# scared of things going wrong



## litto-miss-loz (Nov 28, 2010)

hey everyone, hope ur all well on this snowy morning 

so far so good with the pump but ive been paranoid about the pump failing or no insulin going in the cannula etc and scared of getting ketones. 

is this normal or should i maybe reconsider going back to injections??

xx


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## tracey w (Nov 28, 2010)

No i thinks its normal to worry at first as you are doing something completely different from what you are used to.

You need to relax and trust your pump you, you will soon believe me. As long as you are monitoring and testing when you should it will be ok. 

It would be something very rare to get no insulin delivery and there are alarms for that. You will soon know when you get a rise what to check for as sometimes people suffer bent canulas etc. I know a few people on here have, but i havent experienced that and ive been pumping a year.

Occasionally i do get blood in the canula when ive done a lot of vigorous exercise, as you probably would expect, even then my numbers have not gone high when i left it, but usually i just change the canula anyway.


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## Ellie Jones (Nov 28, 2010)

It's normal to have these concerns at first...

A good idea is when you are changing sets, is either to do it before a meal or have a snack after changing so you are bolusing...  By doing this you will bring to light a lot quicker any problems...

Pumps will alarm after it's failed to deliver 3 units of insulin, if like me you have a very small basal rate this can mean quite a few hours before the alarm is set off, so by having a meal or even a snack you so you bolus some insulin you cut the time down, and if you double check your BG after an hour, and problems you will also see a BG rise...

I've  has about 5 occlusions (non-deliver) since starting pumping (almost 3 years) most have happened as I bolused for a meal, but when out of the blue, my BG hasn't been too bad requiring correction but nothing of real concern...

I know when I started at first I was very uncomfortable about the pump pumping away over night as I slept, until my husband pointed out that with MDI I injected background insulin at 11pm, so what's the difference I had insulin mungling away over night!


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## Freddie99 (Nov 28, 2010)

Hey,

I had much the same worries at the time I started pumping. In the past seven months I've had very few problems, all have been cannula related but fortunately there haven't been any mechanical errors. The fact is the pump is only as good as it's user. It is hard work but the chances of mechanical error and things going wrong are not that great if I am honest. Like I said earlier, I've only had issues with failed cannulas for a variety of reasons such as them hitting veins or kinking. I do trust my pump and I know that if there are any things to go wrong it'll let me know if it's gone up the creek and I'll be able to do something about it.

Tom


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## litto-miss-loz (Nov 28, 2010)

tracey w said:


> No i thinks its normal to worry at first as you are doing something completely different from what you are used to.
> 
> You need to relax and trust your pump you, you will soon believe me. As long as you are monitoring and testing when you should it will be ok.
> 
> ...





Ellie Jones said:


> It's normal to have these concerns at first...
> 
> A good idea is when you are changing sets, is either to do it before a meal or have a snack after changing so you are bolusing...  By doing this you will bring to light a lot quicker any problems...
> 
> ...





TomH said:


> Hey,
> 
> I had much the same worries at the time I started pumping. In the past seven months I've had very few problems, all have been cannula related but fortunately there haven't been any mechanical errors. The fact is the pump is only as good as it's user. It is hard work but the chances of mechanical error and things going wrong are not that great if I am honest. Like I said earlier, I've only had issues with failed cannulas for a variety of reasons such as them hitting veins or kinking. I do trust my pump and I know that if there are any things to go wrong it'll let me know if it's gone up the creek and I'll be able to do something about it.
> 
> Tom




hey everyone, thanks for your feedback. I guess its just me being my usual scared self lol ive got my first cannula change tommorow morning without the nurses their to help me so im a tad nervous about it all going wrong lol 
i think its the bubbles that freak me out cause im scared incase they appear and i dont get my insulin.

Just also wondered, see once the cannula is in place, do you think it is secure enough in place?? for instance in my work i do alot of bending as im lifting boxes and im scared incase wen im bending the cannula is going to pop out?? 

Ellie you made a good point about the insulin overnight thing, as i would have still been getting insulin before bed and it would have been playing about in my body, so thanks for that  

ta mucho peeps  the best advice is from the people going through it with you  xx


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## Freddie99 (Nov 28, 2010)

Hey,

The cannulas take alot to pull them out as the adhesive is basically the medical equivalent of gaffa tape. I've been caught on doors and the tubing has taken me back to the door as the adhesive on the cannula is so strong. I wouldn't worry about the cannula staying in as it's pretty strong stuff that holds it on.
As for filling the reservoirs and bubbles it will take you a little bit of time to get the knack of filling them so you won't have bubbles. It took me a few weeks to get it but you will find a technique that will work for you. There are a variety of techniques that you can use to ensure a bubble free reservoir. You can spot bubbles in the tubing with relative ease. It's best to use natural light to search for bubbles in tubing as I find artificial light is too harsh. If you see something that looks like a bubble what I was taught to do was to rotate the tube and if it looks the same all the way around it's a bubble. Not sure if that makes sense to you. Then you can use the bolus function to get the bubble out of the tubing. 

