My first time pulling out my infusion set

Anna's Blog
By: FatCatAnna

The Roller Coaster Ride of Diabetes! Whoo! Whoo!

I am a Type 1 diabetic diagnosed back in the early 60's as a child. I am living in Montreal, Canada and enjoy scribbling about diabetes from time to time. I’ve had my ups / downs just like any person would experience with going through life - diabetic or not. My motto in life? Diabetes does not control me – I control it!!

You can find more posts/discussions at my Facebook page called "The Roller Coaster Ride of Diabetes" and also on Twitter under the name of FatCatAnna. Feel free to follow me at both places or send me a private message!

<< January 2012 >>

	Blog Entries
The joys of having Bowie my CGMS – Chapter 1 - Sep 02 Okay, for those of you who have never read my #dblogs before, I give names to all my little gizmos that I use for controlling my diabetes. What we have today, ... more
In a slump and scared - Jul 21 It’s rare for me to compose a #dblog that is not all “chirpy chirpy” … I think the last time I did one that was kind of down was at Diabetes1.org ... more
Surviving the Holocaust with Type 1 diabetes - Mar 27 " To the best of my knowledge, I am the only diabetic who survived years of imprisonment in German concentration camps. This is my story " The above words ... more
Sugar and Your Health - Mar 06 The other day I emptied out a 4 kg (about 10 lbs) of white sugar that I had dated a year ago when I opened it. I use white sugar purely for cooking (I make my own ... more
Eating from the ground - Yuca Fries - Feb 20 I am home now from a working holiday, in the Bahamas and Miami. Despite the weather being abit cooler then normal (they only get 2 weeks of winter - we were there in ... more

Posted: Jan 16, 2012 13:23	1 Comment.
My first time pulling out my infusion set

It's so hard to believe that I've been using an insulin pump for 4 years now. I sometimes have to pinch myself to believe that time has flown by so fast since switching over from MDI (multiple dose injections) for 41 years prior.

Here's something that is going to make some of you who have been pumping for awhile have a laugh though. I've often read about other insulin pumpers having their infusion sets pulled out - either caught on a door knob or adhesive has given out. The only thing I'd experienced was hanging myself on the door knob a few times in the beginning, but the infusion set never pulled out. I must have been lucky.

I'm like many insulin pumpers, where I favour the use of my stomach for my infusion sets. It's convenient and I feel insulin absorption is better since it's near to the organs that need our juice of life. Also, my problem since going onto the Contact Detach - is the length of the tubing. I can't get any longer length from Animas then 60 cm/23 inches. The other infusion sets I used to use, I could get longer tubing, but sadly, due to teflon allergy, I had to stop using those types. This makes using the infusion set on my upper thighs is out of the question now. So, my stomach, which is has abit of real estate has become quite the playground for my infusion sets.

When I was visiting with a insulin pumping friend of mine, who also tends to use their stomach area alot for infusion sets, they were showing me the area that they used. It doesn't help that they have abit of hair on their stomach region, and even with shaving prior to putting the set in, inbetween the time of removal the set, it can become abit uncomfortable. I was showing them where I put mine, which is an area they don't touch, above their belly button area. I have at least 3" of real estate for placing my infusion sets in, and I had never gone up this far before, but decided to give it a go a few months ago.

This is where I have experienced my first infusion pull out because of going up this high on my stomach. It all came about when pulling up my pants after a trip to the loo. My thumb caught in the connecting tube of the Contach Detach / Sure-T that I use for my infusion set. It was so fast, I didn't even feel it being yanked out. All I saw, was the needle portion waving itself at me. I wasn't really that upset, since a) I was at home; and b) I only had about 8 units left in my insulin cartridge.

Now, if I had been outside of home, then it would have been a different story, but as I've told a few other insulin pumpers - the joy of the Contact Detach is you can (though it's not recommended due to sterile issues) - reinsert the set back in a new area (have done that a few times when hitting a nerve/muscle with a new infusion change). So, I've now made sure that along with my blood meter that I always carry with me, spare batteries, that I have an alcohol swab AND IV Prep - incase I do have to reinsert. Luckily, it's only happened to me that one time - but I now can no longer call myself a virgin of the infusion pulling out club LOL!

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By: AmariT: Jan, 30, 2012 11:51 AM

I'm glad that it didn't hurt or anything. I was cringing for most of your story knowing what it was leading to and winced when I got to the part where the infusion was pulled out. I don't use a pump, but I'm always connected to cords (most notably the one going between my music player in my pocket or hand and my headphones in my ears), and they're always getting caught on things, including door knobs and, you'll love this one, buttons on the back of my pants. This usually results in the headphones yanking out of my ears, which is an unpleasant experience. It just seems to me that something actually inserted into your body yanking out would be so much worse.

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