I have a tandem Mobi pump and use the auto soft 30 and 90 infusion sets. Lately I’ve had repeated occlusion alarms. 5-7 per day in some cases. It only happens with a bolus of 4+ units. In some of these cases when I can’t change my set I’ve resumed delivery and taken a bolus of 1 unit at a time with no issue and no highs and had no further alarms issues until I take a larger bolus. I called Tandem and the tech support said that they have been getting a few calls about this issue and he referred me to clinical support. The clinical support person said they want me to start putting my infusion set into my leg(?!?), instead of my stomach, to rule out scar tissue being the cause of the occlusion. I’m sure I have some scar tissue but I’ve seen pictures of what it looks like when someone has serious scar tissue and that’s not me at all. No visible bumps on me. Anyway, has anyone else had occlusion alarms on mobi?
I’m sorry you’re having trouble. It’s not my personal experience and it’s definitely not normal for Mobi, but I have seen a lot of similar posts pop up recent on other sites. I’m starting to think Tandem got a bad batch of pressure sensors or something.
From what I’ve seen, they’ve eventually replaced the pump, but not without jumping through some hoops first. It’s hard to prove a pump error when it’s doing something it’s designed to do for safety’s sake. There is indeed a chance your body is fighting against the infusion sets, or there’s an issue with your insulin, or even user error until you jump through that hoops and eliminate the other options. Your hoop seems to be trying other sites. At least they’re admitting others are having the same problem, means they’re working on it and exchanges should be getting easier. Sounds like you won’t have to call in 4 times and repeat site changes and wait, like others have. You’ll have to keep tripping the occlusion alert to get the replacement, but you could try extended delivery the second time. Like, set the pump to deliver it over 10 or 15 minutes instead of all at once. The shortest amount of time you can extend over varies, depending on the bolus volume, so the pump might change the duration on you.
I’ve been on Mobi for 13 months now and I’ve seen exactly 2 occlusion alarms. Both were my fault, because I didn’t get the connector clicked in all the way, and easily fixed. I was actually scared that the pump wouldn’t be able to accurately detect occlusions when I first got it because the threshold to set off that alarm is crazy high. It takes more than double the build up of back pressure to trigger the occlusion alarm than in T:slim (70psi for Mobi vs 30psi for T:slim), so there’s a pretty big issue if you’re getting them constantly without reason.
You might do better with varisoft. They go in at an angle. And you can do it manually to be almost parallel with your skin.
When I was using the 90 degree ones they would hit muscle and deform the cannula after a day. If you look at the end after you remove it and if it looks bent or very narrow, the it’s probably happening.
Try varisoft.