I have finally written down our experience with Apidra in the pump. Caleb has been using it for over two years. We now change his sites every two days to avoid highs. It took me a while to write this down because I doubted many times that Apidra was actually the cause of the clogs. It may not in fact be the issue, but after seeing highs when we extend the use of his Pod beyond 48 hours more times than not, that's the conclusion I've finally landed on.
I posted this on your forum, but thought I would put on here as well incase it would be of help to any other TuDiabetes parents....
Amber on March 27, 2013 at 10:18 am said: We have had the exact issues, coincidentally happening at night also (its amazing how most issues occur while we are trying to sleep!)… I too have thought of every variable and agree it has to be the insulin. Apidra actually recommends not using over 48 hours in a pump. I have (maybe) found a work around for us to get through three days that I thought may be worth sharing- I keep his vial of insulin in the fridge up until it is time for a pod change, at which point I warm, use and then put back in the fridge. He still travels with a vial in his pump bag, but I do not use it for pod changes. I noticed in comparison to new vials, opened vials that traveled with my son seemed to get cloudy before the end of the 28 days. We have been trying this new method for about a month and have had success (knock on wood).
Thanks, Amber. I just replied over there. This is something to ponder.
What do you do with the vial that you carry with you? Just have it ready for emergencies and then discard it after a period of time?
Maybe the inconsistency we've experienced has to do with the length of time the vial has been out of the fridge. My next post will be how we deal with that, as I've heard this is a bigger issue with Apidra (never really had that issue with Novolog).
I keep a vial with him for instances where the pod pulls off or we have high numbers without explanation (which has not happened since trying this new method- naturally will probably happen today since I mentioned it). Once we start getting low on the refridgerated vial, I put it in his pouch and start a new vial for pod refills. Just out of curiosity- have you guys started on the new pods yet? Hopefully this will be a resolved issue with it!
My dd has also been using Apidra for just over 2 years. We stopped fighting it after the first 3 months (I was stubborn lol) & switched to site changes every other day. We use a few different infusion sets, depending on where she's placing the site, & every one of them stops working around 48 hours in.
