Lot 8 recall

If you use a Medtronic pump, I'm sure you know about the Lot 8 recall. And, if you know me at all, I like to be prepared.

After getting a letter from Medtronic, I went through my inventory of pump supplies and dug out all of the Lot 8 infusion sets. I consider myself to be fairly new to the pump still, as I have only been on it 3.5 years. It was not until my Lot 8 recall letter came in the mail that I realized how many supplies I accumulated. I had enough extra supplies so I would be able to use my pump for over a year if the company went out of business (which, by the way, they are not).

As I was going through the house and locating all of my pump supplies, I started to wonder how I had gotten so many. I change my pump site every 3 or 4 days. Sometimes, especially in the summer, my sites need to be changed more often. When I got everything together, I started to count the number of boxes and individual infusion sets, just as Minimed requested: I had 18 unused boxes and 13 individual infusion sets!! That would be 1 year and 7 months worth of them, not including my 4 boxes that were not Lot 8.

When I called Minimed about my supplies, I asked them when I would be getting my replacement infusion sets. I was told that I would be mailed 1 every 3 weeks, to which I responded, "you are going to mail me one box every three weeks for over a year?!?" I have yet to receive one in the mail. It has been about 3 weeks, so maybe one will come today?

I realize that Minimed had to recall many, many infusion sets, and I don't need my right away. I just think a year is a bit excessive. Yesterday I opened up a piece of mail from the president of the company, stating how sorry he was for the Lot 8 recall. Although it was a nice gesture, it would be more helpful to replace my sets promptly.