How I Simplify - Holiday Season | Omnipod® Australia
Adventuring with the Pod, it’s like a whole new world. I’m an active person, always looking for the next thing to do. I exercise every day and you can bet that having the Great Barrier Reef at my backdoor I’m always waiting for that opportunity to get out in the ocean. If I was going to get an insulin pump, it was going to have to conveniently fit into my life. So naturally, for me the Omnipod DASH® Insulin Management System was the perfect fit, tubeless and requiring nothing to come off my body before jumping into the big blue*.
Fitness wise, I’ll be honest I don’t love the gym – I’m more a group fitness person with a love for cardio. I like to change it up with jungle body, bike riding, lap swimming* and barre. The only time where the Pod placement is key is when I do barre with floor work. However, like people living with Type 1 Diabetes always do, we improvise - if the Pod is in an inconvenient position, I’ll just change up the exercise so it is convenient.
If I’m going to a group fitness class, I’ll take my PDM with me just in case I have an alarm that I need to address but if I’m doing my own thing, I’ll usually keep the PDM in my bag (one less thing to carry).
Temp basals have been something I haven’t quite fully embraced, simply because I completely forget to use that function, but when I do remember, I love it. There was no such thing as temp basals when I was doing multiple daily injections so I’m working to break this habit and thought process that I’ve had for 10 years – 2022 resolution, remember temp basals! P.S if you’re wondering what a ‘temp basal’ is, it’s when your basal (insulin) delivery rate is temporarily increased or decreased for a specific period of time.
Adhesion wise, living in Far North Queensland, I feel like my body is a great test as the humidity here is high and sweat is totally a thing! The Omnipod DASH® System stuck on great and I often find myself using alcohol wipes to help smoothly take them off – I’m not a fan of the 1-2-3 rip as it causes my skin to become irritated.
To finish off, I wanted to quickly talk to you about Holidays and the Pod. I went on my first holidays with the Pod just before Christmas and I found myself the most relaxed I’ve ever been with diabetes on holidays. I loved not having to pull out injections in public, I didn’t have to evacuate the dancefloor to give insulin and having my 0.5 units automatically each hour kept my levels more at bay (that’s for me personally).
As I’ve always done with multiple daily injections, I packed extra Pods just in case. It should be second nature to stock up on diabetes supplies when going on holidays as it saves a lot of hassle if you don’t have the supplies in an emergency situation. As it was a remote coastal holiday, I did a lot of salt water swimming* and I didn’t have any issues with Pod errors or adhesion which was great.
If you are like me, initially I thought having a pump or Omnipod DASH® System would be more work, and not worth the hassle on holidays. In my personal opinion, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It has made my diabetes management so much easier.
If you have any questions at all about what I’ve discussed in this blog, please don’t hesitate to message me on my Instagram page @typeonevibes. I look forward to hearing from you!