Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bradford on March 30, 2011 at 1:58pm

Anything over an hour is just like disconnecting a traditional pump for over an hour. You will start to see an increase in BGs. If you went 5 hours, you're going to start getting fairly high (especially depending on your basal rate: the higher the rate, the more missed insulin of course). Then over the next several hours after you start pumping again (which would be through the middle of the night, given your 10pm release time for your class) you'll have to combat the inevitable high...I would likely leave class and go get a new one on.

Permalink Reply by daneenm on March 30, 2011 at 1:59pm

I say keep a fast acting insulin pen with you for backup. That way you can give yourself a correction if you run high and don't have to leave. We have left my son's deactivated pod on for several hours when he had an occlusion at school and we could not get there to remove it.

Permalink Reply by JohnS52 on March 30, 2011 at 1:59pm

Hanna,

It really depends on your Glucose level. If it were me, It would not be good as I would go up quickly.

What are your readings after the 5 hours

I would carry extra pods when away from home as you never know when the Oclusion beep will go off. At least carry extra syringes and insulin so you can treat high blood sugar.
\
hth, John

Permalink Reply by Romintek on March 30, 2011 at 2:00pm

"You should carry a syringe and a bottle of insulin for emergency cases like that. But yes going for 5 hours without insulin would probably be a problem. I would be beyond shocked if it wasnt.

Permalink Reply by Kate on March 30, 2011 at 2:07pm

Is there a nurses station at your school? They might have a sub-cu syringe? Can you get any insulin out of the pod? (hmm, then again, I always use the ginormous one that comes with the pod...this plan might not work).

This weekend I had a pod fail on the spare pod I had and was 2 hours from home. I hightailed it back, but did stop twice to manually give myself a unit or two to cover the missing basal insulin. No big deal and I didn't get over 200. But the manual shots were key!

If I were in your shoes, I would get my hands on some insulin within the first hour without the pod. Good luck!

Permalink Reply by MossDog on March 30, 2011 at 2:24pm

You would be suprised what places DON'T have a syringe. I went to an amusement park once and on a ride had my pump site knocked off. They had an EMT station in the park and they did not have a syringe. I was really quite suprised. I learned a valuable lesson that time: never expect that any place will have syringes besides a pharmacy or the hospital.

Permalink Reply by Kate on March 30, 2011 at 3:30pm

who knew? what good are they if you need more than a bandaid or cpr? :)

Permalink Reply by Uglycus on March 30, 2011 at 2:17pm

If you have a syringe stashed somewhere you can rip the pod off and draw a correction from the pod. Check your BG often and if it starts to climb to high go take care of it. DK'ing sucks!

Permalink Reply by MelissaBL on March 30, 2011 at 2:58pm

I'd leave class, for sure. If I try to go more than an hour or two, I start vomiting. The traditional rule of thumb is that you rise 1 mg/dL for every 1 minute of missed basal. 5 hours is potentially a 300 mg/dL rise from wherever you started.

Permalink Reply by HannahNitz on March 30, 2011 at 5:04pm

Wow- what a great fact, thanks!! We sure need our insulin :)

Permalink Reply by Denise Ventura on March 30, 2011 at 3:13pm

I learned to carry a syringe and a vial of humalog w/ me in case the Pod decides to beep me and state- replace pod. I had fun at the pool one late morning at my mom's house. My pod that i had placed on my arm earlier that day slightly bumped the armrest of the lounge chair and thus, it alarmed that it stopped functioning. I went to the nearest grocery store that had a pharmacy and explained my situation. They charged me $2.00 for a bag of 10 syringes. The needles along with my humalog got me through the day until we drove home that night.

Permalink Reply by Eric Rizzo on March 30, 2011 at 5:07pm

I'd say it totally depends on your basal rate (which depends on your body's rate of absorption and use), and when you last ate. For example, if your basal rate is .5U per hour and you haven't eaten since your insulin active time expired, you would only miss a total of 2.5 units over 5 hours. You can even make a very rough estimate of how much the missed insulin might raise your BG by using your correction factor. For example, if you missed 2.5 units of insulin and your correction factor is 20 mg/dl per unit, a very rough estimate of BG rise would be 2.5 * 20 = 50 mg/dl. It's not very accurate, but I've used it a few times to make a decision like you're facing and it seems "close enough."
I always remember that insulin in my body stays active for 4 hours, so for me BG doesn't start to rise for about half that time; of course, I also notice that correcting and resuming basal once I do replace the pod takes a couple of hours to have an effect; it's not as fast as a regular correction such as when I just over-eat.