Early Sunday morning, 12:15 to be exact - my Animas insulin pump started to alarm.  I figured it was due to my insulin reservoir being low since I was due to change my infusion set the next day.  I pressed the OK button without looking at the screen - and then two more times it alarmed.  On the third alarm I thought it was abit unusual - so this time I checked the screen before pressing the OK button.  Low and behold - a message on the screen I'd never witnessed before - "ALARM CALL SERVICE NO DELIVERY 064-0008 - Remove battery to silence the alarm".  Off I went to grab my manual and figure out what the heck to do! 

The first thing I did was remove the battery - just to silence the darn alarm - and of course - I am  now finding out that I am being blessed by the Hypo Fairy who also wants to join in on the party.  I had tried a Combo bolus for dinner that night for a pasta dish I'd made. Well, it did such a good job - I stayed a constant 4.5 (81) no spiking like I usually do.  Obviously I still had insulin on board (IOB) that was working.  So, between figuring out the alarm - testing my BG which was now at 2.8 (50) - I was having a real "fun" time.  Meanwhile, Mike is trying to help me - and as some of you may know - with a hypo - we're not always the most pleasant people to be around (at least I'm nonviolent - some friends I know get violent).  I managed to get him to pour me some OJ - and then told him to let me be - and off he went.  Sigh, I'm one stubborn gal aren't I?

In the end, I got the pump up and running again - installed the battery into the pump.  I tried calling up Animas at that point (actually tried 2 more times due to brain functioning abit slow with hypo) - but have learned that they do not have a 24/7 Emergency Hotline (they are open Monday to Friday). 

So, I will be calling up Animas tomorrow - since the error code I got according to my manual indicates that there is either a hardware or software problem detected (the code that showed on my screen is not the same code as shown in the manual - so it's abit puzzling).  I'm not too worried about my pump at the moment - as it seems to be working fine. I was prepared when this all happened that I would just inject with insulin until I spoke to someone at Animas, at least I have experience in that.  Some newly diagnosed diabetics that go straight onto a pump don't have the advantage of knowing how to handle their diabetes with multiple injections and different insulins!  Scary stuff - personally if I was their doctor - I would have my patient learn the injection method for at least a year - before even having them switch to an insulin pump - but that's just my opinion.

Note to self - if I had stayed with Medtronic - would they have been the same - not being open on the weekend for emergency calls?