This one is kind of gross. I changed my site one afternoon. When I went to bed my BS was 122. I woke up @ 198 and then climbed until about 11 AM when I decided I needed to change the site. When I removed my site there was a tiny drop of blood. I went to wipe the blood away and about a gallon (exaggerating) of blood and insulin began to pour out. This has happened at one other site on the other side of my abdomen as well. Has anyone else experienced this or have a reason as to the cause?
It's called a "Gusher". Nothing to worry about.It happens to everyone sooner or later. Best to happen when your sitting there in your undies instead of a good pair of pants.
oh, i had that too. my most traumatizing one was at age 10, when i was on a dinner with family, cannula hurt, so mom accompanied me to the bathroom where the surprise happened.
that event traumatized me kinda, i can not use cannulas that are put in with an inserter anymore bc im scared, i use instead the minimed sure-t.
nothing to be worried about other than that.
Haha when the Nurse educator first showed me the inserter I passed out. Now it's all I use..I'll have to check into different sets though.
ouch… there are steel cannulas you can insert by hand, i am a huge fan of them!
Yep, gushers happen. When I have one I grab a tissue because those are always nearby, but then I go for a paper towel as the tissues get soaked quickly. They happen when the canula is inside a blood vessel.
I probably only experience one or two gushers per year. Like Zoe said, it's caused by nicking a fairly large small blood vessel with a cannula upon insertion. When you withdraw the cannula, the blood spurts out. For me, bad BG control almost always accompanies this event.
I used to just sop up the blood with tissue or a paper towel. Hopefully I'm prepared and if I'm not it would get messy and stain clothes. This can be troubling if you're traveling or at work.
Then I read about a technique someone wrote about here. Immediately apply fingertip pressure to the site for a few minutes, maybe more. The blood will coagulate eventually and the event is over with very little blood spilled. At least with this technique, you'll always have everything you need right away, your fingertips.
Don't you feel them when you sleep on them? I like the ones I've got because sleeping on it doesn't bother me. The needle sites were brought up to me but I feel like if I roll over on it in bed it's got to hurt. Or even get messed up which would be worse.
I do not feel the sites at all. as soon as i put them in, i dont feel them anymore, except if i hit a bad place, but that can happen to the other ones as well.
Definitely a gusher. It happens to all of us, both injections and infusion set users. Some are worse than others. All you can do is to apply pressure to the area to get it to stop. You just nicked one of the blood vessels.
Some areas are more prone to them than others, and it varies from person to person. You'll eventually figure out which areas work for you. :)
The steel cannula's can only go in so far, so even if you lay on them they won't go any deeper than the length of the cannula. The outer attachment/adhesive prevents it from going in any further.
In eight years of pumping, I've yet to have a gusher but I'm sure I will now that I'm commenting on this post. When I was still MDI I hit a nerve one time in my arm - back in the day before the nice fine gauge shorty needles. My arm got sore and weak, then went pins and needles feeling for like 15 minutes. Never deterred me from continuing to use my arms. Now testing my BG I've had tons of squirters, where it just sprays as soon as you stick it - there's a couple blood spec trails across the roof of our car and I've gotten my husband a few times.
I've never used my arms..I don't think I ever could...
Arms are great IMO, but not for sites. I know that people do that too, but my tubing is too short for that. However, for pen corrections i always use my arm, it is the most reachable place, sleeve up, needle in, done.
Crazy. Couldn't do it. Maybe it's because my arms are so ripped. :) (They're not)
??? Poke, plunge, pull. Easy peasy. Use my upper arm exclusively on occasions when I have to inject. The most convenient site there is!