OmniPod Insulin Pump - Back To The Drawing Board

My son is 15 years old and has been wearing the Omnipod for 5 months now. He has experienced 8 serious infections, one on his abdomen and 7 on his arm. When my son wore the Pod on his abdomen, he felt some discomfort on day three and when he removed the Pod, his stomach was inflamed and it was extremely red and hot to the touch. We called the Omnipod Rep and she mentioned it was probably an air pocket that filled up with insulin, so we took her word for it and avoided that area for awhile. Two weeks later after wearing the Pod on his arm, the same thing happened but this time his arm was very red when he removed the Pod and the infection spread the next day from the top of his shoulder to his elbow, it was very red, swollen and very hot to the touch again. My husband quickly rushed him to the ER and the doctor said " if we would of waited one more day, this could of been very life threatening" and he encouraged us to contact the Rep and explain what happened.

For the next three days my son had to apply hot compresses to his arm so the infection would drain, it was horrible. Since then, he has had 7 more infections but now we know what to do but still my son should not have to go through this, considering the Omnipod was suppose to make his life easier.

My son has also experienced extreme highs on day 3 of the Pod and his blood sugars are high the first 8 hours of a new Pod. He is constantly adjusting and readjusting his basal and bolus to accommodate day 1 and day 3 of the Pod.

The adhesive on the Pod is definitely not water proof or sweat proof. I constantly have to wrap his Pod if he swims, if not the adhesive loses its stick and we've just wasted a Pod. We have had to replace a new Pod because it fell off while swimming, we've definitely wasted a lot of insulin and Pods and it is not sitting well with our Insurance Company.

My son has no body fat and is limited to wearing it on his arm, which tends to get knocked around and sometimes ripped off by accident. He is currently in football and went through 2 Pods in one day because of being tackled and hitting the ground. We wrapped it very tight with an Ace Bandaid and then other tape and a knee brace and it still got ripped off. I do not want to go back to injections until football is over, that would be 12 weeks.

So far my sons experience has not been a good one, and I feel bad because my husband and I talked him into getting the Omnipod because it would make his life easier, sorry to say, that is not the case here.