So earlier today, I had my first “no delivery” alarm on my minimed. In an airport, about to board a plane.
I had just changed the site yesterday, so I just wiggled the tubing around and tried again. This time it was fine, so I went ahead and ate my breakfast.
20 minutes later I had the worst low ever – 37, but felt worse – I was sweating so much it literally drenched my clothes in seconds, and was dripping off my face.
So I figured that maybe it was a FALSE no delivery alarm. I could have slightly overcounted the carbs for breakfast, but only by a bit – at worst enough to go to 60 or something. And I really don’t think I did. I think I got a double dose from the pump.
So I ate a ***pile of skittles. Because I felt like I was still dropping and this was passing-out territory. And because I figured that if I DID bolus twice, that was 30 missing grams of carbs. But of course I overdid it and was 267 an hour later… and am trying to get it under control now.
So. What SHOULD I have done? (Other than eating fewer skittles…) Do you think the pump did give a false alarm?
I don’t use a minimed but I’ve had the no delivery alarm go off on my pump. I assume you were delivering bolus when it went off. Did you happen to look at the history to see if any of that bolus was delivered? For example, if you were delivering 4 units, it may have delivered 3 of those units before the tubing kinked up. So you were only down one unit vs. 4. I hope that makes sense.
Did you put your pump through a type of scanner/machine at the airport that the pump is not approved for? Maybe that caused a false alarm?
That’s really helpful – I think that’s exactly what happened – I should have looked at the bolus history before I took another bolus. That didn’t occur to me. Maybe 'cause it’s the first no delivery alarm I’ve had, but also maybe 'cause it was really early and I hadn’t had enough sleep…
I had to figue that one out the hard way. The first time you see that “no delivery” screen your reaction is WAHHHHHHHHHH – not exactly a moment to think it through.
So I ate a ***pile of skittles. Because I felt like I was still dropping and this was passing-out territory. And because I figured that if I DID bolus twice, that was 30 missing grams of carbs. But of course I overdid it and was 267 an hour later… and am trying to get it under control now.
Well can’t help about the Pump issue, But Maybe about taking Glucose for hypo’s… When I’m seriously Low, I will purposely Over-Correct… Drinking Liquids works the fastest for me… Be it a Reg. Coke/Pop in Can or Bottle or Glucose tabs if liquids are not readily avail.
in any case? I keep tabs on what I do take and how much… ( keep the empties, etc to count the carbs ) I normally only need 15-20 carbs… and I may take 70 ( 2 cans of coke, 2 candy bars, etc.) to speed things up in recovery and keep them up … for odds are? I probably over bolused for what I ate previously and thus their’s still more Insulin comming… I will wait about 1/2 hr and then? subtract that 20 Carbs and treat the rest… Then Test every 1/2 hr for the next few hrs… And It’s not perfect a few hrs later, but sure alot better than being +150 or higher…
There’s always something new to contend with isn’t there?
