Back to MDI - Cellnovo wasn't working

[donnellysdogs]

I doubt very much if my script will even get to me!! Meant to be posted today!

 

[ElyDave]

Taking a bit of getting used to thinking in half-units again

 

[donnellysdogs]

Oooh heck... Must admit I wldn't have a clue nowadays on what to do!! I'm on an average now of 22-25 units a day total. On mdi I think I was 18 morning basal and night time...let alone the bolus!!! Certainly haven't kept any records from 55 months ago!! Have moved 3 times since then !

It scares hell out of me thinking about mdi.. Was just wondering whether they would let me keep the combo pump as a back up until the stainless steel sets are available for the insight pump... If I can't get on with the flexi's or if they are as bad as their last ones... Then it would be going back to mdi!!! And god, I do not want to do that....

Total empathy with you @ElyDave.

 

[iHs]

I would imagine that you could just continue with the Combo if you wanted and still get the Rapid Ds.or is everything going over to the Insight and the new sets. Is everyone being upgraded?

ive still got my Combo as a backup.

i'll have a word tomoz with Accu chek and get them to manufacture a Tenderlink that doesnt need the introducer removed.....you can lesve it in Psml

 

[donnellysdogs]

No. Nobody is getting an automatic changeover. Some CCG's (mine and others) are now making patients wait until the pumps fail, even though they are beyond the 4 year guarantee.....

How did you manage to walk away with the combo?? After a new pump?? I'm going to try... But somehow I can't see this happening.
I know you went to a different manufacturer though...

I will have excess of everything... Shame cos officially they can only be used by the hosp as samples if returned. I did try running everything down but not enough for 10days time!!

 

[azure]

Oooh heck... Must admit I wldn't have a clue nowadays on what to do!! I'm on an average now of 22-25 units a day total. On mdi I think I was 18 morning basal and night time...let alone the bolus!!! Certainly haven't kept any records from 55 months ago!! Have moved 3 times since then !

It scares hell out of me thinking about mdi.. Was just wondering whether they would let me keep the combo pump as a back up until the stainless steel sets are available for the insight pump... If I can't get on with the flexi's or if they are as bad as their last ones... Then it would be going back to mdi!!! And god, I do not want to do that....

Total empathy with you @ElyDave.

I got my Insight yesterday and I was allowed to keep my old pump. I'm very glad about that as, having seen the Insight, I am VERY dubious about changing over to it. it seems to be full of unnecessary chaff and involve a lot of messing about to do the simplest thing. Most importantly, I don't want the Novo prefilled cartridges so would have to use their cumbersome reservoir filling system. That works fine, but it's massive and the thought of taking all that cr*p abroad with me when I go on holiday is depressing.

My current pump takes normal run of the mill insulin cartridges so I can choose to use whatever insulin I want, and simply drop the cartridge in the pump.

Also, the Insight battery lasts two or three weeks, but my current pump's battery lasts 8 or 9 weeks.

It's beyond me why AccuChek went to all that trouble to make "a pump that takes prefilled cartridges" and didn't engineer it so it could take normal 3ml pen cartridges. What a wasted opportunity!

I'll probably be giving my Insight back. It's not worth all the fiddle and trouble for something just a tiny bit smaller than my current pump. Size isn't everything, as they say...

 

[donnellysdogs]

What about the capability to fine tune Basals more?

The cartridge being half the size to me is a concern as that too means changing more frequently. 315 lasts me more than 6 days, but I do change it anyway. The smaller cartridges when priming 25 units down a 100cm tube is meaning more frequent changing of the cartridges.

Aren't the basic settings just the same as the bigger remote but just a different format screen?

I due to get my pump Monday, but Nene CCG have not yet confirmed the funding. They are one of the CCG's that are making patients wait until their pumps fail, and not upgrading 4 yearly.

Blimey it always used to be moving house to get a good kids school... Now it's to avoid NHS postcode lotteries!

