Medtronic has always replaced my bad infusion sets. I get mine from a durabe medical supply. Not only do they replace them, they always send two.
Also, I put just enough insulin in a reservior to last 3 days and then change the whole thing out. I do have a pile of tubing. I keep wondering what I’m going to do with them.
I also have a bunch of enlite overtape I can’t use. I would like to send them to someone that can use them.
Interesting. I’ll see what Animas says next time I have a site that doesn’t work.
Most cartridges last me 2-3 infusion sets, so as long as I don’t need to change a set early, I’m fine. It’s when I end up using 2-3 sets in one day that I get piles of tubing.
the question was for Aaron.
Aaron10 wrote “give gifts” on his post today. I don’t know what it means
I didn’t want to come right out and say share my supply of sensors I thought I could nod and wink and avoid a harmful statement. But we sometimes have to band together as a community and help each other. Why just the other day someone stole the bag from the pharmacy from my car with nothing but insulin in it. And I can’t buy more. But friends are willing to share their sleight overstock.
G-d bless you!
Now I understand
Karen
i don’t know what this means either. Aaron, please explain.
Jen,
have you ever tried using a different infusion set that you are not “allergic” to? are you able to do that w/ your pump? i have very sensitive skin and find myself scratching the adhesive tape from time to time. i am not truly allergic to the tape, but i do understand where your are coming from. which part are you “allergic” to?
maybe you can try this out. keep me posted; i am curious about your situation.
[quote]Jen,
have you ever tried using a different infusion set that you are
not “allergic” to? are you able to do that w/ your pump? i have very
sensitive skin and find myself scratching the adhesive tape from time to
time. i am not truly allergic to the tape, but i do understand where
your are coming from. which part are you “allergic” to[/quote]
I’m allergic to the plastic cannula that goes under the skin, not the tape. For about two years I tried several different kinds of infusion sets, such as Comforts, Insets, and Contact-Detach (metal sets), and even tried switching from Humalog to Apidra insulin. With the plastic sets, they would start itching right at the insertion point within about 12 hours of insertion, and by 24-48 hours I would get a big welt at the infusion site (right at the point where the cannula entered my skin) and often hives, redness, warmth under the tape and sometimes spreading beyond the tape. At that point the site would “die” and I’d end up going extremely high and getting ketones. The site would often be incredibly itchy as I wore it, so it was usually a relief to remove it and just scratch, and the itching and redness and hives would continue for days afterward. By the time I switched permanently to metal sets, I was changing my site every 24 hours and still had some sites that I’d react to so much that they stopped working.
Sometimes, I do react to the adhesive, especially if it’s on an area of my skin that’s being rubbed. This can be extremely uncomfortable (sometimes my skin feels like it’s been burned), but doesn’t seem to affect insulin delivery. Last week I had to rip the tape off the second “patch” on the Contact-Detach because it had been rubbed and my skin was “burned” and there was a welt underneath that took a day or two to fade. Luckily, this usually happens with the second adhesive patch and not the one that holds the needle in place. I find the tape on that one (the one that holds the needle in place) barely sticks to my skin, so I think there must be different glues on each one. I often have to cover it with a second patch of tape so that it doesn’t get pulled out when I twist the wrong way. I react at times to the needle on the metal sets, too, but I think this is probably because I’m allergic to nickel and the stainless steel sets apparently contain about 10% nickel. The reaction is nowhere near as bad as what I got from the plastic sets, and by taking an antihistamine every day (which I have to do anyway for year-round allergies) and making sure I change the site every 24-48 hours (or sooner if it’s getting irritated) things are good. I do still occasionally have a site that “dies” and I get high blood sugar and ketones, which isn’t supposed to be able to happen with metal sets.
I have a lot of allergy issues, so I don’t think my experience is average. I have multiple food allergies (some potentially life-threatening), an allergic condition called eosinophilic esophagitis, asthma, eczema, seasonal and environmental allergies, and allergies to nickel and infusion sets and some adhesives and other random things. For a while, I was seriously considering giving up pumping because it was having such a negative impact on my control, but fortunately metal sets saved the day. Lately, I’ve been struggling with the metal sets hurting a lot upon insertion and later, and I’m about ready to order some Insets and give plastic sets another try, but I’d really like to know why the metal sets hurt so much (it’s definitely not a leanness issue!).
