omnipod & ketones

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Shanghaiblue

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Hi I wonder if anyone can help me with a question on ketones. My 14 year old has type 1 (July 2014) so we are still experiencing a lot of firsts. She is on the omnipod pump which is fantastic and life has totally improved for her since coming off injections. Whilst we have experienced most of what diabetes can throw at you we haven't experienced ketones. I have information from the hospital about how to deal with this regarding insulin increases. But when I read about this topics others refer to also using the pen to give insulin. I am new to all this and wonder if someone could help me figure this out. I know this is going to sound silly but am I wrong in thinking that ketones, if they appear can also be dealt with only by the pump. I presume it is a straight forward increasing of insulin through the pump. My daughter has a needle phobia so even using the pen is a big issue. All replies gratefully received.
 
If you have ketones then you need more insulin to get rid of them. It doesn't matter if that insulin comes from a pen or a pump, as long as the insulin gets in there.

The problem with pumps is that if there is a problem with the pump or the cannula which is causing the raised ketones then just pumping more insulin in that way won't help. You need to use a pen to make sure that the insulin has definitely gone in. Even if you know that the pump is ok and think that it's only the cannula or the site that isn't working, many people still inject the correction amount with a pen so that that will start working whilst they are sorting the cannula out, then you also don't have to worry about whether the new cannula is working either.

If the ketones are only there because of illness (i.e. starvation ketones due to not eating much and are only present at low levels) then it is perfectly ok to use the pump to deal with them as long as you keep an eye on the levels and make sure they don't go very high.

Hope that helps 🙂
 
The other thing is actually injecting some place else than the same cannula site, can help with quicker absorption. But as Sally says if you correct once with the pump and it doesn't work then you MUST jab elsewhere pdq.
 
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