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Problems with Insulin Pump sets blocking causing high blood sugars?

  • So Ive been a Type 1 diabetic for 13 years and on a pump for about 4 years. In the last 18 months I have dropped weight and toned up my body. Since Ive dropped body fat I had to go from using the 9mm cannula quick sets to the smaller 6mm because I had problems with the canula kinking under the skin. Well now the 6mm is also giving me problems. About 1 out of every 4 sets will kink under my skin causing back pressure and interfere with insulin delivery to the point where it will slow down or stop delivering. I will end up waking up in the middle of the night because the alarm on my pump is going off due to No Deliver, and my blood sugars are over 300. Most of the time the alarm does not go off and I am unaware until all of a sudden I feel miserable and check to find my blood sugar went from 120 to 298 in an hour. Sometimes i have to change my set 3 times in a row until I get successful delivery. I rotate my sites on a regular basis, and use the proper inserter to place the set. Im guessing it is pressing against the muscle under my skin, but the thing is I am not skinny and you can pinch an inch as they would say - although I have "tightened up" I heard from my MiniMed counselor that she has encountered this problem before with another patient who lost weight. Ive spoken to MiniMed and my Dr. Not much can be done other than switching me to the Silhouette infusion sets which insert at an angle. These seem to be working better but Ive only been on them for a short while. My question is has any one else had issues with the mini med quick sets? Is there another explanation for why the constant kinking or blockage? Could this be an issue of faulty supplies from MiniMed? Im just looking for other experiences so I can better understand why this is happening. My Dr and pump trainers can't tell me much. If this keeps up I am seriously going to have to ditch the pump and go back to regular injections. Should I switch to another pump like the Omni Pod?

  • Answer:

    Just get fat again, and you won't have this problem.

LCG at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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Yes, I have had those issues with the 6mm quickset cannula. There are some places for me (particularly near my navel) where it ALWAYS kinks, and others where it hardly ever does. Try changing the infusion site. Also, after I insert the infuser / cannula set and remove the introducer needle, I occasionally peel back the adhesive and take a peek to make sure the cannula didn't bend at the top. I can't tell if it's kinked under the skin, but at least this rules out the obvious. Also, I leave the old working cannula in so that if I have a bad set, I can at least go back to the one that was working (even if it's starting to heal up it's better than nothing). I don't think the Omnipod is that much better, just no tubing. Good luck.

Don M

I used Silhouettes and rarely had a problem. I am going to suggest that you go to the American Diabetes Association webpage at www.diabetes.org, for thei message boards. I think you'll find more people there who can help you.

House825

The quickset infusion sets did have a recall about a year or so ago. Check and make sure you don't have any of that lot #. Have you tried putting the set at the top of your buttocks? That may help as there is more fatty tissue there on most people. Maybe the silhouettes will work for you. They also have infusion sets with a metal cannulas. I've heard they aren't as comfortable but the bending and kinking wouldn't be an issue. Hang in there.

Syd XII

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