Why do all things like malfunctions on durable medical equipment (CGM and pump) seem to happen when you are far from home..on a weekend morning when maybe their is no support staff to help? Katie realized when we were visiting our friends in Elkhorn that her dexcom and pump were not in sync blood sugar-wise. Her dexcom was saying high but her pump was saying low...everytime Katie tested her blood it was coming up LOW so she was eating and eating in the morning. It was weird because she was getting loopier and loopier too.
Understand- the Omnipod pump has it's own built in blood glucose monitor. So she's able to put a test strip into the pdm and then test her blood and bolus (give instant insulin via a pump pod she wears) or adjust her basal (continuous stream of insulin through the same pod) as needed. So her pdm was telling us low. I asked her where the control fluid was. Omnipod also provides a separate blood glucose monitor because let's face it..if what happened -happens to Katie's monitor you need to have backup. Not to mention that just because she has this pump means nothing less for carrying items. She still carries needles now in addition to her humalog so she can instantly inject insulin if needed.
So she couldn't find her control fluid..didn't know if she had it. Didn't have her spare glucose monitor (Really?! I asked only 20 times if she had everything she needed..I think I'll give her a note with everything listed next time!) And we are in the country on a farm. I could have driven into town and BOUGHT a new monitor but that was annoying me. So even though she was annoyed (high blood sugar which we didn't know at this point) at having to dump her purse..I made her do it and lo and behold there is a control bottle.
The control fluid is red and is dropped onto a strip and then you can make sure your meter is reading correctly. Based on my limited research the meters are allowed by the FDA? to have a certain % of error..not really cool and the range is wide. So it's imperative to test to the control about 1x a month on all devices. The Dexcom (continuous glucose monitor) that Katie wears like an insulin pod (a 2nd pod) tests her blood every 5 min but she can calibrate it whenever needed and it MUST be calibrated every 12 hours. It beeps and is annoying until she does.
Anyway the pdm was tested and it was reading LOW this whole time and when the pump reads low -you guessed it- it stops pumping insulin into her system. But she was really high and getting dangerously so! There was NO way to reset the pump to read properly and so we knew we'd have to swap it out. Stupidly the OmniPod does not allow you to adjust your Blood glucose levels..but that would be a great option to have..even if it's something built in but locked and only can be done when you call in or something. I get why it's a safeguard but she basically had to go back to injections and they replaced the OmniPod..they overnighted it to her no problem.
The Dexcom people were more obnoxious. Right after we got home from Elkhorn her Dexcom was reading way off (usually happens towards the tail end of a week- I don't understand how people get up to 12 days off one sensor..it's so far off the actual numbers it's useless usually by day 6). And then just refused to boot up. She called them and they wanted her to reset it (which she had already tried) while she was at work. She was crabby so I called the guy back after she waited over an hour for a reboot that never happened. And the guy starts telling me if there is water damage they won't cover the replacement and will charge me. I told him he could try but that I would just return the device then. First- it doesn't have water damage. 2nd...it should be sturdy and be waterproof...3rd he was trying to tell me that the port door breaking off damaged the inside and caused it to not work. HA. and so on. But we finally got it replaced too and so far- no bill......
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