 

[ElyDave]

What about the capability to fine tune Basals more?

The cartridge being half the size to me is a concern as that too means changing more frequently. 315 lasts me more than 6 days, but I do change it anyway. The smaller cartridges when priming 25 units down a 100cm tube is meaning more frequent changing of the cartridges.

Aren't the basic settings just the same as the bigger remote but just a different format screen?

I due to get my pump Monday, but Nene CCG have not yet confirmed the funding. They are one of the CCG's that are making patients wait until their pumps fail, and not upgrading 4 yearly.

Blimey it always used to be moving house to get a good kids school... Now it's to avoid NHS postcode lotteries!

If you're in Nene, is that fairly close to me?

I'm East Cambs, sounds like you're Peterborough way?

 

[donnellysdogs]

Yes, very close to you... East Northants..... I hope your CCG doesn't copy ours!!

 

[ElyDave]

CCG seems OK, GPs a dimwit

Called earlier to have the Novorapid pump carts added to my repeats. Not only did they remove the 10ml vials, but also the backup 3ml NR and Levemir for the injection pens, pens themselves, needles and lancets.

They left on there the lancets and test strips for the cellnovo pump. I feel the inner chimp looking to get released on the phone tomorrow.

 

[donnellysdogs]

Omg....

I did training session with the gp's at our practice for new persons going on to pumps in our practice and gave them a list of things that must not be removed ie pens, back up insulin. Sounds like your practice need a training session for gp's, nurses and / or prescription clerks....

 

[iHs]

I am the only diabetic at my GP surgery that has a pump so if I need anything to be changed, i see my GP and tell them in person. That's the best way and then no mistakes are msde.

 

[CarbsRok]

Wow, when I asked my GP for a vial of long acting he just looked slightly surprised and asked why. So I explained why and no problem at all. I have a spare pump now as previous pump works ok. So any problems then I shall set that one going

 

[donnellysdogs]

Wow, when I asked my GP for a vial of long acting he just looked slightly surprised and asked why. So I explained why and no problem at all. I have a spare pump now as previous pump works ok. So any problems then I shall set that one going

Hope that if I can get the Insight on Monday that the rep allows me to keep mine as a back up. All ifs n buts at the moment....

 

[phoenix]

They are one of the CCG's that are making patients wait until their pumps fail, and not upgrading 4 yearly

Well I've just found the folly of that. I didn't push for my pump to be changed for two reasons 1) it was mine and bought for me but the French now only rent them on a daily basis. I was worried that if I had to go back to care for my father I'd have a pump that wasn't being funded ; so technically stolen until I could get one in the UK. 2) I still feel guilty about the cost.

I've just changed it after 6.5 years and I've realised that it really wasn't working well
. For some time I have been having higher bedtime readings and then glucose rose overnight by a couple of mmol/l but at times more than that and it was getting worse. I would sometimes wake up with what were for me horrendous fasting readings of 130-140mg/dl. It did worry me
Whatever, I did Changing basal rates, giving 1 unit corrections at bedtime didn't seem to work. I knew I was less active and blamed growing insulin resistance and age .
I've had my new pump a week I am now using the same basal rates as two years ago. One hypo at bedtime but apart from that I am going to bed and waking up at the same levels ; last night went to bed at 91mg/dl and woke up at 90mg/dl.

My husband was an aeronautical engineer so has some knowledge of pumps. He suggests that the actual pump was no longer working correctly when delivering small basal doses and that a possible cause was increased stiction (a real word, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiction)
I am glad I've got my new pump, sad though that my plan of keeping the old one for use if I end up in the UK might not be a good one.
edit:
I ordered a new sensor for my libre because of this. It's just this minute come. I only ordered it yesterday afternoon!

 

[Spiker]

Makes sense that it delivered big doses ok but under delivered small doses. A similar thing happens with a badly inserted cannula.

I'm glad you got a new one @phoenix

 

[azure]

What about the capability to fine tune Basals more?

