Reservoir / Cannula Life

[Colin of Kent]

Since a recent change in diet, I now use less insulin. To reduce waste (i.e. reservoirs and insulin), I've been filling my 3ml reservoir full, then just changing the infusion cannula every three days. Now a reservoir lasts about 10 days. This should be okay, right? Just curious...

 

[Juicyj]

Hi @Colin of Kent The reason we are advised to change sets every 3 days is down to the effectiveness of insulin as it has a shorter life in plastic vs glass, have heard 6 days is maximum it can be stored in a reservoir.

 

[kitedoc]

Hi @Colin of Kent,
Another alternative to save on insulin (which is quite expensive without Government health support) what about filling your reservoir say one third full in order to keep within the 3 to 4 day limit ?

 

[Colin of Kent]

Hi @Colin of Kent,
Another alternative to save on insulin (which is quite expensive without Government health support) what about filling your reservoir say one third full in order to keep within the 3 to 4 day limit ?

Yeah, that's what I used to do. Roche, the manufacturer of my last pump, encouraged me to keep the reservoir going for six days, and change the cannula every three. When I switched back to a Medtronic, I was only instructed to change the whole lot every three days, but then it occurred to me to keep the reservoir going as long as possible by filling it full.

I've been doing it this way for about three months now, and I don't see any unusual changes in BG towards the end of the reservoir, so as far as I can tell it seems to be okay.

The way I see it, I'm now using one-third the number of reservoirs, hence requiring less resources. Plus, if I filled a new reservoir every three days, there'd always be a little bit left at the end that got thrown away. I don't imagine insulin is cheap to manufacture.