I need your thoughts on bubbles in the tubing

Diabetes Technology Insulin Pumps
1

I have been on the pump for about a month now and I absolutely love it. I have a Paradigm 722 and I use the quickset. I have two issues that I am wondering about which may or may not be connected. The first one is I have noticed that after just one day of using a new infusion set I see little cylindrical shaped “fog spots” in the tube. It doesn’t quite look like air bubbles, it looks more like a foggy bathroom mirror and they don’t move at all when the insulin is going through. Has anyone else noticed this and if so is it a problem? Am I doing something wrong?

The issue does concern air bubbles. I find it rather easy to get rid of the big obvious ones when I extract the insulin from the vial into the reservoir, but every time I pull down on the plunger the very top of the reservoir fills with thousands of tiny little bubbles that won’t budge at all once they enter. Eventually they make their way into the tubing and then of course into me taking the place of whatever amount of insulin would be there instead. Is there a way to get rid of these? I am very careful when extracting the insulin from the vial, I make sure not to shake it, I use the exact amount of air to insulin dose ratio, I pull the plunger slowly . . .plus I have doing this with syringes for about 14 years now and I never had that problem with them unless I have shook the vial by mistake. By the way, this is happening with all the vials I have gone through and none of them have been dropped or shaken to my knowledge.

2

Pavlos,

I follow this pumper’s tips and tricks for air bubbles

as for air bubbles in my tubing I will go to the prime menu on my 722 - disconnect the pump from my body and prime the insulin until the bubbles are gone.

3

What I meant to say here was: by the way how are you little ones doing?

4

Thanks I’ll check that link out. As for the priming that’s what I do but I stop after 20 units have been wasted because I don’t like wasting insulin. There are so many bubbles though that 20 units doesn’t even begin to cover it. Oddly most of the bubbles are still in the reservoir when it’s time to change, but the ones that do escape into the tube become a problem.

5

usually if you can make it without any bubbles in your reservoir, you will have very few if any in your tubing. It seems to be this way for me :slight_smile:

6

I always let my insulin come to room temperature before filling.

7

That is a good point I forgot to mention :slight_smile:

8

Wow I don’t know what’s wrong with my brain this morning. The above post meant to say “how are your little ones doing?” as in your newborn babies, not “how are you little ones doing?” It loses all meaning with such a small mistake.

Maybe I should check my BG.

Room temperature check.

That video in the link seems great. I just wish I had seen it before this morning when I changed my infusion set. Oh well it’s only 3-4 days until the next one.

9

They are doing wonderfully - my first one came home today. Will be a few days to a few weeks before my little boy can come home too.

Thanks for asking :slight_smile: