despite rotating till i am dizzy, do any of you have solutions to avoiding scar tissue?
I’ve been motivated to try some of those harder-to-reach spots that I used to use all the time when I was doing injections. “Love handles” area around the lower back, the backs of my upper arms. More awkward to reach with an infusion set, so I had neglected them after switching to a pump a couple years ago, but after reading what other people were doing here on TUD I decided to make the effort–hopefully giving some of the over-used areas a rest before they get used up.
Another solution I tried was angled infusion sets. The canula stays in the higher layers of the dermis where scar tissue is less likely to form and the needle kind of pushes things out of the way when it goes in, or so it was explained to me. Worked okay, except they seemed to take up more space, so I’d run out of room in each region sooner, and some areas like my upper thighs didn’t work because the canulas, being closer to the surface, were more easily deformed by being pressed by folds in my jeans while sitting. And they were much harder to use in those difficult-to-reach spots because you have to insert 'em by hand, it takes two hands to do it, and I’m not a professional contortionist. This was when I was using a (late, lamented) Snap pump, which was more sensitive (too sensitive!) to occlusions. Now I’m back to my Medtronic again I’m not having so much trouble with standard sets, but I’m trying to expand the locations so as to give all the areas more relief.
although i am in m 50s, i am still child-size and terribly skinny; its difficult for my to find a little meaty area to insert. i use the children’s size pump infusion set, which works really well. its a short introducer needle which is straight. my big problem is that now that i am on the dexcom cgm sensor, i have to rotate, rotate, rotate. but i just run out of room as well as running out of “good” sites. my abdomen has little scar tissue bumps all around my belly button. but i don’t know if they are actually real scar tissues or just left-over reprocutions from previous insertions.
any other suggestions? any are more than welcome!!!
Have you tried your hips area etc.? Even though I have more fat on my stomach than you I am having problems with pain there and maybe it will scar- I’m not sure, but I use, hips and back area and higher up on the stomach, but this one was hurting so much I couldn’t sleep on it last night. Btw, what is the children’s size set? Is it also a smaller needle/cannula? Mine have been 6mm and I feel that is too long for me. My cde said the angled ones are better for very thin people, but I had more pain with that one when I tested one. I will keep trying more until I find something that has 0 pain, and 0 delivery problems, if there is one at this time. My dexcom sites are really bad, larger red, scabby lumps which take weeks to go away… my tummy looks like a war zone and I’m embarrassed to go to the beach etc.
I call angled sets “torture devices”. I’ve no idea how anyone can get used to those things. The old style never would remain perfectly stationary, so my skin would get very sore very quickly–red and swollen and they hurt like heck. I forget the exact name of them–MM sold them. Insulin would leak out of them, they got so loose.
I also can’t wear their newer angled sets, the Silhouettes. Nor did I like angled glucose sensors. If it isn’t going in straight, I’m not interested. 
i’m not so bothered anymore about the silhouette infusion needle. i can pinch up my skin and slide it straight in w/out much of a problem. so far in over 15 years, not one has ever slid out of me. sometimes i will hit a vein and i see the blood immediately, but that is getting more and more rare. someone on TuD gave me some advice on insertion and it really helped. she told me, since i was so thin, that i should just pull up my belly skin and see where there were no blood vessels and then following that rule of thumb, i’ve had relatively few problems. of course, we never really get used to doing this, and to be thoroughly honest, it always hurts, no matter how “fat” or genius we are at it. i still hate pricking my fingers but that doesn’t mean i can’t do it in the dark in the middle of the night. my sensor is an entirely different beast. it is large and b/c i am so thin, it is very hard not to hit a muscle or a blood vessel. i am glad that DEXCOM stands by their products and will replace anything that does not work 100% all the time. i am calling them almost once a week for one reason or another. their reps have told me numerous times that they do indeed have the very same problem w/ their other lean customers. i requested a child-sized sensor, only to learn that they do not exist yet.
wish i could help you more. i am still very new to the cgm (almost 1 yr). good luck w/ your “war zone.”
my needle/canula is straight. it might be the length of a fingernail before it goes in. when i first started pumping, my infusion set was long and angled and it hurt like hell. i couldn’t get it in w/out hitting a muscle as i have no real belly fat and the needle in supposed to be sub-q.
just by coincidence i met a pregnant woman wearing this tiny little canula; i asked her all about it, and w/in a week tat is what i ordered and have been using it since w/out any real problems. it slides right in, it doesn’t come out. my scar tissue is minimal, etc etc…
my big problem, however, is the dexcom sensor. i am still new to it (almost a year). and i have tried rotating and rotating, switching sides w/ my pump, etc. the one time i tried it on my hip area, it KILLED me. it woke me during the night and i had to rip the darn thing right out of me. i must have hit a nerve or something. it must have shifted while i was sleeping. on another occasion i hit a muscle and a blood vessel and blood squirted out from all around the sensor/transmitter and my tummy swelled up all around the area like a rock. it was like i had a marble coming out from inside of me. i called my endo immediately and he told me to alternate ice and heat…it took almost 2 weeks before the area healed. it was all black and blue and swollen. ouch!!!
While Dexcom does not suggest it, I use the back of my upper arms for placement of the dexcomm. I love putting it on my upper arms. There are several videos on YouTube showing how this does.
rick
I’m actually having more trouble with the inset needles now or whatever they’re called when its a stainless steel needle… I want a shorter needle. Dexcom is sometimes painful but it usually goes away quickly, no insulin going through it, however it leaves a larger worse scar and my first one had a huge grape like swelling like what you have. I’m sorry you are having such a hard time with it and the insets… I gave up on it with the older model dexcom after two sensors. I hope someone makes an under the skin, longer lasting smaller sensor soon. @phoenixbound I’m glad you figured out quickly the angled insets weren’t for you 
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