I’ve been on my Animas Ping pump for almost a month now. I’m using the inset infusion sets and I think I’ve had at least three bad set changes since I got it. My question is has anyone else had problems with the insets and at what point do you decide that the set needs to be changed again? Today I changed my set at about five pm. Then I was about to eat dinner so I checked my sugar. It was like 350! I think that was my fault (damn Chinese food!) so that’s not really the problem. I ate a sandwich and took insulin for it and to correct my high. It’s now about an hour and a half later and I checked my sugar again…it’s 470! I can’t help but think that was a bad set change. It should have at least gone down a little bit by now and definitely not more than a hundred UP, right? The other couples of times I had bad set changes I remembered having some sort of difficulty when I put the set in. This time I’m pretty sure I did everything right so I don’t know what happened. This is so frustrating! Any advice is helpful! Thanks everyone!
This has happened to me as well. The tube gets crimped under the skin. It’s very scary for sure. One weekend I had to change it 3 times. When itgets high like that do you give your self a shot? I do I just hate the way I feel when my BG is high like that.
My advice is to make sure you have the appropriate cannula size. If you are thin and using a 9 mm then you are probably hitting muscle and crimping the cannula. I had trouble with the short 6 mm insets, and so I use the inset 30s. I have had much better success with the angled set. Good luck, it takes a good bit of experimenting when you first go on the pump, but it will get easier.
Cassie , I hope this somewhat helps : when I am over 200 I bolus correction with the use of a needle and use the pump while disconnecting to deliver the same amount ( to have a record , when I bolussed and able to look back about having record of insulin on board ) …my pump tells me , what the correction amount is ; wait till it comes down to close to 130 before I eat. So it may NOT be the set change, but adding carbs on top of HIGH BG ???.
Right up front, I’ll tell you that I am not a pumper!
I do agree with the thoughts that have been spoken thus far.
My first thought though(since I take shots)was that you had not reached your top score on your meter from the chinese meal. The chinese food has a lot of sugars and fats which keeps the sugars in your system longer.
We only go there on Special occasions(cuz the food is Great tasting)and I always have to take a higher dose about 15 minutes before I eat and a smaller dose about 1 1/2 hours later.
You’re new with your pump so it will take time and trial and error to figure these things out, for your specific case.
I don’t know what the problem was in the end but I changed the set just to be safe. I had it back down to 120 by 11pm so that’s good Now I’m kicking myself for being stupid enough to binge on the chinese food in the first place! I’m looking into a low carb diet but I’m afraid I’ll fail because I’m alllllways hungry!
I’m on a Minimed 522, but the same symptoms are valid. I haven’t had a bad one for three months, but I got similar symptoms after an orthopedic surgeon gave me two cortizone shots in my shoulder. Steroids will give high BG and if you happen to do it on the same day that you change sets, it might fool you.
I always check my bg when I do a set change, and give myself a small bolus (or large, if I need to correct). I try to do my set changes hours before I’m going to eat so I don’t have to figure whether it’s the food that’s causing the highs. Usually the highs happen when I insert in a place with scar tissue, which causes bad absorption. I’ve had d sooooo long, and pumping almost 20 years so I have a lot of bad places (I’m keeping good records on rotating my sites). Several times I’ve had a whole box of sets that were defective. Another thing that can happen is the insulin is not fresh. too many things to account for!
Hi Cassie, I have been on the Ping for 3 months. I have used the 90 degree inset, the inset 30, contact and detach(1 time and it hurt like heck) and now I have found the comforts to be the best for me. This is just like the inset 30 but without the injector system so you have to put it in yourself. The benefit for me is that I know that it is in whereas with the inset 30 I never knew if it went in correctly. I was able to get samples from my territorial sales rep and a lot of pump trainers have samples. Don’t be afraid to ask for different kinds.
As for the Chinese food, I have found that if I over estimate the # of carbs and give a combo bolus over 4 hr period, that it works for me. The percentage taken up front and what is taken over time is all experimental. I have seen in chats those who take the majority up front and the smaller amount over time. For me it works better with 25% up front and 75% over the 4 hrs. For me that takes care of any need for a correction, the initial impact and then the amount that lasts for a long time.
. It does take awhile to get it consistently correct and I know from my own experiences, having infusion set mishaps doesn’t help figure it out. Good Luck.
