Changed my son’s infusion set (TruSteel) last night, thought there was enough insulin in the cartridge for 2 days, but there probably isn’t. Is there a trick for changing the cartridge but not the site on the Tslim? He hates site changes and we’d love to avoid having to do this more than every two days if possible.
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Sure my son does this all the time. Just unplug the current tubing from the site at the connector needle, then disconnect the filled tubing from the old cartridge. Change out the cartridge, connect the filled tubing to the new cartridge. Do the fill procedure until the big air pocket leaves the tubing through the connector needle, then reconnect to the infusion set. If it makes you do a canula fill, do that before reconnecting.
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I do similar, but first fill the short tubing on new cartridge, then connect to disconnected existing tubing, which should avoid the big bubble. Then do fill a bit more to confirm insulin flow before reconnecting.
With tru-steel, I think you would just fill the tubing up past the disconnect connector. Then reattach to needle cannula site.
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An even better approach for sure!
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So do you go through the “change cartridge” on the menu when you do this? Or is there a way around that? Do you just change the cartridge w/o telling the pump you are doing so? The times that I’ve changed out a cartridge w/o changing a site I will disconnect from the connector, remove old cartridge and insert new cartridge. But then the pump will insist on “fill tubing” of at least 10 units. Out of an abundance of caution (and uncertainty on my part) I’ll use new long tubing from a new set and fill that until insulin is coming out at the connector needle. Then reconnect and resume (we use tru steel so no cannula fill). But I waste an infusion set in going that and the extra insulin to fill tubing.
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You have to follow normal cartridge filling.
The advantage is that doing infusion site change and cartridge can be done at different times.
I think official instructions are to fill cartridge with 3 days of insulin, and also change infusion set at same time. This “wastes” a lot more insulin, thrown away in cartridge and tubing. I fill cartridge close to max, and change every 5-6 days, when almost empty. Sometimes end up doing infusion set at same time, if its been 3-4 days.
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Yes, you go through the “change cartridge”, just let the 10 units drip into a kleenex. My son reuses the tubing and hasn’t had a problem yet. I guess less abundance of caution, but it seems to work.
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Yeah- I just let it drip into a tissue or sink. I just wasn’t sure if there was a way to avoid that fill again. So you basically connect existing, filled tubing to the connector on the new cartridge then fill the 10 units again, or until the air bubble is out. I guess you see a giant air bubble move through? That was my worry- connecting with existing tubing would create a giant air bubble, which is why I connected new tubing.
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That is what my son does, but using @MM2 's suggestion to just do the fill to the new cartridge before you attach the filled tubing is an improvement over what we have been doing.
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I don’t change the tubing when I’m just changing the site but not the reservoir. But I do use new tubing with a new reservoir. Since Tandem is going to require me to use 10 units to fill the tubing whether it is new or not, I figure I might as well start a new set of tubing along with the new reservoir.
Eventually the tubing will wear out, so I try to not use the same tubing for more than a few sets in a row.
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I just add more insulin to the existing cartridge. I disconnect the tubing at the infusion site and go through the normal change cartridge procedure on the pump. I have to expel 10.2 units into the sink or into a tissue and then I connect the tubing to the infusion site, skip the cannula fill and I’m done.
There’s a minimum amount that needs to be in the cartridge for the pump to detect it. I think around 100 units. I do this most often when I realize (or am alerted) that there’s not enough insulin left to last through the night. If I go through the entire cartridge change procedure, I’ll probably be too awake to go back to sleep!
I save the syringe and needle from the previous cartridge. I’ve actually had more needle failures than I have cartridge failures.
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