When My Old Omnipod Became Famous

Hi, my name is Naomi and I love medical shows. Which is ironic, because the site of blood, bone, or needles makes me want to curl up in a small corner of whatever room I’m in and cry to myself.

Seriously though, I am obsessed with medical shows. Any and every medical show there has ever been in my lifetime, starting with ER (I’m pretty certain Noah Wyle was my first celebrity crush… I know, George Clooney was on the show as well).

One of my favorite medical shows running currently is Royal Pains. The show follows a doctor, Hank, who gets fired from his position at a New York hospital and moves to the Hamptons with his brother, Evan, to start their own concierge medical practice. Honestly, I started watching it because I was really bored on summer day, but I continue watching it religiously to this day.

That’s why in the beginning of June this year when my mom told me that one of our family friends needed a favor for the show, I jumped at the chance.

As a short explanation; we have these family friends who run a business that provides medical supplies (as well as furniture and other items) to television shows, plays and movie sets. It’s not as glamorous as it sounds. I have never used them to get to people, because they themselves rarely get the chance to go on set.

It just so happened that they called these guys, who for the sake of the story I’ll call V&N, to ask if they could supply them with an insulin pump. Something they didn’t have, but they did know someone who did. First they called all major pump companies and although granted permission to show their product on television, they could not supply them with said devices; understanding.

So they called my mom and me. Four hours later I was handing N an old and broken PDM (first generation as that’s what I had on hand that I could part with), two olds pods, and an empty bottle of Humalog.

My mom and I jokingly tried to coerce them to let us go and pretend to be “pump-experts”, but we knew that wasn’t going to happen; the set already has two medical professionals who help guide the story lines and make sure all medical stories and devices are explained in a good manner.

They said they would be taping it a few days later, and six weeks after that the episode should air.

Six weeks later, I was seated right in front of the tv as well as on #DSMA with you guys, tweeting that “tonight was the night”.

The patient explained he was diabetic, Hank (Mark Feuerstein) asked if he used a pump, and….

“No… I Inject…. the Syringes.” (in a Russian accent)

My Omnipod got fired….

I got my hopes up, knowing perfectly well that things don’t happen the way you hope they will.

Oh well. It was still cool to be able to supply them with it and since they’re hanging onto it maybe it will be on a later episode (this was in fact, the second time diabetes had been incorporated in the show).

The following episode I couldn’t watch, but I was able to record it…. and then I forgot about it.

I woke up saturday to an unexpected tweet from Lorraine; she said she had seen on Facebook that someone wrote about the Omnipod being on Royal Pains this past Wednesday….

After a few minutes of flipping out around the house that I had missed the episode, I watched from the recording I had….

Lo and Behold, the Humalog bottle, Omnipod and PDM I had given them were now on my TV screen.

The character from the previous episode ended up being an important character for these next few episodes so he came back and Hank explained that an insulin pump would be in his best interest as the patient was not caring for himself as well as he should’ve been.

That hit close to home for me, as I found the Omnipod when I was in a diabetes withdrawal and it really helped me better how I cared for myself.

What’s even better is they did make sure to explain what Diabetes entails. They stressed to the “patient” that he couldn’t just stick on a pump and forget about his diabetes. Even though this could help his care (depending on his preference), he would still have to test his blood sugar and take care of himself.

I’m not giving away the whole episode, but let’s just say this guy didn’t see the insulin pump like that. Oh well, different things suit different people.

And my PDM, which had been with me from 2009-2010 was now making a guest appearance in a critically acclaimed show…

(Unfortunately, I could not get a good still with the PDM showing)

You can find the episode on Itunes, by clicking here. Episode is $1.99 for Standard Definition/$2.99 for High Definition. OR watch on Royal Pains Series Website and Hulu for free when it becomes available in about 25-30 days.

Writer’s Note: Let it be known that in no way did I benefit, financially or otherwise, for providing these medical devices to the show