Someone told me that he can feel scar tissue by palpating the tissue. True or not true? He says it feels ‘hard’ and he has a chiropractor break it up.
I’ve had 4 PODs die this month - 2 died on insertion from comm failures and 2 appeared to be not delivering insulin effectively (without any audible alarms). Changing the pod out for a new one in a new site, and delivering manual injection all rectified the problem.
I don’t feel anything like he describes as scar tissue.
I usually feel it when my pump site fails.
I have quite a bit of scar tissue that I can feel. It would most likely be described as lipo-hypertrophy.
I feel it when a site gets hard but it fades fast, the scarring that comes from over use is usually tougher and it’s more in the skin than underneath.
I stopped using my belly for over a year and I started wearing compression teeshirts as recommended by my doctor. After 3 months my issues went away. I use my belly sparingly now. But insulin absorption is normal. I was overusing my sites back then
Huh. Thanks for the confirmation. I’d heard of this before.
Good morning all,
Looking for some more clarification on scaring.
Years ago when I was on insulin pens I had a lot of what is described above as Lipo-Hypertrophy. It even showed up on an MRI I had for something else. My PCP was concerned but I was able to explain.
Now with a Tandem pump and Dexcom I’m having issues at the sites from irritation from the cannulas and skin reaction from the adhesives. Is this more likely a scaring issue or something else?
I just started using the Thru-Steel infusion set in hopes of improving absorption and reducing scaring.
Thanks for all comments,
Charlie
I can SEE tons of scars on my stomach from 25 years of pumping but don’t feel anything.
You should ask an actual physician this question if you are concerned! (My BS detector goes off whenever I hear “chiropractor.” They are overstepping here.)
Same. I always say that my stomach looks like a pincushion. I have wondered about scar tissue because some spots definitely do not work as well as others, but I don’t feel anything hard under the skin.
I have some visible scars on my skin too, but I don’t think those scars cause a problem, it’s when you have an allergic reaction or an infection at the site and your body reacts to it and leaves behind a thickening of the skin and underlying fascia. That scar will not absorb insulin as well.
I know I have issues with it because I often get a hard lump after I take out my site. That’s a sure sign you are scarring the underlying tissue. It happens to me often. I know I’m allergic to the adhesive. I try a lot of things to mitigate it, but it’s kind of a chronic thing being better at rotating has helped. Changing sets more often also helps.
If you are not getting lumps but you get surface track marks, you probably are not getting the kind of scarring that causes absorption issues.
In my 45 years as a T1D I have done MDI with syringes then pens, followed by a variety of pumps from Omnipod, Animas and now a Tandem t:slim. At 5’ 10” and 155lb I don’t have much, if any virgin injection spots left. The good news is that bad sites are rare I guess because I rotate sites in a somewhat organized manner……and am probably lucky to have had very few memorable site reactions.
That did change last month when I used a new, unused site on my ‘love-handle’. It was about as far as I could reach. BG’s were crazy high and it was painful when adding insulin (through the t:slim pump) so I switched sites the next day. When I removed the cannula patch there was a circular, concave ‘divot’ centered around the point of entry. First time I have seen that…very weird. Now, a week later, there is no sign of it except a tiny red mark as is typically left by a cannula.
Oh, for real? The Gentleman who told me this fun fact WAS having a lot of allergic reactions.
I didn’t know there was a correlation.
I have a band of hardened “scarred” fat tissue across my abdomen from 45 years of MDI. I can feel it and I have locate my pump infusion sites away from that band or my reaction to boluses is delayed very long and my TDD jumps rapidly.
I’m very dubious that a chiropractor can massage such tissue away. That seems like it’s based on the same myths that the Walton belt vibrators, mechanized exercise belt machines) of the 1950s were.
I had some flaky infusion sites in “virgin” zones until I went back to basics and started a placement by “pinching an inch” where I plan to insert a cannula.
I also use this “map” to track where I have problems:
INFUSION SITE MAP.pdf (306.5 KB)
I don’t have any scar tissue, lumps, or hardened areas after 65 yrs of MDI, but I also don’t react to different types of insulins, and new sensors stick fine to my skin without patches or other substances. I have no idea why.
Like John_P I am also a 5’ 9" and 145-150 lbs male, shorter and slender. When I was on a pump years ago I found the cannula sets did not work well and fail often due to scar tissue. I tried various sets with no luck. The last sets I was on were steel cannula sets, which worked better for me. I have been off the pumps for about 10 years now and if I were to look at going back on I would only consider using the pumps that come with steel cannulas as an option.