Pump glitch

Diabetes Technology Insulin Pumps
#1

This morning I went to correct my blood sugar and could not understand why my pump kept recommending a bolus of 0.0. Then I went back and retraced each step slowly and noticed this:


Basically it's recommending no correction even though my BG is clearly high (I had no IOB). When I changed my target blood sugar upward there was no change, but as soon as I changed it to 5.9 it magically started working properly.

Of course, now this has me thoroughly distrusting the pump, since I've had several unexplained extreme highs and lows over the past few days. I've checked each time I've bolused since this morning and haven't had it happen again, and will of course try it again tomorrow morning. I've since adjusted my ISF in an attempt to get my blood sugar more stable, so I'm not sure if that will alter things.

Has anyone ever had this happen or know what the heck could cause it? The only thing I can think of is that I had x-rays a few weeks ago and the lady would not let me put my pump outside the room, she just gave me a piece of material to cover it with ... I'm debating if one incident is enough to call Animas and ask for a new pump even if this doesn't happen again ... The warranty for this pump is up in April and I do not want to be stuck with an iffy pump that isn't covered under warranty ...

#2

New (refurbished) pump.

#3

A bit weird. What do you have your plus/minus set at for your target BG?

I would phone Animas and see what they say. They are usually helpful if they think there's any chance of a pump malfunction.

#4

Hi there, I don’t think it’s malfunctioning, maybe you just have your BG Target boundary greater than 2.8 so it will only recommend a correction to 6.0 when your BG is over 8.8. That’s my guess anyway! Could be wrong but it happened to me some time into pumping & eventually by going thru all the settings I figured out this was the reason. If you go into Setup in Main Menu, then click Advanced and scroll up to BG Target…& see what it’s set at underneath the actual target of 6.0 – I now have mine set at +/- 1.0mmol/L from a target like yours of 6.0mmol/L so mine wouldn’t recommend a correction on a BG of 6.9, say. But everyone’s different re target boundaries (think mine was initially set up with 1.5 or 2? & I changed it).



I hope it’s this as it’s easily solveable!

#5

Thanks! You were completely right! I have my target set to 5.5 +/- 0.0 usually, except overnight when my target is set to 6.0. When I changed my overnight target, I obviously forgot to change the +/- part, so it was set to +/- 2.8. Problem solved!

#6

Yep, the +/- was it. Usually it's set to 0.0, but my target overnight is 6.0 instead of 5.5, and when I set that up I forgot to change the +/- (or else scrolled one bit too far) and so it was set to 2.8. All fixed now. Might explain a LOT about why my after-breakfast blood sugars are so highly variable if my pump is sometimes recommending corrections and sometimes not!

#7

This pump is not the original one I received from Animas, so I'm sure it's already refurbished if they send out refurbished ones for warranty.

#8

Medtronic routinely send out refurbished pumps for warranty replacement. However my Vibe was replaced under warranty in October and the replacement pump shows a manufacture date of 2014-08, so I assume it is actually a new one.

#9

You're right - mine shows a manufacture date of 2014-04.

#10

An Animas rep (UK) told me they don’t send out refurbished replacement pumps, only new ones! I had 3 replacements in my first year and had assumed they were all refurbished, but apparently not. Guess it could be different in different countries but it sounds like yours were new when sent out. I’m still surprised and impressed with that!!

NB Reason I kept having them replaced was I’d set in Insulin Duration of say 4 1/2 hours, but IOB would show on the pump up to 6-7 hours. Animas failed to ever get the error reports to me as promised, never had any explanations, and with some digging I found others in different countries using Vibes who’d noticed the same thing and had the same probs with Animas over taking it seriously. To cut a long story short, I’m convinced that a significant number of Vibes have this programming error and most people just don’t notice it, especially if you never have long enough gaps between food/correction boluses (like 6 or 7 hours). I gave up getting replacement pumps in the end and calculate my own IOB for adjusting doses. The plus side of things was I decided I didn’t really like the original pink pump I’d ordered so now have a lovely green one :wink:

#11

Phew! :slight_smile:

#12

Jen you rock !!!

#13

Point of interest, if the range is set to 0.0, the pump will recommend a correction to the target. On the other hand if the range is set to anything else, it will recommend a correction to the closest edge. If you are already within that range, it will not recommend a correction. If you are just out of range, it will bring you to the edge, not to your center target.

Steve

#14

I'm a little confused, Jen... why would you ever want the target range to be +/- 2.8 mmol/l (50 mg/dl)? That seems like a very wide range...

#15

Hi Steve, I just experimented on my pump - my target is set to 6.0 with a range of +/- 1.0 and my ISF is 1U:5mmol/L - I fed in a BG of 11 mmol/L and it recommended a correction of 1.0U i.e. to the target of 6.0. I thought it always recommends a correction to your target value?

#16

I don't know - I agree, it's a very wide range. I set all my rnages to 0.0, but if you scroll one click past 0.0 it lands on 2.8, so I'm guessing that's what happened.