Hi: I’m wondering if anyone else has had this problem: when I try to draw air out of the cartridge before filling it with insulin I find that there doesn’t seem to be any air to draw out. i.e. there seems to be a vacuum in the cartridge. This would be fine if true, but I’m not sure if I can trust that because I’m getting unexplained highs which may be due to bubbles in the cartridge.
What are you doing exactly? You are supposed to fill your syringe first, then draw the air out, then inject air out of syringe, then fill the cartridge. I always see a large air bubble in the top of the syringe when I draw air out of the new cartridge.
Meee - I’m doing exactly what you describe but when I try to draw air out of the cartridge no air comes out. I am able to push insulin from the syringe into the cartridge. The question I have is whether there was no air in the cartridge to begin with. Maybe Tandem is now sending cartridges that have no air in them.
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@Goldfish - I do notice occasionally that the new cartridge seems to have a vacuum already. Against Tandem advice (and I’m not sure why it matters) I draw any remaining cartridge air out before I load the insulin in the syringe. I do find that where you place the needle gives different results. I found that there is a spot towards the outside edge of the cartridge fill port that allows the syringe needle to depress further than normal. My guess is that it’s the main fill channel within the cartridge. When I hit that spot I generally get more air out and am able to load additional insulin (up to 325 units). My personal needs are not great enough to actually need that volume of insulin, but my guess is somebody somewhere does…
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Thanks El Ver. That’s helpful.
I’m still using older cartridges because I have tons of them, so maybe that is why I don’t have this problem. The other suggestions sound good. T Slim created a bad situation by stopping the pump from doing this function for us. It takes much longer and it is a pain in the butt and tricky to do it this way. The only up side is I can do it all before starting the load menu and stopping basal etc.
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I was actually trained to suck the air out first before anything else. It has been working fine for me. I think the cartridges have a very tiny amount of air in them, if anything. I think the new style cartridges have less air than the old ones. Maybe they got better at the manufacturing process.
I think the new style cartridges have less air than the old ones. Maybe they got better at the manufacturing process.
I agree D. Some cartridges seem to have no air in them at all. I’ve suggested to Tandem that they let us know if they are now putting them out that way. And thanks for your suggestion to suck the air out first. I’ll try that.
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