Insulin pump and water parks dont mix

Yesterday I took my kids to Dorney park and Wildwater Kingdom, we decided to do all the water stuff first, I took off my pump and put it in locker while we did water slides and wave pools, checked my sugar and it was fine, so we went on our way. When it was time for lunch I went to reconnect to pump and my infusion set was no longer there, it washed right off, luckily it was still in my bathing suit, just not where I put it, but not floating somewhere in the pool, YUCK, could you imagine if that happened, I am so glad I brought an insulin pen, we did lots of walking so I did not worry about my basal rate. I just bolused when I ate, still ahd a few near lows, I think due to all the walking, so I didnt get hooked back up untill 1130 at night, 10 hour with no pump and I did pretty good, I am just glad I brought the pen, otherwise we would have had to leave, they would NOT have been happy . Well, thats my pump blunder story, please share if you have one.

Worst one for me was walking past a bedroom doorknob and catching the exposed line on it. Yanked it right out.

Ouch! I guess I’ve never been in a water park (I love them) long enough to have had my infusion set come off. Last summer I was using the IV3000 that I had been given when I was using a CGMS. That seemed to make the area in my mind more “water tight”. I didn’t use Skin Prep before hand as well when placing the infusion set in place like Dave mentioned above. I just would disconnect from the pump like you did - and just deal with BG’s via pen needle injections - and did alright.

Now, I do wear an Animas pump tho’ - but in water parks - being flung here and there -not my cuppa tea to worry about banging an expensive gadget up against something.

Been there, done that - except luckily never had the infusion set yanked out. You must have been walking pretty fast to have caused that much of a pull there Bill .

Dave - I could only find IV Prep at my usual place I buy supplies. I had to do abit of a search to find Skin Prep (didn’t know there was an IV Prep AND a Skin Prep - learned something new today ). Where do you buy your supplies from if you don’t mind me asking?

I always use skin-tac, but in this case we were wet for hours, it just came totally unglued and slipped out, it was about 6 inches from where I put it, I’ll know better for next time

I’ve heard horror stories about sets being ripped out. I’m new (3 mos.) to pumping and it’s alredy happened to me. It was not as bad as I imagined…kinda felt tearing off a Band-Aid really fast. I work outdoors mostly and I manage an estate so I do lots of tree/grounds work. My tubing got hooked on a bundle of roofing shingles as I threw it onto a pile. I still don’t know how I got caught up…I’m pretty careful about keeping the tubing tucked away …Only had 1 instance when the adhesive failed and I beleive it was becuse it was warm and damp weather and I was sweating heavily while working…I hope as August approaches I don’t have any issues with adhesion!!

I use mastisol instead of skin prep, also purchased from MM. I sit in the hot tub (I know not a good thing) and I’m still stuck :slight_smile:

They make adhesives just for this. I got mine at a medical care shop and have had no problems since.

My son had alot of problems with his infusion set coming out after he was in the water all day. Now we use
Skin Tac - i think I get it from Mini med or some other online medical supplier. Sometimes I cover it all with
Tegaderm (after cutting a hole in the middle so he can still connect.) and that is very helpful as well. Nancy

we were at the pool again the other day and i used skin tac, still came out, but today I tried your idea with the tegaderm also, it stayed, thanks, now I know how to stop going through infusion sets like tissues,

I actually live about 1 hour and 15 minutes from Dorney. Haven’t been there in several years. We are heading
to Hershey Park next week to meet up with family. it should be a great day.
When my son has gone away from me - like on a class trip - and even though the nurse is there - I always use the tegaderm over the site and it seems to keep it secure . Glad it worked for you. nancy

Last year on vacation at Darien Lake, NY, the same thing happened to me. We got there and it was time for a site change which I did before going out into the park’s water area. I got back to the room and took my suit off to put dry clothes on and my infusion set stayed in my suit. I called Animas right away and was upset. They sent a representative to me with a new infusion set and I filled the syring with insulin and inserted the new set right in the parking lot with the rep. standing there beside me. We got to finish our vacation and I have learned to always carry at least 2 complete sets with me even on local trips. That way, diabetes CAN NOT AND WILL NOT change our family plans or family fun!

I use the OmniPod, and only have had one fall off in the water. They do advise you get out every 30 minutes and check to make sure the adhesive is still on. We can wear our pod in the water…so no disconnect…no tubing to get caught on anything.