pump and insulin questions

[mommyofocean]

well here goes Ocean's BG's for some reason have been all over the place these are things I keep playing over in my head is the insulin in the pump still good is the tubing full of bubbles? Is she growing and needing more insulin! Aargh! Diabetes I hate it! Ok well I was wondering if anyone here has problems with the insulin in the pump going bad before the 3rd day and if anyone here has problems with there cartridge full of insulin and the tubing getting bubbles. When I Prepare the cartridge I make sure there are no bubbles but sometimes there are little ity bity ones and they eventually turn into big ones after sitting in there. Does anyone have any advice on how to minimize the tiny little bubbles. Should I let it sit a while before putting into the pump I have tried that but only like 15 minutes or so. Ocean is using the animas 1200 if you need to know.



Carolyn

[Cyndi]

My daughter also uses the Animas. When she first started pumping we got those little champagne bubbles. I finally discovered we weren't tightening the tubing to the cartridge tight enough. Also, cold insulin creates bubbles while it is warming up. We keep our opened insulin room temperture. When you fill the cartridge tap the sides with something heavy like a butter knife, this works really well at getting the bubbles to the top.

We have never had the insulin go bad in the tubing. I change my duaghter's site every two to three days and her tubing probably once a week. She uses only a tiny bit of insulin a day so I fill the cartridge half full and change it when it gets low. It works well for us.

I hate diabetes too. We are having the same problems right now that you are. Very inconsistent numbers. One day she is running high and the next she is running low. I have no idea what is going on.

I hope things get better for the both of us VERY soon!!

[Mama Belle]

We change sets every 2- 2.5 days, so I can't comment on 3 days. What type of insulin do you use? Our endo advised using Novolog or Apidra because they have noticed that Humalog doesn't seem to last three days in a plastic cartridge. However, I am sure there are plenty of folks on this forum who use it just fine without seeing numbers rise.

We don't have a huge issue with bubbles, but we always use room temp insulin and after filling the cartridge we whack the heck out of it with a pen to dislodge all of the teeny tiny bubbles on the bottom.

Best of luck! :D