Plug that pump in!

[Sally71]

Husband informed me at 2am this morning that daughter's pump was making a funny noise and would I sort it out. (he can do blood tests, standard boluses and treat hypos but beyond that leaves everything to me!). On investigation I discovered that there had been an occlusion alarm at 11.15pm, daughter in her half-awake state knew that I'd set up a TBR overnight because of lots of exercise yesterday, so thought that had just ended and switched the alarm off without reading the message and went back to sleep. (actually had set TBR for 11 hours so that it wouldn't disturb her until breakfast time)

Nearly 3 hours later she got up needing the loo and wondered why pump was bleeping. Well on the Roche one, if you get an occlusion the pump stops, if you cancel the alarm it assumes you have read the error message and are doing something about it so won't repeat the alarm, and as a safety measure any time it is in stop mode it bleeps and vibrates once a minute to remind you that you are not getting any insulin. She'd slept through that for nearly 3 hours!

Oh great don't we just love doing emergency cannula changes in the small hours... Except that we then discovered the tube not plugged into the cannula. So can only assume that when daughter plugged the pump back in after her bath, she had not seated it correctly which had eventually caused the occlusion, then whilst turning over in her sleep it had eventually fallen off.

So hopefully no new cannula needed - just plugged it back in again, did blood test (22.7 😱 ), did correction with pump and have had no further alarms. Phew.

But we have had at least two occasions in the past when daughter completely forgot to reconnect her pump at all after bath, and we ended up with BGs in the 20s and ketones... I think perhaps i'd better start supervising more closely when she gets dressed after her bath! 🙄

 

[Northerner]

Oh dear! 😱 Glad to hear you got it sorted. I can certainly see how you could forget these things, given the number of times I have injected then instantly forgotten whether I injected or not! I have a pen with a memory but the battery has run out and I haven't got around to getting a new pen yet (battery not replaceable on novopen demi).

 

[HOBIE]

I don't think normal people know how many things you have to do everyday 😱 Pleased you got sorted. Some days my head is full of numbers. Carb counting & insulin 😉 Things you have to get right 😱😱

 

[Hanmillmum]

Oh no!! hate these things at night, pleased to hear you got sorted swiftly 🙂

 

[Sally71]

I don't think normal people know how many things you have to do everyday 😱 Pleased you got sorted. Some days my head is full of numbers. Carb counting & insulin 😉 Things you have to get right 😱

You are so right Hobie! My daughter had a new bike for her birthday, today we went for the first proper ride on it, i.e. not just round the block. Went down the canal right to where it joins the river. An ice cream van was there so allowed daughter to have a treat. Was nice sitting in the sun, watching daughter enjoying her ice cream, then suddenly realised that I had forgotten all about insulin 😱

So did a quick bolus, then rode home for lunch. Only for her to be 3.6 at lunch time, probably due to the cycling, so either I needn't have bothered with the bolus or at least I should have given a bit less than usual !

Sometimes I look at parents who seem to do nothing but yell and moan at their (presumably non-D) children, and it makes me so sad, they don't realise how lucky they are

 

[Copepod]

A small whippy ice cream (if that's what your daughter had) doesn't contain much carbohydrate - I usually reckon 10g CHO, so don't bother to inject myself, particularly as I usually only have ice cream after walking or cycling a fair distance and have a fair distance more to go.

Insulin free food is a rare treat - not to to be missed 🙂

 

[Sally71]

Thanks Copepod - it had a flake in it, I usually reckon at least another 10 for that 😛

 

[hkk1970]

Hi Sally, my day sounds very similar to yours!!! Harry just kept going higher in the early hours so kept correcting only to be 18 when he woke up, though no alarm rang on his pump but we assumed a blockage, so did usual cannula change and yet another correction. Was 5 at lunch then went to play in garden, doing his usual bombing about, gave him an ice cream , then hypo 3.6 at teatime. You just can't win, can you with this diabetes lark !! Helen

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Thanks Copepod - it had a flake in it, I usually reckon at least another 10 for that 😛

If it's the little flake used in ice creams then the carb count is 6 🙂 Hope that helps.

 

[Hanmillmum]

Harry just kept going higher in the early hours so kept correcting only to be 18 when he woke up, though no alarm rang on his pump but we assumed a blockage, so did usual cannula change and yet another correction.

We don't seem to get an alarm either unless we are bolusing through the day, the pump just doesn't seem to pick up a blockage on basal alone - so no use through the night for us! I wonder whether it is to do with the amount passed or that Sally's daughter's pump is a different make?

 

[Sally71]

We don't seem to get an alarm either unless we are bolusing through the day, the pump just doesn't seem to pick up a blockage on basal alone - so no use through the night for us! I wonder whether it is to do with the amount passed or that Sally's daughter's pump is a different make?

Well it must have taken four hours for the pump to register the problem, we are on 0.72 units/hour at that time, so it needs 2-3 units not to go in before it notices the problem. Whether that is less than other pumps I have no idea! 🙂

We have also had highs at night with no alarms though, I have always assumed that either the cannula was leaking somehow or insulin was going in but not being absorbed properly in that case. I don't think any pump can detect that. Haven't a clue whether my assumption is correct! Most occlusions have happened during boluses.

Pumper Sue thanks for the info on the flake, it looks like I might have done a slight overdose, although I did the same as I always do for ice cream and don't normally get hypos afterwards so thought it must be the exercise that did it Daughter only learnt to ride her bike properly last year and we instantly noticed a massive effect on BGs!

 

[Hanmillmum]

Well it must have taken four hours for the pump to register the problem, we are on 0.72 units/hour at that time, so it needs 2-3 units not to go in before it notices the problem. Whether that is less than other pumps I have no idea! 🙂

We have also had highs at night with no alarms though, I have always assumed that either the cannula was leaking somehow or insulin was going in but not being absorbed properly in that case. I don't think any pump can detect that. Haven't a clue whether my assumption is correct! Most occlusions have happened during boluses.

!/QUOTE]


Your daughter is on a little more basal through the night - Millie's range from 0.150 to 0.225. I didn't know that 2-3 units are needed to trigger alarm, I wonder if that's the same with Medtronic - will go & see if I can find out, but that would definitely be why we only get an alarm on her larger boluses 🙄

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Have just looked at the occlusion alarm for the Animas pump.
0.025/hr would take 72 hours to register if the Alarm was set on high
Or 120 hours if set on low.

1unit/hour would take 1.5 hours to alarm on high and 3 hours on low.

The above is for basal

Bolus

3 units or more 8 seconds on high and 30 seconds on low.

 

[Tony R]

Set changes in the middle of the night

Oh great don't we just love doing emergency cannula changes in the small hours...

I know the feeling. Last time my son had a problem with the canula was at 1am, he had to get up at 6am but was so sleepy that instead of doing the set change, I decided to give the basal with the pen and again just over two hours later. It worked pretty well although not sure if I'd recommend it to anyone, plus the danger is sleeping through your alarm.