Oh no!

[m1dnc]

Got back to my winter home in the West Indies on Thursday (incredible timing with today's snow). Went out to dinner at friends last night and on the way home the pump starts emitting an incredibly startling alarm with a 'button stuck' error message. Nothing would stop it.

When I got home I called the 24/7 helpline in the US and was told that this was a fatal state for the pump and it would have to be replaced - just take out the battery and let it die. I should await a call from the UK customer care team (nothing so far) to arrange delivery. Oh, and by-the-way there is still a shortage of 640G's because of the hurricane damage to the factory in Puerto Rico - just to relax me before bed - this was 1 am. Now go to your emergency back-up plan.

This morning, I thought what have I got to lose by putting the battery back in. Guess what - it just fired up as normal. I'm now debating with myself whether to shove in a cannula and connect it up, notwithstanding the Lantus dose that I took last night.

 

[grovesy]

Got back to my winter home in the West Indies on Thursday (incredible timing with today's snow). Went out to dinner at friends last night and on the way home the pump starts emitting an incredibly startling alarm with a 'button stuck' error message. Nothing would stop it.

When I got home I called the 24/7 helpline in the US and was told that this was a fatal state for the pump and it would have to be replaced - just take out the battery and let it die. I should await a call from the UK customer care team (nothing so far) to arrange delivery. Oh, and by-the-way there is still a shortage of 640G's because of the hurricane damage to the factory in Puerto Rico - just to relax me before bed - this was 1 am. Now go to your emergency back-up plan.

This morning, I thought what have I got to lose by putting the battery back in. Guess what - it just fired up as normal. I'm now debating with myself whether to shove in a cannula and connect it up, notwithstanding the Lantus dose that I took last night.

Large parts of Puerto Rico are still without power!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

There was a UK advisory notice a while back about that if you have been flying - change to pressure apparently. Hope it fixes it for you!

 

[trophywench]

Bit late now but yeah I'd have fired it up again with a Nil percent temporary basal rate for the next X hours.

 

[m1dnc]

Yes Mike, I thought about the flight pressure issue, but the tech rep didn't think that would be the problem as I had been on the ground for two days. His attitude was "oh, the stuck button problem, your pump's agoner".

In the end, I decided to risk it (but it was only in the special circumstances and I wouldn't have done so if I was still in the UK). It had retained all my bolus and basal data but I had to update the time and date settings, and re-pair it with my BG meter and Enlite transmitter. It has been working faultlessly since then.

Jenny, I did think about putting on a 24 hour 0% TBR to cover the Lantus, but since I had a CGM sensor already on board I let the pump do the work. There were several basal suspends during the night, but I'm now 7.0.

I got an email from Medtronic this morning saying they had been having trouble trying to get through to me here. I've now told them what I've done and I waiting for their advice as to whether I still need to replace the device.

CAVEAT: I should emphasise that I would not advocate anyone else taking these risks in similar circumstances without proper advice from their health care professionals and/or pump supplier.

 

[trophywench]

I would hope they'll still replace it asap cos once it's happened .......... meanwhile hope it carries on carrying on!

 

[m1dnc]

I had a long conversation with the tech support at Medtronic. They were very happy to send a replacement, but I decided to stick with it and see whether it happens again. It looks like it was either due to the flight down here, or it may have been a button pressed for more than three minutes. It may have been the latter as it happened when I was out to dinner in a rather noisy environment and the pump was stuffed into my pocket. The problem is that I don't always hear the alarm despite it being set at the max volume and I'm using an old pair of hearing aids at the moment as my proper ones developed a fault last week (I won't bore you with that one!) My OH usually pokes me in the ribs when the alarm goes off, but he was on the other side of the table on Saturday evening.