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February 10th, 2012
Category:
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There's a Band Aid on my tummy. A small, flexible-fabric Band Aid.

 

Underneath is neosporin, which is covering up my last pump site. I've never used neosporin -- or a Band Aid -- after pulling a site.

 

That site had been itchy for about a day. I knew it was (over)due for a change, but I had so little insulin in my pump that I didn't want to do two "site changes" back to back.

 

I primed my pump this morning and was preparing to quick-sert the set when I glanced at my soon-to-be-old site. It looked like my skin had been sucked up into the set. I usually leave the old set in for several hours, but this one I quickly ripped out.

 

There was blood. And insulin. No much blood, but more than the pin drop I've seen in the past. And the site was red and generally not looking very pretty. I wiped and wiped the blood away and it kept coming. And then it continued to itch.

 

Throughout the day I noticed that I was itching, rather unconsciously. I looked closely toward the end of the day and it didn't look much better than it had this morning. In fact, there was a tiny scab. And lots of redness. Oh crap, I hope I'm not getting an infection, I thought.

 

That's where the neosporin comes in. And the Band Aid.

 

This, friends, is what happens when you leave a site in for too long. I was stretching my supplies over the summer when I didn't have insurance and I got into a rather bad habit of leaving my sites in for five to seven days. My numbers remained good so why shouldn't I, right?

 

This is why. And scars. And scar tissue. I'm back to changing every three days no matter what.




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Brenda Bell
Brenda BellBrenda was diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Type 2 diabetes in July 2002. After a rocky start, her diabetes has been diet-controlled since January 2004 and she hopes to keep it that way for as long as possible. (Read More)
Nicole Purcell
Nicole PurcellNicole Purcell lists having type 1 diabetes last when she's asked to provide information about herself - because that's where it belongs.

(Read More)
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