The cartridge being half the size to me is a concern as that too means changing more frequently. 315 lasts me more than 6 days, but I do change it anyway. The smaller cartridges when priming 25 units down a 100cm tube is meaning more frequent changing of the cartridges.

Aren't the basic settings just the same as the bigger remote but just a different format screen?

I due to get my pump Monday, but Nene CCG have not yet confirmed the funding. They are one of the CCG's that are making patients wait until their pumps fail, and not upgrading 4 yearly.

Blimey it always used to be moving house to get a good kids school... Now it's to avoid NHS postcode lotteries!

I don't have a problem with my basals. I find the adjustments I can do on my current pump perfectly ok. My last Hba1C was 35 and I'm happy with that. The only tweaking I try to do is to reduce post-meal spikes and at the moment I'm concentrating on my diet to do that.

The cartridge is tiny. Utterly pointless in my opinion. Accu Chek totally missed a trick by not having it take proper 3ml pen cartridges. As you say, priming the Rapid D tubing will use up lots of insulin before you even start thinking about boluses.

My current pump is hassle-free. I drop a cartridge in and it's ready to go. Each cartridge lasts me approx 12 days. The battery lasts a couple of months. When I go away, there's no extras to take, unlike the Insight, where I was thinking it'd end up with it's own suitcase. There's no point in making a smaller pump if it takes up a stupid amount of time and comes with loads of paraphernalia to lug about.

I was really disappointed in it.

 

[ElyDave]

I don't have a problem with my basals. I find the adjustments I can do on my current pump perfectly ok. My last Hba1C was 35 and I'm happy with that. The only tweaking I try to do is to reduce post-meal spikes and at the moment I'm concentrating on my diet to do that.

The cartridge is tiny. Utterly pointless in my opinion. Accu Chek totally missed a trick by not having it take proper 3ml pen cartridges. As you say, priming the Rapid D tubing will use up lots of insulin before you even start thinking about boluses.

My current pump is hassle-free. I drop a cartridge in and it's ready to go. Each cartridge lasts me approx 12 days. The battery lasts a couple of months. When I go away, there's no extras to take, unlike the Insight, where I was thinking it'd end up with it's own suitcase. There's no point in making a smaller pump if it takes up a stupid amount of time and comes with loads of paraphernalia to lug about.

I was really disappointed in it.

For my current level of dosage, on pump it's <<10U/day, that cartridge is perfect and will save me the faff of all the stuff I had to carry to fill cartridges for the CellNovo.

It's just one of the factors influencing pump choice, more important for soem than others.

 

[ElyDave]

Omg....

I did training session with the gp's at our practice for new persons going on to pumps in our practice and gave them a list of things that must not be removed ie pens, back up insulin. Sounds like your practice need a training session for gp's, nurses and / or prescription clerks....

5 bloody phone calls to the surgery today. At one point I refrained from asking the practice nurse if I should come and do her job for her as she was clearly ineffective, thinking that I shoudl know more clearly than her which test strips go with the new pump I have not got yet, rather than get clarity from the hospital

 

[donnellysdogs]

Write it down foally, drop a copy in to Practice. Ask them to scan the letter to your file.

Keep it to the point:

Ie i need to have xxx on my repeat prescriptions due to being on an Insulin pump and also needing a back up supply of spares for injections, should the pump fail.

State that you would not want to end up being an unplanned admittance to hospital, and that you are very aware that this is possible if the Practice do not put the items on repeat prescription (etc)

Add on to the bottom of letter thst you request this letter to be scanned to your computer record and logged in your hard copy file...

Actually the back up injection etc if you have a good GP should not need to be kept on repeat to be honest... Mine isn't, but I can message my practice online if I need back up supplies and its just down to me to watch the expiry dates on insulin in the fridge... As I have never used a pen since pump 4.5 yrs ago... Just a pack of 10 disposable syringes in my box ipstairs. Novorapid I wld draw from the vial, so I only need lantus...