Pump panic - Help

[SB2015]

Yesterday was ‘interesting’. For the first time ever my pump decided that it would stop delivery.
It seems to be programmed to cause problems only at weekends and when I am not at home!!!! But I know that is just coincidence) Unfortunately I had forgotten to take my pens with me. PANIC. When I finally got through, (45 min) medtronic took me through tests and it kicked back in after 1 1/2 hours. So pump sorted and I will be less panicky if it happens again. But

Lesson learnt
I know I shall remember to take my pens out with me in the (near) future, so I don’t get caught out another time.

Question
I realised I had no idea of my current TDD and couldn’t access it as the pump was on strike - that’s written down now.
I also realised that I had no idea how to switch back to pens. How long to wait before doing so? When to start basal.

I decided that whilst the pump was out of action I would do small boluses each hour.
If it continued through to bed time I would use Levemir then.
No response from DSN so far and no longer urgent but it made me realised how complacent I had become, and thought that I should be better prepared.
Any advice welcome.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Do you not still have your previous pump? If so take that along as back up, problem solved 🙂

 

[SB2015]

I now have a bag with old pump, batteries, with its consumables (although only two reservoirs left)
ready to pick up when going away. It’s a shame there are not standard bits for pumps. It ends up as a biggish bag! Thanks @Pumper_Sue .

I also had a useful reply from DSN about switching to and back from pens.
I am sure I was told when I first went onto a pump but that was a while ago.

 

[helli]

I don't like waste so, when I am out, I take a syringe with me to use if my pump fails. I can extract insulin out of my pump to use as bolus. If I use a pen and the pump outage is less than a day, I would waste most of a cartridge of insulin.

Regarding basal, when my pump has failed (and I am at home), I take my long acting (basal) straight away as I have no background insulin without the pump. I take a note of the time I took it by setting an alarm on my phone which will remind me the next day if my pump has not been resurrected.

When my pump is working again, I start using it straight away but put on a temporary basal as low as it will go until it would be time for my next long acting insulin jab. This is necessary because, otherwise, I would be doubling up on basal.

Do you not still have your previous pump? If so take that along as back up, problem solved 🙂

I had to return my old pump to the hospital even though it was out of warranty.
But even so, a syringe is much more compact than a pump and all its gubbins to do a set change.

 

[SB2015]

I don't like waste so, when I am out, I take a syringe with me to use if my pump fails. I can extract insulin out of my pump to use as bolus. If I use a pen and the pump outage is less than a day, I would waste most of a cartridge of insulin

Hi @helli

Thanks for your detailed response. In sorting out my bag yesterday I found a syringe at the bottom!!! In my panic I forgot about that option.

I talked through a restart with the Medtronic support which sort of ‘defrag’ the pump and they suggest I do that about every 6 weeks, so will do that when I open a new box of sensors.

Your ideas about using my basal insulin straight away was supported by my DSN. As my basal is controlled automatically by my closed loop system it would be interesting to see if it would cope with the need for a lot less insulin during the overlap, but I think I would probably stay in manual until the basal had cleared.

As you say carrying the old pump is cumbersome as mine uses different cannulas, cartridges, infusion sets, …. I also only have two cartridges. I have discovered that Medtronic will loan a spare pump for holidays. I shall look into that when/if we go abroad again, but that certainly won be for a while!

thanks again.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I’m a syringe taker too! I have various stashed in the car, in bags, in coat pockets. Not sure what anyone would think if I were asked to turn out my pockets?!

When my pump failed I kept going with meal boluses and miniboluses to cover basal until the evening when I took Lantus to see me through the night.

I have a rolling note of basal profile / ratios etc in my phone so I could work out my current basal with a bit of fiddling.

 

[nonethewiser]

I don't like waste so, when I am out, I take a syringe with me to use if my pump fails.

Same here, those BD disposable syringes, cheap as chips & handy to have around.

I have a rolling note of basal profile / ratios etc in my phone so I could work out my current basal with a bit of fiddling.

That is really good tip so must do that as only have paper record as back up.

 

[PattiEvans]

Thank you, a salutary reminder to keep my hourly basa/ratio notes up on my phone! I haven't updated them for months.