Has anyone had this problem: I used the backs of my arms (not too muscular, just the right amount of fatty tissue) for my pod sites for the first 5 months on the pod and had great absorption and blood sugar control. Then, about a month ago my blood sugars just started spiking out of control after meals. My basal insulin seems to be absorbing fine, but when I give a meal bolus (even way in advance of the meal) my blood sugar spikes up over 300 as though I didn’t have any insulin on board at all. Then 4 or 5 hours later I come back down to normal. There’s no pattern to what types of meals this happens for and it doesn’t happen for every meal, but definitely for most and there doesn’t seem to be any way to stop it.
There’s no scar tissue on my upper arms in the same sites that were working for 5 months and then stopped suddenly and it’s not the pod in general because my stomach gets great absorption.
Any ideas? Suggestions? My CDE had only dietary suggestions, but I eat very healthily and haven’t had any lifestyle changes in the last month that would trigger this shift.
LInasay-
I did in fact have the very same thing happen to me about 6 mos ago, it was making me crezy! just made no sense to me at all. I called Insulet and asked for some advice, and they told me this was due to my using the “same site” over and over, which I thought was crezy because I had been rotating sites regularly. (backs of my arms, legs, stomach) They told me the “symptoms” I described could only be explained by my using the same site too often. so…I decided to rotate sites MUCH more heavily, even started using wome new sites (calf, uppoer butt). Since then, I seem to have gotten past the spiikes. enough that my most recent A1C has gotten back to 5.8. Talk to your endo…of course, and Good LUck!
Thanks, Steve. It’s good to know I’m not alone in this. What did you mean exactly by “much more heavily” rotating your sites? I left my arms alone for 3 weeks then tried again and had the same problem still. I guess I need to give even more time between?
I’m a little afraid about some of the other sites like my calf, but I’m willing to try. My stomach just isn’t going to provide enough space all by itself…
I know I was a little to vague when saying I rotated “much more heavily”…what I really meant was just that I was using new locations. I had always been resistant to using my stomach (seemed to absorb much more slowly…that is still the case, buy i just make adjustments to my eating/bolus behavior whenever I place it on my stomach now). I was also resisting using my calf…but, now that I’ve done it a few times I seem to have adjusted nicely (I wouldnt be so apt to use the calf if I were a female, and I am a male)(not obvious by my picture, I know).
This happens to me all the time, I feel that 1 in 3 pods seems to not work and I get little to no absorption without any pump errors. It also seems totally random sometimes one site works and sometimes it doesn’t, even with rotating sites there’s no real consistency, It’s a major frustration and I’m not really sure what to do. I feel the syringe generally penetrates deeper and tends to work better for that reason. I think the cannula just doesn’t go in far enough is part of the problem. I just have to use my CGM and once I notice my glucose levels soaring and not coming down after a bolus I just have to toss the pod and throw on a new one. I heard filling up the pod super slowly can help prevent bubbles which could be part of the problem. Unfortunately it’s not a precise science bit I’m always looking for better technologies and methods of handling this. In general exercise a lot, eat low carb meals, rotate sites to avoid the same site within 2 inches for about 2 weeks and keep your fingers crossed… don’t worry you’re not alone in this!
Cheers,
- Karl
Hey Karl,
Thanks for the show of support! I actually went off of the pump about three months ago and my A1c dropped from 7.8 to 6.4. It had gotten to the point that you describe where I never knew if a pod was going to work or not and there were never any pod errors or blood in the cannula to alert me to a bad site. The last straw was having to pull 4 pods in less than two weeks. My latest theory is that some people’s bodies just don’t like the pump, in particular putting that many units into one site in such a short period of time (150+ units over three days). I may go back to the pump at some point, but for now I’m finding that my control is just so much better with MDI. Good luck with it, though, if you continue!