Do the fat deposits created by injecting go away? Like do they honestly? I have tried to move my insulin around and lose weight to make them go away but they are so hard, and after 14 years they are still here. I hate them, and tried to starve myself once to make them go away and it didn't work. (eating regularly now).
Nope :( Had some docs claim crushing them and trying to break them up works...hasn't yet. Makes nice bruises though. Another doc completely dismissed it, and basically said short of surgery and cutting them out I was stuck with them. Serves me right for overly using my stomach area through my teens :(
Aww man :( Ohhh that sounds painful! Crushing them. Aw man :( okay thanks!
From everything I've seen, fat deposits should reduce over a period of time, typically months. Scar tissue on the other hand is more problematic. Local injection of insulin in the same spot tends to promote the deposit of fat (insulin increases uptake of fat as well as glucose). But our bodies are constantly mobilizing fat for energy and then redepositing it. So if you rotate your sites or let the area go free of injections for a few months you should see improvement.
Scar tissue on the other hand is more problematic. It is a harder buildup, fat deposits are typically soft. In either case, the biggest way of dealing with both fat deposits and scar tissue is to rotate religiously and giving problem areas a period of months or longer to heal.
Below is a picture of fat deposits, also called lipohypertrophy.
The issue with lipo's is once formed, while it maybe fat, it has a solidity of cellulite, and as the doc said, it's going nowhere short of surgery. Even extensive attempts to rupture them doesn't help. Months don't do nothing, a decade of ignoring the area does nothing to it. Once there, it stays. Rotating sites is the way to avoid getting them forming, but once formed sadly no easy fix :(
just curious, how many long standing type 1's really have stomachs that look like this?
I don't have this. I was running into scar tissue problems several years ago, and that's actually what led me to TuDiabetes. now I rotate very carefully, and am using more sites on my backside. Here are some good discussions on the subject:
https://forum.tudiabetes.org/topics/has-anyone-experienced-lipotrophy
https://forum.tudiabetes.org/topics/583967:Topic:218784 (Injection sites and fat lumps)
https://forum.tudiabetes.org/topics/very-bad-scar-tissue-may (Richard157 has had type1 about 65 years)
https://forum.tudiabetes.org/topics/i-m-getting-super-lumpy
Quiet a few of us it would seem from discussing how to get rid of them with my specialists :(
Im also very afraid of getting scar tissues. I have fat deposits on my arms n stomach while as fas as thighs are concerned I highly suspect scar tissues. After years of injection I developed all this. Same story, not different. 2 months ago I transited to pump but learnt pump is also no exception to lypo n scar tissues as well. Have to rotate smartly.
you might want to keep a close account of where you are putting your sites, and make sure you don't go anywhere near a site in 30 days (or more)
https://forum.tudiabetes.org/topics/do-you-have-a-system-to-track
(for a while, I kept a notebook)
Thanks.
I'm not sure whether my lower abdomen looks like the first picture.
I really hate this....
Yes, I hate them too. I developed when I was a kid on my arms and it looked terrible so I stopped using arms for years, rotated sited on my abdomen and legs. Cannot say fat is gone from arms but it seemingly reduced in size, but this is after 4-5 years of not using arm as insulin site. So I doubt time is a factor, if it is the process is very very slow. Have now the similar issue with stomach, I do crunches like crazy and nope nothing helps. :(
On a positive note though, I do not have any fat deposits on my legs, doctor said since legs have the most intense blood flow fat deposit is much harder to form, so you might consider using legs.
Also I now switched to pump and use stomach area a lot, since my doctor does not recommend placing it on my leg, so not sure what will that do. I might get a lipoplasty if nothing is going to help within next months...
I've lost mine after 12 years on the pump. When I was still taking multiple daily injections, I refused to move my injections around and built up horrible lumps on my lower belly. I've only just started using my belly in the past two years and don't seem to have any problems any more.
I have two lumps on the outside of my thighs, lipohypertrophy I was told.. One was from just one painful injection in my thigh when my pump when my infusion set ripped during a hiking trip. My bg was climbing very High and I chose to inject a lot of insulin at once. ( I should have used two sites). The needle bruised me and I was left with a computer mouse sized lump. It has never gone away after 7 years. Plastic surgeon said he could cut it out, or suck it out maybe with liposuction, but unfortunately, the only "cure" is surgical.. The more weight lose, the more apparent they are.. but at my age and with my broken ankle, those lumpy-bumpies are MUCH less of a concern.. lol.
Bsiley, you are young and sound so unhappy with the scar tissue deposits. You may want to seek out an experienced cosmetic surgeon, if you have the time, money( insurance will most likely not pay), and the strong desire to rid yourself of them.
God bless
Mine come and go. I have a friend and his never went away. He NEVER rotated his injections. I was always told to rotate or give a spot a break for awhile and they will start to break down. Sometimes they do...sometimes they takes months and months to go away.
Instead of belly try back legs and arms for awhile. Give your stomach a year break!
I really hope I don’t get these. I rotate each injection around my abdomen and sides (one time it might be to the right of my belly button, then the left, then upper right, upper left, lower right, left side…etc. Is this what everyone else is referring to when you say “rotate”? That was how I understood it so that’s what I’ve been doing. Hope I got this right. I don’t use my legs. I only did once and BOY, DID IT EVERY HURT! I don’t have very much flesh to pinch up on my legs and I think I got right into the muscle. I will NEVER do that again! My knees almost gave out and I bruised almost instantly.
You ideally should rotate different body parts in addition to areas within a particular body part. Is there a specific reason you use your abdomen exclusively?
Honestly, I didn’t think there were any other options than abdomen or leg. My old doc said only the abdomen (I switched doctors two weeks ago because I couldn’t get the other doc to accept my using the I:C ratio instead of the friggin’ sliding scale.). I learned about the thigh/leg from on here and now the arm too. Any other good places?