Looking for clues

Some people at Medtronic think it was Colonel Mustard, in the Library, with the monkey wrench.

Some people at Medtronic think it was Miss Scarlet, in the Hall, with the knife.

Some people at Medtronic think it was Professor Plum, in the Billiard Room, with the lead pipe.

Other people at Medtronic think it was Mrs. Peacock, in the Dining Room, with the rope.

The only thing everyone agrees on for sure is that there was a murder. Hell, more than that. There’s practically a corpse in every room. An insulin pump serial killer is on the loose, and the race is on to find clues.

Beyond the ongoing Frankensteinian dismantling, testing, and rebuilding/recertifying of my returned pumps; I have it on good authority that there’re now no less than ten Revel pumps set up in different labs, each electronically tethered to mySentry units and multiple meters trying to replicate my configuration, to rule that in, or out, as a possible cause. I’ve even been told that hypobaric chamber is being used to duplicate my mile-above sea level air pressure. No stone is being left un-turned…

I suspect the executives, marketing, and customer service types are really reaching for the Maalox. The engineers, however, are having a field day. Nothing makes an engineer’s day better than a mystery to solve. And the more tricky, subtle, and obtuse the mystery, the better. Med-T’s brainiacs probably haven’t had this much fun since that infusion set failure-only-when bolusing while in a descending airplane fiasco a few years ago.

Meanwhile, practically every hour, or so it seems, I get a call or an email from someone at Med-T:

What kind of insulin is in the pump?
Novolog.

Hey, what’s the lot number on the reservoirs?
The lot number is H8108546.

What kind of infusion sets are you using?
Paradigm Quick-sets. 43 inch tube with the 6mm cannula.

Hey, what’s the lot number on the reservoirs?
The lot number is H8108546.

How did you resolve the motor errors?
I disconnect from my body, pull the reservoir from the pump, do a complete rewind, put the reservoir back in, advance the plunger until I get a drop of insulin, then skip over the fill cannula and hook back up. Oh, and there’s generally some swearing involved.

Hey, what’s the lot number on the reservoirs?
The lot number is H8108546.

Did the motor errors happen more often during correction or meal boli?
More often during corrections, small ones. But they’ve happened during meals too, and at least once during garden variety basal delivery.

Hey, what’s the lot number on the reservoirs?

(It could be said that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, but clearly all hands are on deck.)