Happy New Years everyone! Hope you have all had a very blessed holiday!
Quick question. I have been on the minimed pump for over a year now. About 6 months ago had to switch to sure T infusion sets due to low body fat and bleeding issues. I have loved them until here recently. For the past few weeks or so all of my sites have been very tender and painful. Has anyone ever experienced this??
On a side note, this past week I have had my first 2 pump scares. Last week my pump was not delivering insulin (never received a "no insulin delivery" alert) but had not eaten all day and within a 5 hour period my bs went from 90-320. And then last night my pump fell out while I was sleeping and I awoke at 3am to a bs of 400 and feeling very very shakey and ill it was AWFUL! Please tell me this type of thing is very rare.
Hi Lil Mama! I can't speak to the Sure T sets, but as for the no delivery: I've been on my Ping for two years this month. I've never had it pull out during the night. When it's pulled out it's been because I pulled on it accidentally a couple times. Only once did I have what was a failure of delivery I assumed. I woke up at 175 which was very unusual but just corrected but kept going up and by Noon was 375 when I got the message and changed my set. It was actually a good illustration to me that I really am insulin dependent! So, yeah, just that once. I have struggled with set problems though for much of that two years and it is only in the last month or two I've finally gotten to where I can keep most of my sets in as long as I like (which is 4 days). But I really have horrible hand eye coordination. I just keep listening to people on here and finally started implementing a few minor changes that helped. But what helped me a lot was when I asked how often set failures happen to people and lots of people said, "rarely". That helped me to know I had to make some changes. So as for the total delivery failure: "Rarely!".
My pump did not alert me saying "no delivery" when it had come out which concerned me but I guess it doesn't know whether or not its actually in your skin??
USed to leave my sets in for 4 days because I use very little insulin but have only been able to barely even make it 2 days due to pain and tenderness, especially if the site is touched which makes it painful when I hold my baby.
I would read your manual, all pumps are different. But I learned about my Ping that "No delivery" only applied to some very specific and rare circumstances. I could be getting no insulin or more commonly, only partial insulin without it saying that. I don't go by alarms, just by blood sugar rises. And if it's high you can give yourself a shot which does two things: It works quicker to correct highs and also it is a "test" to show you if the set is to blame.
Hi - Sorry you're having a hard time. I sometimes have a stretch where all my insertions bruise for a couple of weeks at a time. Do you have black and blue marks or bleeding when you remove the sites or is it more like an alergic reaction?
In 4.5 years, I've never had a delivery failure without a message and I've never had a site fall out. I'd say both of your scares are very rare occurances.
Take care,
Maurie
Thanks Maurie and Zoe for the feedback! If your pump is pulled out of its site do you receive a delivery failure message or does your pump not know it is out of your skin?
I believe it doesn't know its out of your skin. When I had a no delivery alarm I disconnected and bolused 1 unit to see if it was the pump or my set. It delivered the 1 unit with no problem.
Sorry you've been having problems.
As far as getting no delivery alarms, I don't know of any pump that will give you one if your site has been removed. It sucks. I've had sites peel off in the middle of the night before, and it's absolutely crap to wake up five times higher than you expected.
As far as site tenderness, are the sites red or warm? Are they bruised? Red or warm sites can be a sign of infection (or as I learned recently, a developed allergy to the insulin). You may need to change your infusion site preparation routine, such as removing IV prep if you use it, changing soaps, making sure the entire area where you do your set change is clean (Lysol the tables and don't be shy with rubbing alcohol). If it's just tenderness...maybe you've just been having bad luck and nicking nerves.
Hope things get better soon!
I don't think the pump will no delivery you unless there is actually no delivery of insulin through the tubing, i.e. line kinked, site gets blocked. And if your basal is really low, it may take a while for the pump to sound the no delivery alarm too.
Re sites pulling out - I just tape the tubing to me, just above where I have inserted. Since I started that years ago, I have prevented losing a site - even when getting the tubing caught going around a corner!
Sorry I cannot comment on the sure t - any of the needle based infusion sets hurt and I don't have trouble with low body fat so I stick to the soft cannula based infusion sets. At times though I do have pain with those sites too - have not ever figured out why though. Good luck! Hope you can figure it out!