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A new pump user (6 weeks) with ongoing occlusions. Any ideas?

E

ellietj

Member
Any observations would be appreciated. I have been using an Animas pump (my first pump experience after 45 years of well-controlled diabetes). I can't seem to get it right and keep being told by the pump that I have an occlusion. This is becoming ridiculously time-consuming and I now hardly know when on earth to change the set in case I find two hours later that I have to change it. Even getting through to the US-based helpline seems to take 45 minutes from start to end and I am fast losing confidence in . . . that's the trouble. I don't know if there's something simple that I might be doing wrong or if this incredibly high number of occlusions is par for the course. (I'm glad that I'm not paying for all this gear :) )
I understand how to prime, and to fill the cannula.
I have the occlusion sensitivity in Settings set to Low.
I understand to avoid "scar tissue", which, it has been explained to me, might just mean avoiding areas where I used to inject.
Is there any view about the Animas pump, or th insertion sets, that will help me?
Thanks.
 
I have an Animas Vibe. I've only had it a few months but I've never had an occlusion alarm. With my previous pump, which I had 11 years, I only had an occlusion alarm once.

My DSN did the settings on my pump for me. I've just checked and my Occlusion Alert is set to H - high presumably. I remember the DSN choosing that and commenting about it 'going off all the time else'. Could you speak to,your DSN or doctor and check the occlusion sensitivity isn't the issue? I'm not saying that it is - I didn't have the faintest idea what to set mine to so left it to the DSN - but I thought I'd mention that mind appears to be set differently.

What sets do you use and does changing them stop the occlusion alarm?
 
There is a fault on some of the pumps which should have been fixed, so tell animas you want a replacement pump.
Another thing to try is go into the settings and disable the dead mans handle advanced setting 5 which allows you to set a time for the pump to stop if you haven't pressed any buttons for x amount of hours. I had to do this with one of my animas pumps and it solved the problem.
 
When i started on my pump 2 years ago almost every time I changed my set there was the occlusion alarm, my problem was the sets I was using, the plastic ones were no good for me, now and then they would work but I changed to steel cannula's and never had a problem since x
 
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