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Cannual sealing off

johnpol

Well-Known Member
Messages
919
Location
Consett
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
hi has anyone had the experience of cannulas sealing themselves off or the body doing it? Since Thursday last week I have had my cannulas sealing off after a couple of hours. I am on the new Medtronic 640g with silhouette soft cannulas or I have also been trying the Minimed Mio 30 (these are the ones that have been sealing off) I have been inserting at the correct angle (with the delivery system of the Minimed) but less than three hours later its sealed off. I have used 7 over the course of the weekend and ended up with an average of 27 mmol and used nearly 400ius of insulin to try and get myself back on an even keel. I have went back to the silhouette soft cannula and have not sealed off (yet). I am calling Medtronic later today to report it, I was wondering if any other pump users had experienced this as well. I am understandably a bit tired and grumpy after a weekend of fighting high sugars that wasn't my own doing.

Any advise greatly received. Take care everyone.
 
Sorry to hear that John sounds like a real difficult weekend trying to resolve.

Are you getting a pump warning about the insulin delivery ? I have never heard of this so it's a new one on me, I use the Sure t which is a steel tip cannula set and you manually insert these, been using them about 2 years now, no problems at all, try asking for these instead ?
 
no no warning as it was still delivering the insulin into the cannula, which was then leaking out of my skin. and a couple of times had the "no delivery" alarm sound which points to the cannula sealing off. I have tried the metal ones before but the irritated me something terrible during weight training, and ended up covered in bruises. I have moved the sites all over, thighs, belly was even thinking of asking my wife to put it in the back of my arm just to try it. I'll get there just takes time.
 
So the cannula set isn't inserted into the skin or has come out then ?
 
Juicyj said:
So the cannula set isn't inserted into the skin or has come out then ?
Click to expand...
Its in, fully in runs ok for about two hours then it leaks all around the site is wet with insulin, and if I had to put insulin through for a corrective dose, you can see the wet patch get bigger, its a sign that something isn't quite right. I've questioned myself over whether I have inserted it correctly (I use the devise for inserting or with the silhouette's I self insert) and I have even got my wife to put one in to ensure that it was done correctly, its got me flummoxed as to why it's been happening a lot. one or two I can accept as it's happened before, but this is a long run that has affected my control terribly.
 
Ok well it sounds like it's coming loose, I had this happen a few times with the mio and the area surrounding would be wet with insulin, which is something you will need to resolve direct with them, personally this issue put me off using the mio as I couldn't stand the stress of dealing with the resulting highs and hence why I switched sets, are you correcting with a pen when this happens ? Apart from changing the cannula sets you're using I don't have any other solution for this.
 
Yes correcting with a pen, more than I want to but I have been advised that its best to do this after its all resolved, to reduce the volume of insulin through the pump (I still need crazy amounts of insulin even after weight loss my Consultant is confused) just waiting for Medtronic to get back to me after I rang this morning.
 
@johnpol Hopefully Medtronic will get this resolved for you, however your situation is far from ideal as correcting high BG from a pen, although a good temporary solution is not great as the risk of hypos is increased, so please press on them the urgency of resolving this, here's the link to the infusion set page to run through your options, but changing sets is what you need to look at: https://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/products/infusion-sets
 
This sounds like something known as "Tunneling" which I think means it leaks back around the cannula even though it's still inserted. I've read it is more common with Omnipods. Possibly a longer cannula would work better? Best to talk to Medtronic.
 
Johnpol, I like you have been having problems with my cannula. I have been using quicksets for last 6 years. A few weeks ago, I started to notice my levels were ok when I inserted a new set, but after a day my levels started to increase usually levelling around 18mmol. I noticed when I bolused my BG struggled to come down. I have now changed to Mio’s and at first thought I had resolved it, but now after just 3 weeks the same problems are occurring. I have noticed a stain on my clothes which I think is insulin leaking from the cannula. I also notice my levels are so different depending on the sight I use. I’ve had to do lots of corrections via the pen. I now thinking of reverting back to the quicksets, which I found easier to connect and disconnect. I hope you manage to sort it out.
 
Juicyj said:
Did you hear back from them yesterday @johnpol ?
Click to expand...
No I didn't and work took over a bit yesterday so will be ringing again this morning. My silhouette cannula has worked too, no leakage and is taking the insulin ok. I might have to go back to this type and see how long they last, I am due a full set change tonight so will go back to the "old" style.
 
Out of interest when you used the sure t - where did you site them ? Just thinking if you can find a way to use the steel tip instead then this would eliminate the issue completely.
 
when I used the sure-t I sited them like I normally would, stomach and legs. They were just uncomfortable, especially when I was training and had to put my belt on for some of the heavier lifts. And when I put them in my legs they just hurt, I have lots of fat on my belly (alas its true despite my best efforts) and less fat on my legs (used to be on my feet all day) so just gave up. I found the soft cannulas better for my training. I have just done a full set change today and have no issues as of yet, so that is three days with no leakage/sealing off so still no idea what has happened.
 

I have to admit I avoid belt areas completely with the sure t for this reason, however in the fattier areas I don't suffer any discomfort at all, I also wouldn't put them into my legs either as not enough fat and i'd end up getting sore, unfortunately you do need a good site for the sure t as otherwise they can become very uncomfortable, I also tried love handles but was feeling them in my sleep, but I couldn't go back to the plastic sets now as I was suffering multiple failures with them and the stress of managing my levels there on in was too much to deal with. If you have fat on your tum then try again with them, just as long as you avoid areas where the belt would rub it then you should be ok.
 
I should have been clearer, I meant my weightlifting belt which usually fits around my belly button. The belt is 4-5" wide so it was a pain, literally, when I wore it for particular lifts. I have tried it for a good few weeks before going onto the soft cannulas, i'm at a loss at what has caused such a long term failure in these cannulas, Medtronic aren't sure either at the moment and are getting back to me by tomorrow with either a suggestion or replacement cannulas, can't fault them really.
 

Hi,
I had problems with my first 640. It seemed to do basal ok but struggle with bolus. I was told to say I am not confident. Are you sure it is the mio and not the pump?
 
I suggest you use the Quickset instead which delivers the insulin a little deeper and sits comfortably. Sylvia
 
Slightly off the subject but a similar issue with my Novopen. Recently it so happened that despite no changes to my carb intake my BG was shooting sky high after every meal. Even correction doses seemed to be ineffective. I noticed my finger getting slightly wet when injecting. I thought it was a pen failure resulting in the mechanism, instead of pushing rubber stopper forward, bending it and causing insulin to leak out from the back. I decided to switch to a spare pen and only while removing the cartridge from the old pen did I notice the hairline crack running the length of the cartridge. I don’t recall dropping the pen to have caused it. Fair to say this was the first incident after using Novopens For over 30 years. However the thought of a cartridge pen failing on a holiday in some far off place worried me so the DSN agreed to put me on prefilled disposable pens which would be easy to replace.
 
Hi yes i have fault was with the set the tube as actually come out of set i stopped using that box and sorted i did contact medtroninc who replaced faultysets foc hope this helps.
 
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