So I understand struggles with diabetes equipment. :(
Jen, i know that you say that you are allergic to the plastic sets, but as sensitive as i am, i had trouble w/ the metal sets ( too painful; i couldn’t even walk around w/out the pain). now i use the Metronic Silhouette infusion sets and although they are plastic, i have never had a problem with them. i understand your dilemma, as i feel sometimes that i want to throw my Dexcom into the ocean, but have you put much thought of going back to MDIs? i know that you mentioned that in your post, but i was just curious if it was worthwhile for you to continue doing something that is causing you so much aggravation and pain? please let me know your thoughts on this
Jen,
i find it curious that you have few issues with your sensor cgm but have so much difficulty w/ your infusion sets (canulas). why do you think this is happening?
just curious. (perhaps a different material going under your skin?)
Daisy Mae
Unfortunately, the Comforts (which are the same as the Medtronic Silhouettes) were the worst offenders. It’s why I’m going to try Insets instead. Fortunately, the metal sets don’t hurt quite that much for me. I did have one yesterday that hurt when I moved in certain ways, and most of them hurt if pressed on and during insertion, but otherwise I’m able to wear them for the 24-48 hours they are recommended for.
I have thought about MDI, but I did MDI for a few years before I began pumping, and I was never able to make it work for me. Even getting up every morning at 3:00 AM to dose rapid insulin so that I wouldn’t wake up high, and having to eat every day at lunch (on time) so that I wouldn’t go low, and splitting my Lantus into two doses, wasn’t enough to get my A1c into target range. The nurse who did my pump training said that I was the first person she’d encountered who said I went on the pump for better control rather than convenience. Maybe things would be different with the Dexcom (thankfully I don’t react to whatever the sensor is made of—Dexcom let me try it out for a month before buying!). I definitely need more than one basal rate per day, and I frequently use temporary basal rates on my pump, and being able to adjust pump settings rapidly to respond to monthly hormones is vital for my control, so I fear that going back to MDI would take away this flexibility.
My last three A1c results have been 6.1, 6.0, and (yesterday) 6.2. I find it amazing when I think that, over the previous 23 years of diabetes, I had less than ten A1c results below 7.0 and only two below 6.5 (both were 6.4, and caused by many lows), and the three A1c results I’ve had since getting the Dexcom had been so incredible. The combination of pump and CGM I’m using right now is working very well in terms of diabetes control. If the metal sets got to the point where I reacted as badly to them as I did to the plastic sets, and where they stopped absorbing insulin and I had severe highs, then I’d look more seriously at going back to MDI.
i understand how the pump allows for better control over monthly hormone changes as well as other features on the pump, as you mentioned (like temp basals, etc) but someone on TuD (i think maybe it was Phoenixbound, but may be wrong) uses a combo of long lasting insulin (or NPH) and R and has found very good control. obviously, i am not a doctor, or an endo for that matter, but have you ever considered experimenting w/ different insulins to see how you respond? awaking in the middle of the night sounds miserable to me. if i don’t get my regular sleep all my BGs are off the next day and my entire body feels like i have the flu.
like you, even though i am on the pump, and my latest A1c was 6.4, i eat at the same time of day, every day. i don’t ever skip meals, even if i am not hungry; i snack during intervals, and correct when necessary. i am very insulin resistant, but have found ways around that problem.
i used to be on MDIs, but as soon as i got my Dexcom, my entire D life changed. i was able to see trends, i was able to see how i reacted to certain foods, etc. and then i was able to make corrections w/ my insulin; now i know that that is easier said than done, and that i did this while using my pump, i know of so many people who do have good A1cs which are even better than mine who still prefer MDIs.
perhaps you can start a post regarding this situation of yours and you will get valuable information from other members who are having similar problems as yourself.
please stay in touch. i am very interested in your situation and your thoughts about what you might consider doing.
If you search TuD for “infusion set allergies” or similar, I think you’ll find a lot of threads that I started about my issues. I actually consider them to be “solved” now, with the metal sets, this recent issue aside. When I was considering going back to MDI was when I was still using plastic sets and having to change them every 24 hours (or more often) and still having horrible site reactions and sites that “died” resulting in high blood sugar and ketones on a regular basis (every few days, I think).
