If you’re a pumper, chances are you’ve seen something like this before:
The story: I changed my set on Friday night, about 2 hours before bed. When I woke up in the morning, my #BGNow was 174 mg/dL. Higher than I would like, but I can deal with 174. I had a smaller-than-normal breakfast, and a fair amount of both coffee and water throughout the morning.
When I checked just before lunch, I was at 286 mg/dL. I was meeting a friend for lunch, and I just dealt with it… sometimes, new infusion sets just don’t seem to take right away. I had a very small lunch, enjoyed my time with my friend, and headed home.
Just before dinner, my BG test resulted in a 266 mg/dL. Okay, I’m getting some insulin, but something is clearly wrong at this point. What to do? Do an injection and wait it out some more? Or make the decision to change my set and start over?
I opted for changing my set, but not changing my tubing. If it was a bad cannula (pictured here) or a bad site, the tubing wouldn’t matter. If it was bad tubing, then a site change wouldn’t change anything, if you know what I mean. I’m the kind of guy who likes to know the cause of something, so I didn’t change the tubing, knowing I could do it later if I had to. As you can see in the photo, there was no need to because somehow the cannula got kinked. Which almost never happens to me, which is probably why I waited almost a day to change out the set.
After making the change, I did a correction bolus and ate a nearly carb-less meal. When I checked almost three hours later, I was at 84 mg/dL. Problem solved.
Just another annoying, stupid thing. Freakin’ diabetes.
Diabetes Blog - Happy-Medium.net 
Comments
The “some insulin” problem is probably the most troublesome to deal with. Getting none makes sense, and the solution is easy. Getting some, for whatever reason that might be, leads to the tendency to try to bolus-down the high, but for me, no matter how much insulin I bolus (or don’t bolus) I stay steady at that same line.
Crazy, unexplained phenomenon. Good for you for taking action and not waiting it out…
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When I pulled out one that was almost a 90 degree kink a few years back, I decided to switch to the Sure-T/Contact Detach. It takes one step out of the troubleshooting process if you know what I mean.
Ugh!
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“Just another annoying, stupid thing. Freakin’ diabetes.” Well said!!!! Bent cannula hardly ever happen to me, but when they do they are are annoying and stupid.
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Yes, I completely agree with what Scott said! You are hesitant to change the site because you are getting some insulin.
Also, I might need to change the infusion sets I use. I’m still using the Silhouettes from Minimed and yours looks about 1000 times smaller than mine and I wouldn’t mind a smaller needle :-P.
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