I've gotten into a new routine with the infusion-set rotation. It's still not perfect -- at times a site will be problematic and I'll have to change it out, sometimes only to change it again a few hours later. But at least there's hope: I can now use both arms, as well as at least one side of the abdomen. Maybe after a while the skin on my abdomen will heal at least somewhat.
The problem, it seems, is not just the sort of damage one gets from years of injections/infusions. My abdomen still has extra blood vessels from pregnancy (yes, two and a half years later), and it's also tougher. Sometimes the infusion-set needle just pushes in the skin like a fingertip would. Who knew that would happen? I've talked with lots of medical and pump-manufacturer personnel, and no one has ever heard of this issue or has any suggestion of how to help. I just love being on the cutting edge of medical knowledge (not!). But I've got enough working sites that I don't have to consider the side of my, ah, nursing body parts, as my nurse-practitioner recently suggested, only half-jokingly.
Meanwhile, I am repeatedly jealous as several extended-family members have children with far greater ease that I experienced (three in the past 6 months!). Strangely, several of them have had trouble nursing - which is supposed to happen to only about 5% of women, according to babycenter.com (a great site for expectant parents and new, or not-so-new, parents - mostly for the reality check that comes from other parents' comments below each article). Now, I know my own acquaintances do not make a statistical sample - and these new moms are perhaps older than what's considered average, although not in our part of the world. But it seems odd; I think there's a conspiracy to make new moms feel bad, just as there seems to be one great big conspiracy about making parents feel bad, no matter what they do with their kids. Nurse your kid for 6 months? You gave up too soon; Bad Mommy. Nurse for more than a year? Whoa, Nature Mom! Potty train before age two? you're a pushy mom. After two - what's wrong with you, and your kid? (Yes, we are in the midst of potty training now.)
A silver lining to having diabetes in all this is, I had a good bit of skepticism about all the parenting advice, right from the get-go. I mean, when "What To Expect..." pushes all fruit for breakfast, and no artificial sweetener, ever, what's a diabetic to do? Fortunately, I've learned that my daughter does well on her own schedule, and her dad and I just have to be her cheering squad. Now if only I didn't have to carry her so much!
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Yes, I have had a couple of problems with infusion sets also. Granted, it has only been a couple of times in the 4 1/2 years that I have been using an insulin pump. They were in my abdomen as well. When I pulled the adhesive patch off the cannula was actually bent in a couple of places. I do use the quicksets from minimed with the quickserter. But more often than that I have problems with the adhesive getting stuck to the side of the quickserter. That causes the whole set to get skewed and, well, OUCH!
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