About OmniPod
Artist with the Jonas Brothers Band, teen pop band from Wyckoff, NJWe were on our school tour in the fall of 2005 when some crazy stuff started happening. I lost about 15 pounds,was drinking 36 bottles of water a day (no kidding!), and was going to the bathroom just as much. I’m a very nice person, but my family noticed that my attitude was really bad. It was really weird–not like me at all. After a while I started to get concerned. I finally told my dad, "Something’s not right. I need to go to the doctor."
Learning that I had diabetes, I was totally freaked out. The doctor told me my blood sugar was over 700. I asked her if I was going to die. I didn’t know anything about diabetes! Of course she said "no," but she said I had to go to the hospital right away.That was really emotional for me, because I’d never had any kind of medical problems before.To find out that I just randomly got diabetes was a shock, for sure.
I spent three days in the hospital learning about diabetes and how to manage everything. It was just wild–a lot to take in. I started on insulin, using a Novolog pen and long-acting Lantus with syringes.
I knew from the beginning that I didn’t want to be on shots for long. They were really a hassle. It was especially tough when we were on the road, traveling all the time and working 12-hour days. We had to carry around a cooler for the insulin, and all these pen needles and syringes–and check it all in at every airport. I mean, there I was in the front lounge of our tour bus, jostling around a lot, trying to take shots. It was the hardest thing in the world.
Plus, I’m so active on stage and the shots only
provide one level of insulin that you can’t really adjust. So I’d go on stage with perfect
sugar, and then come off really low. There were times in the trailer when I’d really break down,
thinking "This is crazy. Why is this happening to me?"
I knew I wanted the OmniPod System the second I saw it. I thought to myself, this is the newest, coolest thing for diabetes. And I knew it would help me get better control. After seeing the OmniPod I wasn’t even interested in looking at the pumps with tubing.
The OmniPod has totally changed my life. I love it! It’s so comfortable and easy to use. The automated insertion is awesome. I don’t really feel it– it’s just a little pinch. And changing the pod only takes me a minute. I switch it up a lot, wearing the pod on my lower back or arm. It doesn’t tangle with my guitar or bother me when I play drums, so it’s all good.
It’s great too because I can adjust my insulin to whatever’s happening. If I get hungry in the middle of meeting fans or recording, I can just push a few buttons to program a bolus and grab a quick snack. It’s amazing that I’m able to do that. Everyone thinks the OmniPod PDM is just the coolest cell phone or MP3 player. No one can tell I’m using it to get the insulin I need.
The temporary basal rates are amazing. If I’m really jamming on stage, I can program a temp basal (to adjust my basal insulin dose to my activity level), and I come off the stage in great control. The difference in my blood sugars is just drastic compared to shots.
The food database is really
cool, too. It’s a great tool to learn the carb values for different foods. Being on the road, we
never have a set schedule, so we never know when, what or how much we’re going to eat. Sometimes I
can’t eat as well as I like or the foods I should. With the OmniPod I can just extend a bolus to
cover a longer period of time if I need to.
My dad is a minister and co-manager of our band. My mom stays at home and is just the best mom. I have three brothers, Kevin (19), Joe (17) and Frankie (6). They’ve all been amazing at supporting me through this. It’s crazy, but getting diabetes somehow brought our family even closer together than we were before.
At first, I was worried that diabetes would keep me from doing all the things I wanted to do as a teenager and with the band. I wondered "why me?" a lot in the beginning. Then I started to think, this is a new challenge, a new step in life and a way to reach more people, so why not me? I wasn’t going to be miserable about it or let it slow me down. I mean, I played a show with my brothers just one day out of the hospital! Now we’re recording and touring all the time. My career is really ramping up.
I’ve learned that the most important thing is to never, ever, let yourself get down about diabetes.That’s what I want everyone to know: it doesn’t have to be so hard. You can live a really great life as a kid with diabetes. I mean, I can’t drink regular soda, but other than that, life’s pretty good!
