Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by lisa c on May 14, 2012 at 3:53am

There is nothing ore frustrating than pump malfunction. Good to suppliment with pens or shots when you first detect something wrong. I had good success when I got a CDE to listen t my problems. She was brilliant at troubleshooting. It does happen once or twice a year but nothing like it used to. if you take a small amount sometmies it does ot flow reliably, smetimes there is an air space in tube nd you think you are getting delivery but you are not. it does not alert you to no delivery and they should fix this! Anotjer thing is scar tissue...some sites on our bodies are tatterered and do not get good absorption. Hope this helps.

Love your kitty!

Permalink Reply by ladyknotsalot on May 15, 2012 at 9:53pm

I love the convenience of the pump,,, but I really do not feel as well as when I took injections. Maybe once I become a pump pro it will get better.
Your kitties look a lot like the picture I have :) My daughter has both of those cats now. My husband isn't very fond of cats... The one to the left of the picture is my baby!! I miss him.
Thanks for taking the time to reply!

Permalink Reply by DENNIS C ADAIR on May 14, 2012 at 6:16am

I am diabetic almost 56 years now and have lived the past 29 yrs on the insulin pump. If it were not for the pump, I would have passed away like the doctors said. The pump when I first got mine in 1983, march, was big, weight almost a pound, and just gave you your basil rate, and you had to figure out how much insulin to take for a meal base on calories. Today's pump are so much better, and I know much harder to get use to. When I went onto the cgm it took me almost a year before I knew and felt comfortable with it. Hang in their it will get better.
Dennis

Permalink Reply by ladyknotsalot on May 15, 2012 at 10:01pm

Wow..56 years is a long time. It's been almost 30 years for me. My dad was diabetic and so is my brother. It seems to hit around the age of 30 in our family. Luckily my 3 children have all passed that age and none of them are diabetic... I'm hoping there will be a cure before my grandchildren are 30.
I never even knew about pumps when I first became diabetic. After I did learn about them, I was not really interested. My new endo talked me into it and I'm still on the fence about whether or not I'm happy with it. Love the convenience though!! Sometimes I feel like this thing is going to kill me :( I suppose I'll get used to it. If you can hang in there for 29 years, then maybe I shouldn't worry about it. You are an inspiration :)
Thanks for listening!

Permalink Reply by Cheryl on May 14, 2012 at 10:57am

When my son started pumping five years ago, no delivery alarms were a problem over the first few months. In his case, usually a bent canula at site change that would cause his pump to message a no delivery error. Not something that he would stumble upon during his regular BG checks.

You should not be able to smell insulin when you change your reservoir. If you can, I would suspect that some insulin is leaking out of the bottom of the reservoir, either from the o-rings being too dry, which can be fixed by turning the plunger clockwise or counter-clockwise, several times before drawing up any insulin. The o-rings are the little black rings at the top and bottom of the stopper that holds the insulin in the reservoir when you remove the plunger. The o-rings are lubricated and if they happen to be a little dry, they may need a few turns before drawing up insulin to re-lubricate around the stopper, which improves the seal that keeps the insulin from leaking out the bottom of the reservoir. If not the o-rings, the problem might be that you are overfilling the reservoir just a tad, but enough that you are passing the full mark when drawing up the insulin, which in turn is allowing some insulin to leak when you remove the plunger and set the reservoir into the reservoir holder section of the pump. Leaking can't be good for the mechanism that pushes the insulin through the reservoir.

My husband, when he would try to help, had a tendancy of pulling the plunger too far back when refilling the reservoir. At times, far enought that he'd pull the plunger right out of the bottom of the reservoir dumping the full reservoir of insulin onto the counter. Big hands / thumbs, trying to manipulate tiny reservoir tubes.

Permalink Reply by ladyknotsalot on May 15, 2012 at 9:48pm

Thanks for the reply :) I usually fill to the 100 units mark. After the 43" tubing fills my pump usually shows about 75-80 units which lasts 2-1/2 to 3 days. I'll try the o-ring lubrication and see if that helps. I wondered if the box of reservoirs I received weren't quite up to par. I'm still on my initial order. I had a "skin" on my pump and thought maybe it had absorbed insulin so I removed it (which actually has helped some). Now I clean my pump every time I change it. Thanks for the advice!