Customer Stories

"Having the OmniPod has really just made everything easier."

 

Colby has always been an adventurous teenager. When he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in high school, he refused to let it control his life. He’s active as often as possible and having diabetes hasn’t changed that–he’s able to play sports easily with the OmniPod on and not once hasn’t been able to play because of his diabetes. Colby’s most recent athletic feat was climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with some classmates and making it the entire way. The OmniPod System makes it easy for Colby to manage his diabetes without having to sacrifice his appetite for adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

During my sophomore year of high school, the teacher who leads a book group I’m part of told us about an 18-day mission trip to Tanzania, during which time we would climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Up to this point all of the past groups had gone to Wyoming to ski and snowmobile, so we were all amazed at the opportunity.

While planning was underway my junior year, I remember feeling tired all the time and falling asleep in class on a regular basis—I just didn’t feel right at all. At first I kept it to myself, but then as it started to get a little worse I finally told my parents. I went to the doctor and my blood sugar was somewhere around 500. Of course I had no idea what that meant or even that it was a bad thing until the doctor told me I had type 1 diabetes.

I started out on shots, but about eight or nine months after I was diagnosed I switched to OmniPod. I love not having to take shots anymore. I’ve also noticed that I’ve had a significant drop in highs and lows since I started using the OmniPod. It’s so much more convenient and makes dealing with diabetes much less of a hassle.

I chose OmniPod over other pumps, because I really like the fact that I can put it on different places and not just have to keep it on my stomach or side. I also like that there aren’t any tubes to worry about. I thought it was much more convenient that I could just put it on and not really worry about it.

Even after I was diagnosed, there was really never a point where I wasn’t going to do the climb because of diabetes–I wasn’t going to let it affect what I do in my life. The OmniPod was invaluable during the climb. It worked perfectly all 18 days. I just changed the Pod every three days and it didn’t miss a beat. It even continued to work fine at the summit, which was at 19 thousand feet.

The PDM (Personal Diabetes Manager) makes managing my diabetes so much easier. During the climb, if I needed to eat a snack or something, I could just enter it into the PDM and eat–just like that. I no longer have to take time to give myself a shot. I love that I can just enter in how many carbs I’m about to eat and, judging by what my blood sugar is, it decides how much insulin I need. Being able to check my blood sugar on the PDM also keeps me from having to carry around another meter all the time.

During the beginning of the trip I was going low on a fairly consistent basis, so I just adjusted the basal rates so my blood sugar would be more normal. That made everything better, because for the rest of the trip I didn’t have to worry about going low.

It didn’t hit me that I had done such an incredible thing until I got off the plane at the end of the trip. This was easily the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do physically and mentally. There were so many times I wanted to quit, but I knew that I couldn’t give up. I refuse to let diabetes control what I do and how I do it. Having the OmniPod has really just made everything easier.