My son has been pumping saline for three days, and we get to start insulin on Tuesday. Instead of changing the cartridge and site, he decided to take it off for the last two days that he can. I can understand that, and have disconnected it. I chose "Stop Insulin" on the pump and removed the site. Now the alarm goes off every three minutes, telling me to resume insulin. We haven't used it enough to know much about it. I've set alarms and alerts to vibrate, but it hasn't helped. Anyone know how to stop this, or turn it off for two days? Please?
Can you set a zero basal rate on the tslim? If not, just let it run through the saline. You can stick the tubing in a bowl if you don't want to get saline all over.
Is the saline stinging? It can, and he should know that insulin doesn't so "real" pumping will be different, hopefully better.
Thanks for the quick answers. He said it doesn't sting. He's just getting used to something being attached. I figured I'll let him have two days, since we can. Meg, thanks for the idea. I'm going to try it now.
Yes - set the basal to 0. We had the exact same issue and I had to call customer support because the beeping was driving me nuts!
Yes, not the most obvious, but I learned it early on as I "Stop Insulin" every day for +/- an hour every time I bath/shower and it beeps on and off for the whole time (which I am actually glad for as I might just forget to either connect back or resume insulin afterwards)... but I also have 0 basal three times a week for an hour and a half, as a part of different Profiles that I use to exercise and disconnect for that time, and noticed that there was no irritating beeping the whole time. I think it is good that it has options to have both the irritating beeping for the times you may want/need the reminder and the silence for the times you dont.
One of the stupidest and most frustrating things about the t:slim is that it doesn't have an easy-to-find "Off" mode. You can put it into Shelf Mode, although that's not something Tandem wants you to do and it's not anything you can find in the manual on the device itself -- but if you call them, they'll tell you how to do it (while advising you against it). You plug it in and then hold the silver quick-bolus button and it goes into that Shelf Mode. Some have reported data corruption in doing that, so use that at your own risk. Tandem really has an issue with trusting people who use this insulin pump, and it's apparently a safety measure to not promote the Shelf Mode as we'd apparently all turn the pumps off and let our sugars go sky high if they did so. Really, the only other way is to just let the battery die down and not recharge it.
I have heard nothing but bad things about turning a t:slim back on after shelf mode. Not just corrupted data, but subsequent pump malfunctions. I would never put it in shelf mode. If I needed to turn it over, I would create a 0% basal profile, call it "OFF", activate it and throw put it in a drawer and let the charge run out. I know that if you don't touch the pump for a set period of time, all deliveries will be stopped though. I don't know if there is any beeping associated with that.
I've heard the same things. And while I have zero intention of putting the thing in Shelf-mode (basically for that reason of hearing bad things about it)... I've seen enough (don't get me wrong... not ~that~ much) actually very incorrect information (on the negative side) posted on "this blog" or "that forum" about the t:slim that I don't give too much of the negatives much credence until I experience it. Most of the negative comments seem to come from those who have never used it before and made assumptions... didn't use it for very long, or used Apidra in it. I ~believe~ (though I could be wrong) that my trainer mentioned that it would indeed alarm first prior to shutting down after not being touched for a set period of time. I do not know however how long that would go on. It was described to me as an absolute last ditch fail-safe for if you go very long between meals (aka at night or whatever) and do not wake up to check something or another or bolus it will "assume" you are low and stop delivery. You can set that time for very long though or turn it off completely... its just that the option is there
Just to follow up - I checked into that "all deliveries stopped" alarm when the pump remains untouched and you can set it for any time period between 5 hours up to 24 hours or turn it off completely.
