Hello all. I don’t post very often but I read here very often and I am so grateful for this community of people who have helped me so much. I need to have a GI Barium test and I have been told by Tandem that I should not be wearing my pump because the test uses an X-ray machine. I was told that the test may last 2-3 hours depending on how quickly or not so quickly the barium goes through my system. I was wondering if anyone here has had this test and how they managed without their pump connected for this amount of time. I’m quite nervous as I have never been disconnected for that amount of time and hoping that there might be some work around. Any information would be greatly appreciated!
There’s no work round. Tandem should have told you how long a disconnection is safe; it is their product. I’m guessing they didn’t. Insulet, the makers of the Omnipod, say that up to 1 hour is safe, but this is Insulet. Check your Tandem instruction manual, it should be equally clear.
If you need to undergo a procedure which requires disconnection for longer your endo needs to be involved. For me I’ve not got to that; potentially longer procedures (surgery, anal examinations) the docs have had no problem with my Omnipod and, I assume, wouldn’t have with a tubed pump like the Tandem. It’s routine these days.
Endos don’t have issues with this either; they get paid humungous amounts of money to do it. So ask your endo. A lot of the time they just explain to the docs on the other end what to do and give them a telephone number to call if anything goes wrong (everyone gets paid, well, not us, everyone else.)
I had a tslim when I had several ct scans, and since it’s tubed it was easy to keep out of the scanner. Might be harder to do with your entire GI tract, but if you use a long tubing set you could probably keep your pump near your feet.
Unlike a MRI where you can’t have it in the room.
Last option is to switch to lantus for the day.
I’ve done this many times, where I switch to injections for any number of reasons.
I just look at my most recent pump data. I usually use about 25 units of basal per day so I take 12 units of lantus in the morning and 12 at dinner time
For you, probably just need one dose. Then after your procedure you can reconnect your pump and turn off your basal rates for 12 hours and then go on as normal
I know Lantus has a much longer half life, but for me it’s mostly gone after 12 and the algorithm can deal with the trailing off but of course you need to keep aware of it