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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 my name of FatCatAnna. Feel free to "friend" me at both places - since I love to meet up with new folks all around our big blue marble!

<< January 2012 >>

	Blog Entries
Review of The Diabetes Prevention & Management Cookbook - Jun 16 Have you ever read a book that made you so emotional about how good it was – that you wanted to shout it out to the world (okay – Facebook / Twitter / Google+ ... more
Using my arms for infusion sites with George Michael - Jun 14 For those of you wondering about my little SCREAM on ... more
Back To The Land of Pumping Again - Jun 09 Well, it’s now been a week since I plugged myself into George Michael (GM). Most of you know that I’ve been on a “pump holiday” since January. ... more
Diabetes Hope Conference - Tuesday, May 21st - May 11 Okay - so here's the deal - this is FREE - it's VIRTUAL (meaning you don't have to pay for a flight / train / bus / gas / yadda yadda yadda). You just have to simply ... more
4th Annual Diabetes Blog Week - Come One - Come All!! - May 10 Well, it's that time of the year again kiddies. Karen Graffeo from Bitter Sweet Diabetes is at the helm again for the blogging event of the year from May 13th to the ... 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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