Pumping advice

[Jennywren]

As ive mentioned ive only had my new best friend ( pump) for 3 weeks and so far everything going great , except yesterday i had a day off running higher (than they have been ) blood sugars , double checked pump and found quite a few air bubbles that were not there when i primed infusion line could this make a big difference , also at mo i have the longer line infusion set and it keeps getting in the way do you think that maybe this is the cause of the airbubbles would you get the shorter infusion set ? Any suggestions much appreciated Jenny 🙂

 

[Adrienne]

As ive mentioned ive only had my new best friend ( pump) for 3 weeks and so far everything going great , except yesterday i had a day off running higher (than they have been ) blood sugars , double checked pump and found quite a few air bubbles that were not there when i primed infusion line could this make a big difference , also at mo i have the longer line infusion set and it keeps getting in the way do you think that maybe this is the cause of the airbubbles would you get the shorter infusion set ? Any suggestions much appreciated Jenny 🙂

Hiya

Bubbles are the bane of some people's lives. If you get them in the reservoir when filling, then that is user error and just takes practice. If that is clear and then you get some in the line that is just bad luck, they can just appear and no-one knows why. Some are more prone to this than others for some reason. The only point it will affect your levels is when the air bubble is at the canula end and going through the canula as you have air going in and no insulin. If the bubbles are in the tubing then you can just prime them out by unplugging the canula end and using the prime feature to prime all the bubbles out.

It may be that some snuck through without you seeing which could have created high levels.

I don't think it is the length of tubing that would be the problem, I've not heard that before but I guess just keep watching and seeing what happens. You can always change back to shorter tubing when you have finished that box.

 

[Ellie Jones]

Hi Jenny

If I remember correctly you've got the spirit combi! which is the up grade to my origianal spirit..

Check that you've got the lunar lock tight, user the duffer of the magifying glass to check it's tight..

There's a couple of tricks to filling up the cartidge that helps to prevent air bubbles..

1, Take your insulin vial out the fridge to come up to room tempreture, before fillining

2, Ensure that you lubicate the inside of the cartridge, by moving the pungler back and forth several times

3, When you inject air into the vial, ensure vial is on table/hard surface and you aren't injecting air through the insulin..

4, Let the air push the plunger and fill the cartridge, this help to air at the top once full, a couple of gentle taps (I use a teaspoon) the remove seeable air.

5, once full take the needle fuller off and detach plunger, tap bottom of cartridge on table a couple of times..

6, Leave the filled cartrridge to stand for a while (30+ minutes if possible)

7, Before putting into pump, another couple of sharp taps on table, and check for air, reattach plunger if you need to remove any..

Another thing I've found that help air bubbles getting in the tubing is I always where my pump with the lunar lock facing downwards, then any air bubbles stays at the end of the cartridge out of the way of the tubing..

I was told by my training rep don't worry about champange bubbles won't make a difference so he said, I'm very sensitive to insulin for me they do make a difference..

I would phone Rouche up and ask if the could send you a sample of shorter tubes to try if you find the current one problematic then you can see what suits you best

Hope this helps

 

[Jennywren]

Thank you Adrienne and Ellie good tips , looking at this quickly i think it may be because i injected it straight from the fridge 🙄

 

[Andi - Jayne]

I don't think the length of the infusion set willmake a differnece but I find the shorter one much easier to use.
Feel you are probably right with the not using the insulin straight out of the fridge

 

[Adrienne]

Hi

We keep our insulin out of the fridge permantely. We obviously store the insulin we are not using in the fridge but the vial we are using we keep in a cupboard. You do not have to store it in the fridge. It can be kept out for approximately 4 weeks and we get through a vial in four weeks.

Try keeping it out once you have opened a vial. We never have had any problems at all in 10 years of doing this.

🙂