Out of interest which pump do you have?

Tom


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## Northerner (Nov 28, 2010)

You might be interested in watching Canadian d-blogger Scully's vlog (video blog) where she shows how she changes her canula etc. I found it very interesting and not at all what I expected (not a pump user myself!)

http://canadiandgal.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-first-vlog.html


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## Ellie Jones (Nov 28, 2010)

The only problem I can see with bending picking up box's is if the canular is sat under your waistband/belt a very fine chance of disrupting delivery, but a very fine chance though... 

I used to work in dog kennels, where I met some ill mannered mutts indeed, who would constantly jump up on you...

Not one of them managed to pull my canular out, not even the rather large staffi that as he jumped his back paw got caught in the tubing, pulling to ground level  The canualr stayed in place so did my pump clipped to my belt, however the tubing went from the 60cm length I use, and when I measured it it was 110cm in length  And even this didn't cause problems with delivery, but did change it as the new length was just to long caught on everything as it trailed behind me...

As to your first canular change in the morning, take your time there's no rush when I did my first canular and cartridge change it took me about an hour to accomplish as I read my manual several times, the read each stage as I progressed LOL but now can do the whole lot in about 5 minutes flat...

Don't worry the more you use the pump, and the more you do canular/cartridges changes the more confidence you will gain..


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## litto-miss-loz (Nov 28, 2010)

TomH said:


> Hey,
> 
> The cannulas take alot to pull them out as the adhesive is basically the medical equivalent of gaffa tape. I've been caught on doors and the tubing has taken me back to the door as the adhesive on the cannula is so strong. I wouldn't worry about the cannula staying in as it's pretty strong stuff that holds it on.
> As for filling the reservoirs and bubbles it will take you a little bit of time to get the knack of filling them so you won't have bubbles. It took me a few weeks to get it but you will find a technique that will work for you. There are a variety of techniques that you can use to ensure a bubble free reservoir. You can spot bubbles in the tubing with relative ease. It's best to use natural light to search for bubbles in tubing as I find artificial light is too harsh. If you see something that looks like a bubble what I was taught to do was to rotate the tube and if it looks the same all the way around it's a bubble. Not sure if that makes sense to you. Then you can use the bolus function to get the bubble out of the tubing.
> ...



yeah hopefully il get the hang of it lol just feels like im getting nowhere lol

mines is the medtronic minimed.


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## litto-miss-loz (Nov 28, 2010)

Ellie Jones said:


> The only problem I can see with bending picking up box's is if the canular is sat under your waistband/belt a very fine chance of disrupting delivery, but a very fine chance though...
> 
> I used to work in dog kennels, where I met some ill mannered mutts indeed, who would constantly jump up on you...
> 
> ...



mines is sitting just on my belly to the right hand side and tommorow il rotate to let hand side.  I think i have the shorter length one, yh i wouldnt want to get tangled up lol

yh im going to get up extra early and sit down and go through it step by step.

thanks for ur advice, it really helps


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## litto-miss-loz (Nov 28, 2010)

Northerner said:


> You might be interested in watching Canadian d-blogger Scully's vlog (video blog) where she shows how she changes her canula etc. I found it very interesting and not at all what I expected (not a pump user myself!)
> 
> http://canadiandgal.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-first-vlog.html



thanks il check it out


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## tracey w (Nov 29, 2010)

I was so nervous on my first set change i was shaking and it took me half an hour.

It gets easier believe me, i can do a set change in minutes now!


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## litto-miss-loz (Nov 29, 2010)

tracey w said:


> I was so nervous on my first set change i was shaking and it took me half an hour.
> 
> It gets easier believe me, i can do a set change in minutes now!



yh thanks  i think im just being overly paranoid lol 

i suppose i was like this when i was learning to drive, i thought i would never do it and i did, so im trying to think like that lol spoke to my nurse today aswell and she says everyone is like this at the beginning so that made me feel a bit better lol


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## tracey w (Dec 1, 2010)

Hope your finding things a bit easier now?


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## litto-miss-loz (Dec 1, 2010)

tracey w said:


> Hope your finding things a bit easier now?



yh defo  thanks


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