With Medtronic pump and CGM, be _sure_ to finish the fill reservoir procedure

Diabetes Technology Insulin Pumps
#1

There’s a rather disturbing article at https://insulinnation.com/treatment/319050/ that tells of someone who was changing the reservoir in their Medtronic pump (looks like a 630 or 670). They inadvertently didn’t finish all the steps.

The pump quietly waited for them to complete the steps, and meanwhile blocked all the CGM alerts from the pump. All night. They went all night without insulin delivery and there were no CGM alerts; the pump was just sitting on the Fill Reservoir screen.

My first comment is Yikes! My second comment is the same as the first.

#2

There are many ways to mess up, when a diabetic. I’ve made most mistakes a person can do, including one that almost killed me (injecting into my leg without looking, without pulling back to see if there is blood in the syringe. Over 20 units–a mix of fast and long acting–dropped my bg down to close to zero. Glucagon saved me). The simpler mistakes such as forgetting to hook my pump back up to the set have happened countless times. The biggest cause of that for me was removing the pump for fun in the sack. Right after, like a typical guy, I’d fall asleep. I learned to keep my pump on during fun times. The times I’d forget to bolus. The time in the hospital I was just a tiny bit too loopy to remember that I’d already injected and did it again. No harm that time, because I ran high anyway. I can’t even recall all the goofy things I’ve done since I’ve been on insulin. It keeps us on our toes!

#3

I just tested leaving “fill” on for ten minutes on my 670G and indeed no micro boluses were infused. However, the fill now screen remained on until I hit done. Yes, you need to either fill or hit done to return back on the infusion process.

I always check my reading before I go to bed and regularly during the day so it is not a major issue for me.