Faulty batch of cannulas?

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Unicornz

Unicornz

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi all, just a quick question. How do you know when you have a faulty batch of cannulas? I've been having problems with my pump for the past week, quite a lot of unexplained high BG of which I still don't know what went wrong but they got better after a cannula change, then I also had a No Delivery error on my pump and this morning I woke up and noticed that I had blood inside my cannula so had to change again!

If they are faulty, do different things like this go wrong, or can you mostly tell what is wrong with them? I'm freaking out a bit and really starting to wonder whether this is worth all the hassle. Only been in two weeks but how can I ever get my BG under control if things like this keep happening that I can't control! I'm getting really frustrated with it. :(
 
Hi, I'm not a pumper, but from what I read here it is unusual to have so many problems with cannulas. Have you contacted your DSN, or perhaps medtronic can tell you if other users have reported problems with the cannulas you are using - you may be the first to discover a 'bad' batch (someone has to be first!).

Hopefully, some experienced pumpers will be along with better advice! 🙂
 
It very much sounds like they are faulty..

Have a lot at the box's you've got and see if one has a different patch number use these if you have some..

Then ring up your pump supplier customer services tell them the batch number (they've probably have other phone calls) and how many box's are involved they will arrange to replacement ASAP..
 
Pump user for 3 years

Hi Unicornz,
How annoying for you, I had a faulty batch last year, and they caused me alot of problems, my care team contacted medtronic whom advised me to send the faulty batch back, via my hospitals pharmacy, as they had been having a few problems with the canulas not inserting properly.
I have been on the pump for 3 years now and i have had a few problems, mainly if the canula has'nt inserted properly or at all, but i have found that testing my blood sugar levels 1 hour after inserting a new canula, has enabled me to find out if the canula has been inserted in to the skin, and then I can change it if needs be, and stop the bloods rasing too high. I also still get no delivery from it now and again, I did have to hange my pump afew months agao, as it stopped working.
I have found that when the pump works it works great, but when it goes wrong it goes wrong quickly. The pump is great once you get use to it and I would never go back to injections, as the pump has really sorted my HBC1A out to a great 6.5mmol, and it has given me so much more freedom. Please just bear with as I did take me a good month to get use to it, but I am so glad that I did. Message me if you want somebody to talk to about it I'd be more than happy to help you through the world of insulin pumps
Adelexxxx
 
I would contact Medtronic. They are usually happy to send you extra supplies, and you post the faulty ones back to them 🙂

You say lots of high unexplained BGs - is this immediately after a set change (and then changing it again fixes the problem)? Or are they just appearing out of nowhere? In the first instance, definitely get the box of sets changed, and then it might be worth considering some fun fun fun basal testing if that doesn't fix it.

I woke up with blood in my cannula last week - not pleasant, but a set change soon sorted it out! 🙂
 
Hi,
are you using the quicksets?
If so they are prob the cause of your problems :( It is very well documented they are not designed for the job intended.
Try a dif type of cannula and see how you get on.
 
Hi all thanks for all your replies! And Adele I will definitely take you up on that offer sometime soon. I see you're from Leeds as well that's cool 🙂

I'm using the Silhouette cannulas at the moment, I started on the Quickset ones but they hurt me too much so I changed almost immediately afterwards. The problems don't always occur straight after a set change, the No Delivery one came out of nowhere. A set change does always seem to fix it though, except for yesterday.

I changed my set and reservoir as it was the third day again, and I noticed that my bloodsugar kept shooting up. It did come down after a correction and would then send me into a hypo, only to be shooting up again afterwards. It just felt like the absorption wasn't very good and consistent at all (I had it inserted in the side of my tummy then). Last night before bed I had another high so I decided to just change the set again. This went completely wrong as the tube somehow came out as I tried to peel the sticky things off the back so I had to do it again. Checked an hour after correction and it was well on its way back down again so went to sleep. Then this morning I woke up with blood in the cannula, so I changed again this morning.

I'm really not confident about this one as I'm just expecting it to go wrong sooner or later today as well. Will double-check the batch numbers on the cannulas tonight and try a different one if this turns out wrong again.

I don't know, it might just be me doing it all wrong :(
 
Unicornz said:
Hi all thanks for all your replies! And Adele I will definitely take you up on that offer sometime soon. I see you're from Leeds as well that's cool 🙂

I'm using the cannulas at the moment, I started on the Quickset ones but they hurt me too much so I changed almost immediately afterwards. The problems don't always occur straight after a set change, the No Delivery one came out of nowhere. A set change does always seem to fix it though, except for yesterday.
I changed my set and reservoir as it was the third day again, and I noticed that my bloodsugar kept shooting up. It did come down after a correction and would then send me into a hypo, only to be shooting up again afterwards. It just felt like the absorption wasn't very good and consistent at all (I had it inserted in the side of my tummy then). Last night before bed I had another high so I decided to just change the set again. This went completely wrong as the tube somehow came out as I tried to peel the sticky things off the back so I had to do it again. Checked an hour after correction and it was well on its way back down again so went to sleep. Then this morning I woke up with blood in the cannula, so I changed again this morning.

I'm really not confident about this one as I'm just expecting it to go wrong sooner or later today as well. Will double-check the batch numbers on the cannulas tonight and try a different one if this turns out wrong again.

I don't know, it might just be me doing it all wrong :(
Click to expand...

Don't worry, all problems can be solved 🙂
The Silhouette are they metal? if so you need to change every 2 days 🙂
Perhaps also have a chat with your DSN to make sure you have the correct angle for insertion, just incase you are hitting muscle.

What insulin are you using? If Apidra again this only lasts 2 days before everything needs to be changed.

Always change your cannula before a meal this then will show very quickly if everything is ok. Also leave the old one in for a few hours as a back up and to allow any insulin left to be absorbed.

Have you tried the MIO sets? People have given rave reviews about them.
Chin up things will be sorted soon.
 
Don't lose faith! It's early days. I find that my sets only last 2 days, so if you keep seeing your levels go up on day 3, it might be worth thinking about changing sets every 2 days.

I'm just thinking outloud here so am probably way off the mark, but if the correction made you hypo - could your correction factor be out? Or you might be one of these people that goes low after a set change. Orrrrr again just thinking outloud, if you went high - correction - low - high, could it be that your correction factor is out and the set change is sending you high after? So many possibilities!
 
I definitely agree with Sue about changing before or a meal - or at least long enough after one that you have no active insulin - that active insulin can do a very good job of hiding problems!
 
The Silhouette ones aren't metal, no. I'm actually really not liking the idea of metal cannulas, sounds scary! I'm using Novorapid with them and I use the insertion device helper thing so I'm quite sure they are inserted in the right angle. I could definitely try to change them every two days instead of three, but the thing is that once the cannula is in and working properly I have no problems with them whatsoever, even on day 3 🙂

If something is wrong I notice that same day. But yeah you're right there are so many possibilities of things that could be wrong!

Thanks Shiv for the tips, but the thing is I never experience problems with correction doses and unexplained highs when the cannula is working properly, so I'm inclined to suspect the cannula 😛

Also thanks about the tips about set changing times, I will definitely keep those in mind at my next change! 😉
 
Sounds like it is the sets then if normally everything is fine!

Metal cannulas are actually really comfy, do you want me to post a couple to you? I used them lots when using the Medtronic pump.
 
Actually that would be great if you could, I'll need to find the courage to try 😉 I'll message you my address!
 
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