Ok guys, maybe you can give me some insight on this situation because my son's Endo has "no idea what could cause that!"
Last week my wife noticed a circular indentation on my sons stomach, about the size and area of what his inset would be. He uses the Medtronic soft-set's and self-inserts because of his low body fat levels and the pain involved with the soft-serter.
Today was his quarterly visit with his Endo. When my wife asked him what could cause it, he had no idea. He did say that we should look for changes. My wife asked my son if there was any pain, tingling, numbness, etc., in front of the doctor mind you as the doctor sat there and said nothing! My son didn't mention anything out of the normal so this is the reason for this posting.
When we first started with the pump, he would use his upper thigh until we noticed a similar thing happen with the indentation on his leg. When we stopped using the leg, the indentation eventually went away.
We think that possibly the insulin is either dissolving the small level of fat cells where it collects before being aborbed into his blood. Does anyone else have any idea why this could be happening or what could cause it?
Any experience or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Some members have reported these identations too. It is as if the fatty tissue has disappeared locally. Some ideas:
a) it might be an allergic reaction to the catheder. But without symptoms this is unlikely. I still would try a steel catheder just in case.
b) an allergic reaction to the preservatives in the insulin. Again unlikely without other irritations.
c) the dissolving insulin causes a local hypoglycamia because of the constant flow of insulin and preservatives (as you suspect). This might be more stressful to the local cells than having to deal with a local deposit via pen/syringe for some hours. It might be a genetic predisposition that makes you son more prone to this problem.
I get stuff like that sometimes and don't worry about it that much. As long as the sites work (i.e. the BG is ok...), once it's in, I leave it in until the insulin runs out. I'm not sure I've noticed any long term/ permanent stuff. Then again, my belly is hairy and has a 4" scar from hernia surgery so a little ding from a pump doesn't stick out that much.
