Does anyone do gentle massage or “skin brushing” techniques to prevent scar tissue from forming after removing a pod or infusion site? Are there any other techniques you use (besides site rotation and Ultrasound) to prevent or reduce scar tissue?
I am very petite, but muscular, with very little fat, so I don’t have a lot of places that I can place my pod. I tried the fatest part of my thigh and still nailed muscle recently, owww! Also, my abdomen is off limits from years of injections and low absorption now. I’m having to reuse the same sites on my arms and butt more often than I’d like so I'd like to prevent/reduce any scar tissue as long as I can.
Also, when I was doing MDI, my former doctor told me NEVER to rub an injection site immediately after injecting. Does anyone know why this would be?? I tend to massage a site immediately after removing the pod, which is the same concept...
I don't think any form of massage would help the scar tissue. It mostly builds under the skin and cannot be remedied very easily. Massage could actually worsen the scar tissue at the site, as it would slow the body's ability to do it's normal job of healing.
Rubbing your skin after a shot would change it's absorption rate and damage the site and insulin just inserted. Insulin is a fragile molecule. This is also why you should never shake an insulin vial. Plus result in the same as above in worsening the scaring.
I have been diabetic forever-- OK, only 48 years, but that seems a long time-- and I have found that you cannot prevent scar tissue. I am glad that you know what sites do not absorb well. Just try every new site that you can think of or that others have posted. I would gladly give you some of my fat for your body if we could figure out an easy way to transfer it. Have you tried your lower back? I know that some use that location effectively. I am too old to comfortably reach back that far, but you might want to give it a try. Good luck, and keep surfing!
Jenn, Scott nails it here -- don't rub, massage, jostle, or disturb the puncture in any way other than to keep it sterile.
As Scott mentions, this can make the scarring worse. The reason is, scar tissue forms as part of the healing process where the tissue is damaged -- i.e. cells have been torn apart from each other, some destroyed by being ripped open, etc., all along the path of the cannula.
Rubbing/massaging the area causes more damage in the already damaged area, because there is not 100% mechanical integrity of the tissue right there. While it kind of feels good to rub it (to me at least), I have also noticed sites taking longer to heal.
The best way to reduce scarring is to guard against any infection, and promote healing as fast as possible. I wipe a small dab of neosporin (ointment, not cream) on the site when I remove the pod, for typical sites, to make sure there is no possibility of infection. For a particularly unhappy site, I'll put a spot bandaid on it, but that's rare.
