This is my first summer with a pump. I disconnect from my medtronic minimed pump when I go swimming for only an hour at a time. The first time I went swimming I just put the cap on. When I got out the site was no longer sticky. My husband is a nursing student and in one of his kits he had a tegaderm film. Which is the covering that they put on for an IV and many other things. These things are like gold this summer in my house. I love them. They are rectangular and clear and fit perfectly over my site. No water in and my site is still stuck to my body when I get out. Just wanted to pass this information along to someone else that might be looking for something to put on their site for swimming!
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I’ve had lots of trouble keeping sites on my son when I bathe him. Either I have to skip his bath on nights that he’s not due for a site change, or I have to keep the bath very very short (no fun for him, when he wants to play with his toys in the water). This helps me to keep the kid clean without losing a site so it’s a great help!
I’ve had similar problems and I found out about Mastisol (skin adhesive) comes in a 2 oz bottle use a q-tip to apply let it dry 30 sec or so and inset site and cover with tagadrem or IV300. Paint the whole are of inset and tagedrem. It is sticky and you can get detachol to remove the Mastisol. It has been hot and humid in the south and I’ve been swinging - holds fine.
The 2 oz bottle sells for $27-$40 I think it may last 2 to 3 years.
Wish I’d hear of it before
With the tagaderm so you can disconnect at will after applying the site just cute a small hole in the middle of the tagaderm the size of the the little disconnect area but where the tagaderm still covers the sticky area around the site and you are good to go I love tagaderms they are a godsend on my ambulance tell your husband he will find many uses for them then just iv sites and infusion sites and they really do a lot for us pumpers for our infusion sites especially in the summers like I workout I love to run so it keeps it on there sweat and all and it is great to hold on my CGM
I use Tegaderm to cover my CGM, it stays stuck and doesn’t let any water in. I’ve never used it over my pump infusion set, but I’ve never had problems with the adhesive. Tegaderm is really expensive (my wife works at a hospital and brings them home for me); I wonder if applying IV prep prior to putting in the your infusion set would do the trick, probably cheaper too.
It does help with showers and baths but with swimming for long periods and the clorine in the pools it tends too not work as well in my experince I know many other pumpers have had this issue as well. with the tagaderms my insurance pays for them just like my pump supplies through my dme supply company. I don’t know about other insurance companies. the iv 3000’s were too small to me for for my cgm so i requested the tagaderms and they said okay
I stay in the pool for an hour and then test if I am running high I reconnect. I put the tegaderm over the entire site after I put the cap on my site. I had problems before discovering tegaderms with my site coming completly off. I love them! I ran out of them the other day and just used clear bandage tape on the edge of my site and that worked to but I would rather have a tegaderm.