I’m hoping that if I go to plastic sets for a while (I’m thinking a month, depending on how I react), I’ll remember how horrible it was and the metal sets won’t seem so bad! Or, maybe my body has forgotten the allergy and I’ll be able to use them from now on. I think it’s mostly a metnal “tiredness” with the metal sets I’m dealing with now, which probably enhances any pain or discomfort they cause. Going back to MDI would be an absolute worst-case solution for me. I went on a pump vacation about two years ago, and while this was before the Dexcom, the results were not good at all. I intended to be off my pump for two weeks, and I only lasted five days. I just couldn’t take swinging from 2 mmol/L to 20 mmol/L and back again every day (which is exactly what used to happen before I went on the pump).
I know there are lots of people who are able to achieve great A1c results on MDI, but I feel like they are mostly people who’s body needs a flat basal rate, don’t have a strong dawn phenomenon, don’t have issues with tiny changes in food/activity/schedule/stress having huge effects on their blood sugar, and who aren’t dealing with monthly hormones. If there is anyone who is on MDI and deals with all these things and has an A1c below 6.5, I’d be interested to hear how you do it!
While the Dexcom has been absolutely life-changing for me as well, being able to respond to the trends instantly and precisely has been just as important (if not more so) than being aware of them in teh first place.
Dexcom claims 20% accuracy or 20 points for under reading of 100. My sensors are almost always OFF (10% to 20+%) for the 1st couple days. Then when they become very accurate after half a week, many of my sensors end up failing. I don’t replace until the 3 hours of ??? or many gaps that make it unusable for its intended purpose.
I too am very thin and can only wear the sensors at 4 locations at the small ‘bicycle tires’ at and above my navel, 2 other potential locations get disrupted by my waistband. You??
becoming very accurate after “half a week” isn’t what I’d call a great endorsement of Dexcom, yet there are several people on this forum that sing the praises of Dexcom as if it’s super-accurate. I don’t get it. Each time I bring up to them that there are LOTS of complaints about the Dexcom, especially first-day inaccuracies, they gloss over that as if it’s nothing. To get just a few “good days” from a sensor that is supposed to work for just a week, seems to me, to be a grossly defective product. But maybe that’s just me. As far as what I use (Enlite), some of them are great, even on day one, and many others are so bad I get refunds. I’m seriously considering not buying any more after we run out (my wife also uses them) of our little “stash”. it’s a love/hate relationship for me. I miss not having one installed, am grateful when one works well, and get pissed off to no end, when/if the sensor “lies” to me after having been accurate for much of a day and I end up sky-high as a result (because I tend not to poke my fingers much for a sensor that has up to that point, been doing a stellar job of giving only accurate numbers)
Sound like both kinds are not perfect and I guess that’s why I don’t get to upset when the numbers don’t match perfectly. I don’t use my CGM for dosing. I use it for trends. I use it to help find that perfect basal that is always changing. I use it to see if I’ heading up or down.
I use to change my sensor every 7 days as recommended. I have pretty good insurance. But have started stretching it out. Got 13 days out of last one. Changed because numbers were way off. Only 1 ??? In the past 24 hours but last numbers was off by over 100 points. Time to go😩
So I guess for me my little sensor is okay with me if it stays within 20 points and shows me trends. I also don’t notice a big difference in numbers whether it’s first day or start of second week.
when I have a bad sensor, it can’t be used for trends.
I have similar experience (with Dex) and find it’s generally within about 10%, most always within 20%, especially when trends are mostly stable and if you allow for the lag time between interstitial glucose v. fingerstick values. Things like hard exercise can produce faster bg rates of change, so clearly those times may have bigger differences. I’m a big fan of the trend data the cgm provides and when a sensor starts to go it seems pretty obvious – bigger differences, slower to get back on track, ??? etc. With uncommon exceptions I get at least a week from a sensor, usually longer.
I rarely ever see that degree of inaccuracy the first week, and it is consistently even better the second and usually the third week. As I’ve said earlier, the first 8-12 hours sometimes are off – and even then usually only to the edges of that +/-20% level. i think that @JJM1 mistyped and meant “hen when they become very inaccurate after half a week,” which makes more sense. I, on the other hand, rarely let it go more than a half a day of inaccurate readings, or at more two periods of ???s of nearly any length