Locking pump controls

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Flower

Flower

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Do you regularly lock the controls on your pump particularly at night?

I haven't ever felt the need to do so until my mad hypo actions last night. I had a hypo in the low 2s at about 2am and as I use a glucose sensor due to no hypo awareness my pump suspended insulin delivery.I overrode this but have absolutely no recollection of doing so and a few minutes later my pump again suspended insulin. At this point, again with no recollection I cancelled the pump suspend alarm and set a temporary basal rate of 27%, thank goodness I chose a low basal rate 😱 I only have some sight in one eye and without my contact lens in I can't see so I must have done all this blind. To round the night off my pump suspended insulin for a 3rd time and 3 hours after my hypo started I managed to leave the pump well alone and gradually my levels started to rise.

With a locked pump keypad can you still cancel the actual bleeping of the alarm but not change anything else?

It amazes me what you can do whilst hypo with no memory of it. I can't believe I overrode the very thing I have been relying on to help me out of hypo unawareness. Tonight the pump gets locked.
 
Hi Flower, my son uses the "block" function all the time, so as not to accidentally press buttons during the rough and tumble of the day. However, you can still cancel alarms, suspend the pump, resume basal after a suspension, and a few other functions WITHOUT turning the block off. So I don't think there is anything you could have done in this case.
 
Thanks Redkite, I haven't ever used the Block function but like you say I think it would have allowed me to resume my basal. After reading the Veo manual I'm not sure even locking the keypad would have stopped me as it says that a locked keypad is automatically unlocked during Alarms, Alerts and Battery insertion. It's not clear if this means the keypad is automatically unlocked to allow alarms to be cancelled and then automatically re-locks or that you need to lock the keypad again using the menu. I will ring Medtronic tomorrow and find out.
 
Worth checking with them but I think you'll find that it unlocks when alarms come on and doesn't re-lock. Bit of a pain really as in the night we do tend to do things on auto pilot. I always lock my alarm before bed but end up having it unlocked if I've acted on an alarm, like a 'check BG' if I've done a midnight bolus correction. I try to remember to lock in the day .....but I often forget.
 
The "lock" function is less useful than the "block" (the latter is in the utilities menu) - the block remains on unless you turn it off yourself - however certain functions can still be done while the block is on, e.g. suspend/resume. From day 1 we used "block" rather than just the ordinary lock, because he was only 7 and we didn't want other kids mucking about with it!
 
The Animas only has a lock function, so if that's in use nothing can be done until it is unlocked.
 
That's interesting Sue. Can the Animas be suspended in an emergency? The Veo can be suspended by 2 button pushes even if the lock or block are on, so if the user is very low they can suspend all insulin delivery without having to navigate through a series of menus. After suspending, the option to resume is on the screen, so that a caregiver could easily do this without having to search for how to unlock the keypad.
 
The Combo has a lock which we leave on all the time in case any inquisitive kids at school decide to poke at it! Most functions can be done from the handset without unlocking the pump (no way of locking the handset as far as I know, but as that's your test kit you don't want to be fiddling around trying to unlock it in an emergency!).

However if any alarms go off the pump will unlock temporarily so that you can silence the alarm, resume delivery or do anything else required, then when no buttons have been pushed for maybe 20 seconds it automatically locks again. Same if you push the two buttons together to unlock it, it will lock again when you've finished pushing buttons. The only way to unlock it permanently is by selecting lock off in the menus.
 
Redkite said:
That's interesting Sue. Can the Animas be suspended in an emergency? The Veo can be suspended by 2 button pushes even if the lock or block are on, so if the user is very low they can suspend all insulin delivery without having to navigate through a series of menus. After suspending, the option to resume is on the screen, so that a caregiver could easily do this without having to search for how to unlock the keypad.
Click to expand...

To suspend the pump you press any button to wake the pump up press menu and large as life it says suspend/resume so press that and bobs your uncle.
There's also a dead mans handle as well.
So you can set the pump up to stop delivering if no button has been pressed within x hours. Obviously a very good idea if someone with little or no hypo warnings lives alone.
 
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I have spoken to Medtronic and if the keypad is locked, once an alarm has been cancelled it doesn't re-lock automatically. You have to go to the menu and opt to lock the keypad again. I have learnt something new from this and just hope I don't override vital alarms again.
 
Flower said:
I have spoken to Medtronic and if the keypad is locked, once an alarm has been cancelled it doesn't re-lock automatically. You have to go to the menu and opt to lock the keypad again. I have learnt something new from this and just hope I don't override vital alarms again.
Click to expand...

That is true if you just use the lock keypad. But not true if you use Block from the utilities menu 🙂
 
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