Do not buy this product. I had problems from day 1 with the cannula getting bent while inside me. No occlusion alarms sounded to warn me that anything was happening. When I called customer support the blame was always put on my technique. For crying out loud the cannula insertion is AUTOMATIC. I decided to play along. I wanted to return the product but I also wanted to give it a chance (beware because they only give you 30 days...what?). I had to arrange a face to face meeting with my area nurse/rep that would watch me prime the pump and insert the cannula. Guess what, I was doing it right. Go figure. But now they are saying it is too late to return the product since it's been more that 30 days. Their product is faulty and does not work, even marginally. The pump was supposed to make my life easier but I found that it was THE biggest hassle since being diagnosed 25 years ago. This is serious stuff. It is less hassle giving myself up to 6 injections daily!!! While on a pump you are ONLY receiving fast acting insulin, you have NO background insulin on board from something like Lantus. So when the pump malfunctions, and more importantly, doesn't sound an alarm letting you know something is wrong, your blood sugar is through the roof!!! I am not new to diabetes and I feel so lucky that I had some of the best diabetes education at my onset in 1985. I seriously think that my education is what kept me out of the emergency room when the pump would malfunction and I would have a 600 mg/dl blood sugar reading. I know how to act fast and take care of things while waiting to get in contact with my doctors office.

I do not recommend this product. It simply does not work reliably. And, Insulet's business ethic is questionable.

Email sent to Omnipod/Insulet. Makers of my insulin pump. Intentionally left public so that others can see if they google the company I've given this company EVERY chance in the world trying trying trying again. I'm *done*. Their product is a great idea... and I love the idea but I'd much rather use another when I get new insurance with my new job. I refuse to feel like *** because their product keeps failing.

I want YOU GUYS to know... We're a large community and I don't want any of you to make a wrong decision to go on the pods. If you have specific questions leave a comment or email me using lj. :)

Here's my letter to them:) (sorry for wall of text. limited to 1000 characters on their e-mail form so I sent two...)

I started on the Omnipod this year. I have had nothing but problems with pod failures, resulting in extremely high blood sugars and feeling very poorly. Your reps have been nice but I have yet to see any change in the way the pods work. On average I am having a 50% or greater pod failure. This is unacceptable. Of all the pods that have failed I have gotten only three occlusions. Those I understand. The other failures have been due to something else.

I have gotten all the replacement pods and a few extra to keep trying.

However, the last three pods have failed. My blood sugar last night before it failed? 410. Changed pod. Corrected with syringe. Blood sugar this morning? 483. I bolus with the PDM and a shot now. In my 11.5 years as a diabetic I haven't seen these numbers until I went on the pod. It's not my insulin, it's always the pod failing. And when they do fail? I'm out a ton of insulin. I don't have the money to keep this up.

Pods are a great idea, but poor in reality. I don't know how to convey my disappointment with your product. I expect medical equipment to work and work well. Not have a 50% failure rate. If I were less vigilant about my blood sugar checks I would be in trouble. Read the diabetes message boards. I'm not the only one with a large failure rate. I read a board last night where all but one of the members was averaging a 30% failure rate. How is this acceptable to Insulet?

I read "when it works well it's great. When it's not it's miserable". I agree with that statement. Great idea, terrible implementation. Diabetics tend to share the good and bad about pumps. Insulet has a very bad reputation because of your failure rate. I hope that others have better luck then I did. Unless something major changes with the pods I will never go back. When I get new insurance I will go with one of the other major pump manufactures that are reliable.

Good luck, I hope you can make great changes and the failure rate goes down significantly.