Hi my son had rising blood sugars and a bloody canula yesterday afternoon, we changed his pod. My husband and jacob has placed it on his arm canula facing his elbow. I thought i had read here that canula to the shoulder as much more successful. He is ussually a belly guy with greater success there than other sites but be really needs to rotate. Any ideas on leg success rates, we had tried it over the summer with moderate success but some occlusions, any suggested placement/ positioning ideas for the legs? thanks in advance for you insites!
We are also getting ready to try legs for the first time soon! Looking forward to everyone's tips. We have been doing belly and bottom mostly so far but also in need of rotation. arms too painful for my 68 lb 11 year old with very little body fat. Her upper thigh has at LEAST as much fat to pinch as her abdomen so it should be ok, right?
jacob did legs this summer upper thigh i think the suggestion was a pinch but not too big, somewhat painful insertion but was nice for under the bathingsuit for my self concious boy, we had a canula kink once or twice in this location too i think because of more muscle and moving around in bed but overall it wasn't too bad, he is pretty lean too, my son does not love arms either, does your daughter wear her pod in the back pocket area or the low back, jacob hasnt wanted to try that one either can't wait for the new smaller ones to come out! good luck, amy
My son tried his leg for the first time last week. He had good numbers and liked the site okay until time for basketball practice. He came home with blood on the tape and around the cannula. He never got an occlusion though. Any tips for keeping the pod more stable in this area?
We normally use the area just below his waistband (upper cheek) for his pods. We have had good success here, but he had some redness and dry skin in this area so we were looking for alternatives.
He doesn't want to use his arms. He is afraid the pods will move around too much. He has very little body fat so that is an issue.
I, too, welcome any suggestions or tips! Thanks.
Teddy uses the cannula both up and down on the arms... both seem about the same.... finally the arms have recovered enough to use again... He hasn't gotten brave enough for a leg yet.
my son had some bleeding issues with his legs he reminded me this morning. i think with running it just gets boped around so much, you could try putting some tape over it or an ace bandage. we also just bought jacob a band for life ( bands made by a mom of an omnipoder) it fits over his omnipod on his arm, she has a webside bandsforlife.com i think, they may have some leg size. i have been after jacob to try the upper cheek area or low back and he is very resistent, is it comfortable sitting and sleeping in that position? hang in there and happy thanksgiving! amy
Gonna go look at that website!! thanks!!
My 9 year old uses mostly his lower back and upper butt. He has tried arm and stomach, but thinks the lower back is the most comfortable in most situations. He's skinny and muscular so abs and thigh have never worked for us. A couple of suggestions if you decide to try lower back or butt. When using the lower back, I always place the pod when he's wearing his normal pants so that we can be sure his waistband won't interfere with the pod. Also, I try to place the pod so that the cannula will insert near his "love handles" but not so far to the side that the pod is curving around his side. He said that makes sleeping on his side uncomfortable and we've had the adhesive tear near the cannula from too much strain when we've done that. With the butt, same thing about placement...we make sure it's below the waistband but above where he sits. It's easiest to place it while he's sitting down and them have him stand for insertion. Again, with the butt, you don't want to get too close to the side so that sleeping is uncomfortable. Good luck!
Peyton puts his pod sort of in the natural curve of his back. He usually puts it a little below his waistband. He is an athletic shorts/pants kind of guy and anchors his pod between the waistband of his underwear and the waistband of his shorts/pants. If you can visualize that...LOL!
Try taping some used pods to his behind to see where would be a comfortable spot to use. We have done that several times.
Happy Thanksgiving!
My son likes to use his upper butt the most. He wears the really strong compression pants (like football or baseball) when playing hockey to help stabilize the pod and a lighter compression underwear for school. They stay on well that way without a lot of taping or wrapping that he has to do on arms.
We have not had much luck with belly and his arms tend to occlude more often. The last arm he tried occluded at the ariport just prior to boarding this Thanksgiving. He had done the arm specifically so that it would be easier to show to security but I guess all of the heavy lifting used to many arm muscles! Then the backup pod didn't beep -I was a little tense to say the least.
i can't believe your rotten luck! how does your son handle these incidents? not being home he probably had to keep himself under control! my son gets pretty upset with pod errors but gets over it pretty easily too he doesn't want to try another pump so we are sticking to it for now. i may have him convinced to try the low back site, glad you have had good luck with it and i hope the rest of your holiday was less eventful! thanks for the info, amy
My son has a pretty calm personality which helps and he can now trade out a pod in just a few minutes. It's still frustrating, of course, and always happens at the worst possible moment - so far at the Dallas Stars Game, first day of school which made him late to pickup his scedule, etc.
But, we laugh in our family that if his older brother with ADD was the one that had diabetes, we would really be in trouble! (We would be on our 12th PDM by now due to losing them and he would never have the patience for this disease.)
funny that you say that, jacob is very organized and responsible and a good eater, we really have not changed the way we eat since diag. except they never used to have a bedtime snack, my younger son is less organized and not the best eater, never finishes dinner ect. so yes the one more able to cope with it got dealt the cards he could handle so to speak, glad your family has a good sense of humer about things, it helps! thanks for sharing!