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Problems with infusion sets for 12-24 hours

E

emmarochester

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Messages
19
Location
Plymouth, Devon
Hi everyone. I have not posted for a long time but would be interested to know if anyone else has problems with their infusion sets for the first 12-24 hours? Every time I put a new set in (the recommended every three days) I get high BG's for anything from 12-24 hours with 12 being the norm. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am using the Accu Check Combi pump with flexilink infusion sets. Thanks.
 
Hi

Are you remembering to prime the tube and also prime the infusion set?

If you are priming correctly, then it might be that you need to leave the new set alone for a few hours and just carry on using the old set...
 
Hi. Thanks for your reply. I do prime the set and the tube and give myself a standard bolus of 1.0 unit to get into the canular but still to no avail. Its almost as if it all of sudden starts to push through after the 12 hours but until then I just have horribly high readings. this morning for example, I had a bg of 8 before I changed the set. I bolused for my 40g carbs of milk and porridge at 8am and when I tested at 1030 I was at 19.5!! it is like this every single time I change the set so out of the 72 hours that a set is in, I only get about 48-60 hours of good bgs where the set seems to work?
 
emmarochester said:
Hi. Thanks for your reply. I do prime the set and the tube and give myself a standard bolus of 1.0 unit to get into the canular but still to no avail. Its almost as if it all of sudden starts to push through after the 12 hours but until then I just have horribly high readings. this morning for example, I had a bg of 8 before I changed the set. I bolused for my 40g carbs of milk and porridge at 8am and when I tested at 1030 I was at 19.5!! it is like this every single time I change the set so out of the 72 hours that a set is in, I only get about 48-60 hours of good bgs where the set seems to work?
Click to expand...

Hi

Are your bg levels all ok with eating porridge the next day? I usually find porridge dodgy to bolus for as it tends to make me go high within the first hour but then by the time the 3rd hour comes, bg then starts to go low. Can't say that it gives me a sustained source of energy :roll: :lol:

The only thing I can think of that might help when you put a new set in if you dont want to carry on using the old one for a while, is to give yourself an increase TBR of ??% for a few hours to see if that gets you ok, or test your bg levels with normal basal rate 1hr after eating and bolusing and give yourself a correction.
 
emmarochester said:
Hi everyone. I have not posted for a long time but would be interested to know if anyone else has problems with their infusion sets for the first 12-24 hours? Every time I put a new set in (the recommended every three days) I get high BG's for anything from 12-24 hours with 12 being the norm. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am using the Accu Check Combi pump with flexilink infusion sets. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Strange thing is my Son is also having the same problem and on the same pump and flexlinks. Having to change his cannual every 2 days and cartridge every 5 days it seems on the catridge change with doing all the necessary routine involved, he gets the same sort of delayed reaction to the insulin eventually kicking in. I am assuming it is the sites as he is and has been doing his tummy for some time now. He is going to change to lower back over the Christmas period although absorption is not so good, he will have to do TBR's and corrections whenever to alleviate this. :roll:
 
Similar to my posting a few weeks ago about flexlinks. You're not the only one...
 
Hi

Although I don't get the high reading following an infusion change, I do tend to go higher when changing the cartridge. However, I have put it down to my inexperience, as I've only been on the pump for 6 weeks. Initially I changed the cartridge when it ran empty but soon learnt that was a silly idea :roll: So like yourself I change the cartridge once per week. I did also notice that if I left the infusion change for three days it was as if it was all scaled up and needed descaled. So I change that every 2 days. As for the high reading, at the moment, don't seem to suffer from that...... but again I'm a bit of a newbie. However, do wish you best of luck and hopefully things will improve for you.
 
Well how bizarre today 'I changed my infusion set and what do you know, but have high's all day, up to 22.5 at one stage. Coincidence or what. However, at long last things are gradually improving, but thought it was a wee bit strange thats all.
 
I used to get high BG for quite a while after a set change until I worked out that I set my basal at +150% for 2 hours after a change and I always leave the old set in 6 hours too. Have been pumping for 2 years now and this always works for me.
 
MushyPeaBrain said:
I used to get high BG for quite a while after a set change until I worked out that I set my basal at +150% for 2 hours after a change and I always leave the old set in 6 hours too. Have been pumping for 2 years now and this always works for me.
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Hi there

This may be a silly question but when you leave the old set in, do you mean just the cannula with nothing attached (as I don't get why or am I being a right dumb blonde here, if I am can you explain what you mean, as this happens with James as well and he does do a TBR to correct himself, which is annoying really as he tends to use up insulin quicker and hence change quicker ( a never ending circle)

Thanks :thumbup:
 
This was a problem for me for quite a while whilst on the Accu Chek Spirit pump,

Following discussions with my diabetes team at the hospital we concluded that it was purely an absorption issue. I've run out of sites on my body for these cannulas as i don't have a lot of fatty tissue and it always seemed to take a day or so for my levels to settle down. And I always primed the pump properly and gave myself a 1.0 unit bolts to get the insulin through.

Having moved onto the Omnipod, which pumps at a much slower rate, I don't have the same issues anymore.
 
I find personally that I 1U bolus isn't near enough to bolus with when i put a new set in. It's always had to be 2U and a 200% tbr for an hour but then this would cover me being detatched from the pump while i'm having a shower and stuff as well. I've always found that I need a lot of insulin to kick start a new site off. I would tend to also increase or round up boluses as well.
I also found I had problems with high bg after set changes if I'd put my set in at the wrong angle to shallow and the insulin wasn't getting absorbed and too deep would narrow to canula to much not kinking it to see but still restricting the flow enough to send me higher. It took a lot of practice trial and error and loads of testing.
If you're having problems I would definitely reccomend keeping the old cannula in to go back to if you need it and also trying all the sets that are available with your pump I was only given 2 options when I got my pump but I think there are at least 4 slightly different ones that would also work.
good luck
 
Stoney it's not a daft question at all :) My DSN said that with some pumpers pulling the set out caused some insulin to leak back out of the skin, therefore causing high BG readings after set change. She said to leave the old one in for 4 hours. I also do this as back up incase my set fails, although I haven't had that happen for a long time now due to great advice on here :)
 
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