Infusion site change after shower ---> site problems!

Diabetes Technology
1

I posted several weeks ago about having had bad infusion sites several times in a row regardless of where on my body I placed the new set. I had come to the conclusion that it must have been a bad batch of Insets from Animas, but then realized that during that bad week, my routine had been different. I usually shower in the morning and change my infusion set in the evening, but that week I was showering in the evening and THEN inserting the device. Several hours later the area around it would be sore and look a little red, and my insulin wasn’t working properly. When I took the sets out, it would bleed and the area would feel sore and bruised for a few days. So the insulin must have been getting diluted by blood and not being absorbed properly—just sitting under my skin.

This morning right after I took my shower, I realized my blood sugar was high all night and that I missed my set change last night and had been wearing my set for over 3 days! I put a new set in just a few minutes after my shower. My bloodsugars were high all day, finally changed the set at 3:30pm and it was bleeding and now its sore.

I guess if you take a warm shower, the capillaries open up and you’re more prone to bleeding when inserting? Very inconvenient to have to arrange my shower and bath schedule around my site changes! Do any of you suffer from this too? How long after a bath or shower do you usually wait before inserting a new infusion set?

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While I’m sure that everyone is different, I’ll give you my experience along these lines:

First, I use a Tandem pump with Unomedical t:90 insets. When I have a problem, 90% of the time it is due to pulling out an inset when lifting something or having it peel up (and, as a result, come out) due to sweating. I wear my infusion set on my stomach …

I typically changed my infusion sets in the morning immediately after showering. Why? I think that changing after a shower gives me the best chance of getting nice, clean skin that the adhesive will stick to and I like a change in the morning so that I’m awake and alert in case anything goes wrong with a new set. While I make sure that my skin is dry, I probably change my set within 5-10 minutes of exiting the shower. I take “pretty warm” but certainly not real hot or real prolonged showers.

Note: I’m and old duffer … 67 … so maybe my capillary circulation is not the best, but I hardly ever see bleeding and don’t have any known peripheral circulation problems.

Best of luck resolving this …

John