me if something is wrong.
The idea of getting no feedback when I am getting absolutely no insulin (with no long acting basal) is incredibly scary. Why would anyone want to turn off such a warning?

My pump has beeped at me in awkward situations but I am happier to deal with the slight embarrassment than something far more dangerous.

But, to answer your question - not all pumps scream: some beep and I had one that vibrated. I really really hope that there are no pumps that allow you to turn off incredibly important alerts.
Click to expand...
 
Agree, re alerts. Personally, I prefer a quite alarm/ vibrate...(
helli said:
OMG I am so so glad my pump beeps at me if something is wrong.
The idea of getting no feedback when I am getting absolutely no insulin (with no long acting basal) is incredibly scary. Why would anyone want to turn off such a warning?

My pump has beeped at me in awkward situations but I am happier to deal with the slight embarrassment than something far more dangerous.

But, to answer your question - not all pumps scream: some beep and I had one that vibrated. I really really hope that there are no pumps that allow you to turn off incredibly important alerts.
Click to expand...
Agree..though, when I used the awful G7 mob phone app, it screamed , at me during meetings, travel, quiet public areas.publuc speaking..majority of time, false alarm!! Caused me so much upset,longer story..having to contact , G7 call centre..goh!.. as a long term T1...after 5 months, after being close, to throwing mob away...spoke to hosp, who confirmed, the dreadful app, not required...now it seems soo straightforward.
 
Most of the notifications are configurable to be vibrate / quiet @Tdm .

And some pumps have the option of silencing alerts for a period of a few hours (eg if at the theatre) so that you don’t have non-urgent messages warbling at you.

The really important alarms can’t be silenced without turning the pump off completely, but then you wouldn't want them to!
 
With Omnipod, most of the 'normal' alarms are configurable, but if the pod has some sort of (very rare) catastrophic failure and goes into full screaming mode the only way to silence it is to remove it, pull back the adhesive layer and ram a paperclip or similar through the case to break an internal switch.
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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