Hey guys, I am a 15 year old boy and I love to play football, basketball, swim, and just be really active pretty much every single day. I also was recently diagnosed with T1 in February so this thing is still kinda new to me.
I have both Dexcom and Omnipod, and it has been a struggle to keep them on for the entire time. I use Simpatch for both and SkinTac, but after 3-4 days of hard exercise I either have to put another patch on or slap Band-Aids everywhere just to keep it on. Do y’all have any tips or ideas to keep Dex and Omni on?
Hello!
As for the Omni pod I can’t give you tips since that’s not a route my sister has opted for yet. However for the Dexcom she has been using the Dexcom overpatches. Here is a link for them.
These are free to order. They are the ones that have been working amazing for my sister. They aren’t super big like some patches are and they stick on very good. My sister has used skintac but at least for her it hasn’t worked as well. She’s pretty new to diabetes and Dexcom so sorry I don’t know many options! Hope this helps you.
We’ve had good experience with the free Dexcom overpatches, too. They held for us all 10 days despite rigorous gymnastics, swimming, and cycling through the Florida summers.
We’re newer to pumping, too, and haven’t had issues with it staying put so far since it’s a shorter timeframe, but our Omnipod rep has T1D, and she recommends Mastisol.
Good luck, and keep up the awesome activity level!
For OmniPod, they are ONLY meant to last 72h with a 8h grace period so a total of 80 hours or 3.25 days.
What I do to keep my OmniPod and Dexcom on. And I am very active in the gym (pro-Covid) and now that it is garden time in a garden, and I DO get my robot parts knocked around A LOT!! I scrub the skin with my alcohol prep pad. And I put the Skintac ON the device itself, not on the skin, but on either the Dexcom or OmniPod. I wait 5 to 10 min until the SkinTac has dried a bit and it is SUPER STICKY… then I place it, and I do NOT put anything over it until I know it is DRY, which is another 10 min or so…
I sweat to the point my shirt backs are soaking wet (my pods are on my back right side ), and my Dexcom is usually on my Arm or thigh. And I usually have to have someone HELP me take my pod off (usually a co-worker or neighbour for location I can’t use Detachol to remove it for its stuck)
Oh, and I didn’t say, but alcohol first, then skin prep, then skin tac for the Dexcom, and THEN the Dexcom overpatch on top. We could wait a couple of days to add the overpatch, which helped it last. The edges would be pulling up a little by the end of the 10 days, so not as pretty, but definitely still secure.
There are arm bands you can buy that might help. As was suggested before, using alcohol can help with any oil on the skin and might help an adhesive hold longer. A band over your Simpatch could provide an extra measure of security. There are some advertised for pumps (which I imagine work equally well with a sensor)
but ones you find in sporting goods stores may work equally well.
I have had a lot of luck using athletic tape over the adhesive when the pods adhesive starts to come up. I just throw on a piece that’s larger than the omnipod adhesive. This works best if you are on a site where you don’t naturally bend as much (works like a charm on my outer thigh, but can be hit or miss on a place like my stomach where I naturally have rolls). The other thing I would definitely say that was mentioned above too was alcohol wipes. They tend to stick better in general if you don’t have sweat/body oil on the bottom of the adhesive.