I am not sure if I am the only pumper who this happens to, I would assume not, but just curious if you all experience this. I change my infusion set about every 3 days sometimes every 2 and I always have scar tissue from the old sites. My stomach looks like a freakin land mine. I use the Sillouette Infusion set which is at a 45 degree angle, when I used to use the Quickset I don’t remember this happening. Does this happen to everyone, or am I a freak?
Same happens to me. I used the Silhouette for years. Sometime it would leave a visible scar and sometimes not. I am now using quickset and I also noticed less scar tissue.
My husband thinks that the explanation is simple. As he puts it, “the Silhouette needle is HUGE. Of course it scars!”
(He hates seeing the Silhouette. Even safely in its packaging!)
Well, I use the abdomen only, and sure, it doesn’t look as nice as it would if I didn’t put infusion sets in it all the time but it is the only place I get consistent and predictable absorption. It doesn’t look really bad, but one would not have to look very hard to see the sites. I also inject Symlin there when I can’t stick myself in the ■■■ with the pen (like in a restaurant or such), so that leaves a tiny spot sometimes, but those clear up quickly, much more so than an infusion site.
I have used the Quickset and the Sil (I use the Sil now) and I didn’t notice any appreciable difference. One thing that did make a difference was switching to Apidra from Humalog. Much less site irritation and redness.
I use Sil’s I have tiny marks where the needle goes in, however, when I remove a site, I take a dab of neosporin plus pain relief, cover it with one of those hypoallergenic circular bandaids, I pull it off later on during the day and I don’t have a mark.
I tried quicksets and they would never stay in place for me.
thank you so much, Jacqueline, for bringing up this topic again. You are not a freak! This is my biggest problem. Like many of you, I used the ab for a good 15 years or so with no problems. Now I’m going everywhere I can with the help of an inserter and my husband, and I’m lucky if I can get one to last for 2 days. Please try some new spots, like your thighs, hip area, back. If you can’t reach back there, get your husband to help you. Make sure you don’t go within a square inch of a site in a 30 day period. Your stomach needs a rest.
I mostly use the upper thighs with the Sillouette and there is always a red pimple-like spot when I take out the infusion set. It begins to fade after a couple of days in most cases. I use the CGM in the abdomen, and that also leaves a little red spot. The one good thing about the spots, in both cases, is that they help me to know exactly where not to put the next infusion site/CGM.