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.
It started last week. I put in a new thigh site after a workout and a shower on Monday. Priming the canula stung. That almost never happens, but I didn't really think much of it. Then I woke up at 2 am - with the site stinging badly and my leg twitching. OK. I got up and tried to walk it off, thinking maybe it was some weird late night cramp. Nope. It kept on stinging. When I couldn't get back to sleep, I changed the site to the other thigh. Everything seemed fine.
Flash forward to 7 am. I could feel something wet on my left pajama leg. And I could smell that smell. You know the smell. That bandaid meets play doh insulin smell? Damn it. I had apparently dislodged the site sometime between the late night change and sun up. And it must've gushed, because there was blood and there was insulin. And when I looked at my leg, a big round blue bruise had started forming. On top of that, it felt as if someone had spent a lot of time pinching me right at the site of the canula as I slept.
Time for plan B. I moved completely off of the thighs and onto the back. My next site went in right at the place where my back meets my right hip. Again, the canula started burning as soon as I primed it. And each dose of insulin for the three days the site lasted was torture. Damned if I was going to waste another site, I suffered the bee sting burning every time I needed to bolus. And the constant dull throb which I assume was my basal insulin making its way in never subsided.
The next site, on the other side of my back wasn't a whole lot better. I checked the area around the sites, thinking that the insulin allergy that's plagued me in the past might be flaring up again - but the skin around wasn't anymore enflamed or red than is typical for the skin around a pump site.
I have to admit, there have been a couple of times over the past few days when I've actually teared up as a dose is going in. It has hurt that much.
When I put in my new site this morning, I moved back to my thigh. The sting of priming wasn't as awful as it had been with the last two, but man, my norm is not even realizing I've primed because I just don't feel anything at all.
So what's the deal? Anyone ever have this kind of trouble with one site after another? Do you think it's just me psyching myself out? Could it be the time of year?
Me - and my stinging thigh - would love any suggestions you might have.
Oh, and have I mentioned? Ouch?
