My pump sites have just not been cooperating lately.  No matter where I put the canula - it ends up hurting.  A lot.  Enough so that I complain about it. 

To give you an idea of what it takes for me to complain - I am a girl who has had external fixators drilled into a bone in my arm for eight weeks and who refused pain killers (other than Tylenol) after two days.  I'm not a sissy.  Not at all.  So these sites are causing me more than a little bit of turmoil.

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Over the weekend, after walking the dog, Olivia came to me to show me her pump site. It was oozing blood and had soaked the sticky stuff as well as a good-sized spot on her shirt. She said it was really hurting her and would I help her take it off and put in a new one?

In the middle of a small family party, we went up to her room to fix her up. I pulled the site out and blood gushed everywhere; on to her sheets, her shorts, it was a mess. Could I find gauze? Nope. So I grabbed cotton balls. Word to the wise: cotton balls stick to blood. A lot. And they pull apart and make a big mess.

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Olivia moved her site to her belly and her numbers have been much better. So thighs are definitely out.

We talked about it the other night - she's sick of using her belly. It looks awful, full of bumps and keloids and just generally mangled. I'm going to call her CDE at Joslin to see if we can start using her arms again. We're also going to start moving her sites out more towards her sides, in an effort to get around to her backside. Not her butt, because she says that really hurts, especially when she's sleeping, but in that area above the belt, where she still has some padding.

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Olivia is starting to look like a pin cushion. Her stomach is a mass of red marks, scars and bumps. It's not pretty. She refuses to wear a bikini or half shirt because of how her stomach looks (not that this bothers me, mind you!).

The problem we're currently having is that she's got so much scar tissue built up that she's running out of real estate for her sites. She currently uses her arms, her stomach and her lower back.

I'm sure some of you will suggest thigh sites, but she has really bad luck with those. Thigh sites generally make her rollercoaster - she'll be in the 400s in the afternoon and by dinner, be in the 60s. It's bizarre. I've tracked it and she's not over-bolusing or over eating. I think it's an absorption thing. She's got meaty thighs (she can thank me for that one). I don't know if that makes a difference or not; regardless, thigh sites just don't do it.
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Yesterday I had to go up to the school because the nurse called to say that Olivia had pulled out her site. On an overhead projector. I have no idea how she did it (and forgot to ask when she got home), but she did. Off I trotted, with a new site, the Sil-serter and a back up reservoir in hand.

When I got to the school, I had to cool my heels in the nurse's office waiting room. When I was a kid (no, it's not the up hill, both ways in the snow barefoot line, so hush), the nurse's office was a desk and a cot. It was dim and cool in there, a great place to lie down when you were feeling poorly or *ahem* hadn't studied for a test. I remember lying there, tracing a pattern in the ancient wallpaper and trying not to freak out over the crucifix hung over the head of the bed. (READ MORE)