Priming

Hey guys, I’m still in the sandbox stage of getting used to my new Minimed pump so I apologize for the potential stupid question. I had been wearing my first insertion set for 3 days now and I had planned to change it later this evening before I went to bed, but it seemed to beat me to the punch and instead of delivering my dinner bolus into me, it spilled over onto the adhesive pad leaving some or all of the dose delivered. I didn’t realize this until later on when I saw the adhesive was wet and I checked by BG which was 275.

Thankfully I had the foresight to grab a new infusion set before I left my house today so I went to the bathroom to change it, but in my new pump user panic at being detached with such a high BG I hurriedly put the set in and realized that I forgot to prime the tubing before I shot it in. Does this mean it won’t work correctly or is priming just like shooting out a unit or two in a pen just to ensure that there is flow? I hope it’s the former, or else I guess I’m headed home to get a new set… :confused:

I have also done this before. All you have to do is disconnect the tubing at the site and prime while disconnected. After this just re-attach and do your fixed prime. You will then be just as if you had primed before inserting the set.

I think that priming is just to get the insulin through the infusion set? You prime it up to the end of the needle connector gizmo, then stick it in and prime the needle, b/c it’s X units long, then it’s going into you. If I forgot to prime, I think I’d try to figure out a way to “Fixed prime” it but it might not be possible, in which case I’d bolus an extra .5 us as that’s my fixed prime#.

I think (at least the way I think it happened) that the infusion set tubing isn’t primed either?

Ah, gotcha, I’d just prime it now then as whatever had been pumped into the tube is probably still in the tube and, if it squirts out of the needle thing immediately, then enough has pumped that it’s primed? The only dicey part would be that if there was a bolus, the pump would think theres’ IOB instead of IIT (insulin in tube…) and might cut any subsequent boluses to account for that?

I tried to do “Fill Cannula” which sends .3 unit through, but you usually do that while it’s unattached. I wonder if I could just unhook the tube without suspending the pump during basal and watch to see if the drop appears on the end? It hasn’t told me it’s not delivering my basal, so I guess I’ll see what my BG looks like again in an hour. Thanks for your replies, MossDog and acidrock!

Yep. The other issue would be if there was a correction given she likely didn’t get much actually in her body.

I’m confused. You’re supposed to fill the cannula while attached. Priming the tubing is done while unattached but filling the cannula must be done while attached.

What I’d do is just start from the beginning, but with your current site. Do a quick disconnect from your site, pull out the reservoir, rewind the pump, put the reservoir back in, and then run through the priming the tube again (looks like that’s called Reservoir Setup on the Revel) as you were taught and as though it were a brand new site.

I didn’t prime the tubing before I put the site in. I wasn’t sure how to prime the tubing without also filling the reservoir since there’s no plunger in the one that’s already in my pump. Thanks for your help! :slight_smile:

So how did it turn out? Were you struggling with high blood sugars all night?

Nope, I woke up at a beautiful 81 this morning after staying up late to test and correct. :slight_smile: