As stated in the title, my pump boluses suddenly stopped working yesterday. The bolus runs fine, none of those annoying "NO DELIVERY" or "MOTOR ERROR" alerts. I was wondering if this was most likely a problem with the quickset tubing, my infusion site, or maybe something else. Have any of you experienced this kind of problem?
Nope sorry... never had anything like that,
If it were me I'd check the tubing for kinks and bubbles. Temporarily disconnect from the cannula and use either a large 'prime cannula' instruction or similar to make sure I could see insulin seeping out of the end of the tube (around 1u should be plenty to be able to see it). I'd also probably do a full set change anyway just in case the cannula had hit a bit of lipohypertrophy and the insulin wasn't being absorbed.
In the meantime keep testing and watch for ketones :)
Yup, it's happened to me a few times. When I finally gave up and changed the set, the canula was bent... really bent.
You may want to call the medtronic help number on the back of your pump. Having an "official" record of your problems cannot hurt. They will likely (from my experience) have you remove the infusion set and resevior, rewind the pump and prime it to the end, and run a self check. I also had a "motor error" message and the MM rep told me if I received another motor error message within a month I would receive a new pump.
I ran a 1u fixed prime and it came out fine, but I changed the quickset and moved it to a different spot which seemed to do the trick. Thanks to your advice I actually got to get some sleep last night, thanks a ton. :)
Happened to me yesterday. Changed the infusion set (kept the tubing and reservoir) and all is fine now. Be careful, though. Sometimes that insulin which wasn't absorbed by the body (but may have pooled under the skin) will make its way through to the bloodstream after removing the bad set that it could eventually take effect and lead to a big hypo. So be careful and try not to overcorrect after changing the set.
Change the Quick-Set...........and another site too. Happens to all. If it hurts, swells, itches, or looks bloody.........that infusion set goes to the dumper. One other thing..........change it every 3 - 4 days; those darn things clog up after a while.
Mike brings up a good point. I don't know what insulin you use, but Humalog is known to crystallize and cause occlusions (clogs) at times. I've never seen it myself (I use Novolog in my pump), but if you are pumping Humalog you should be aware of this.
Yeah I use Humalog, thanks I'll keep that in mind.
That happened the other day too for me, I wasn't dangerously high but higher than I usually am and boluses just weren't making much of an impact, but um LOL long story I changed the infusion site, cannula looked good. I've come to the conclusion I cooked my insulin...making it less effective.
The 3 day thing is because the preservative in the insulin begins to crystalize in the infusion site and the insulin is unable to affectively get to the blood to be circulated, hence the site "dies". Starting a fresh site take care of the insulin to blood connection.
Sometimes for me a bad sight is indicated by lower that normal BGs like I have increased my basal dosage then within a few hours, no matter what I do with no food intake, the BG will not get to normal no mater how much insulin is bolus or basal increase is implemented.
Scott, it sound like you did the right thing to ID the site as the culprit. The other thing that has cause my sites to go bad early are poking a vessel, which obvious when I pul the site and out it come,,,the flow.
Many years ago I noticed that the insulin didn't seem to be having any impact on slowly but steadily rising BGs. After I finally changed infusion sites/sets, I found a leak at the luer lock connection. I could only see it by sliding a thin piece of tissue down near the twist lock connection. I've never had that happen before or after.