There's no way around it: I'm almost completely out of real estate on my belly for infusion sets. My lower abdomen is my favorite place for pump sites because they give me such good numbers. If I go too high above my belly button or too far out toward my hips I hit some serious snags.
Most site-change mornings have me searching much too hard for a place that doesn't have a scar or isn't a place I've already tried with disastrous results. While I get OK numbers when I use my hips the sites get too damaged from my clothes for some reason.
This morning came down to it: I had to try something different. I tried to stand as naturally as I could while I searched for a place on my inner thigh that wouldn't get too much static from my clothes and wouldn't interfere with walking.
Site ID'd, I sprung the site in (without pain, amazingly) and then wrestled with where the tubing should go: inside or outside my underwear? I know, TMI, but seriously had to consider the most seamless way to get on with life with tubing in a new place.
That's where my thoughtful consideration ended. I didn't check my sugar for several hours. I know, such a dork! (And such a habit on site-change days...) And when I did check I was so high that I had to retrace what I had eaten (triscuits, cheese, roast beef, milk; nothing too incriminating). Bolus for the high and get on with my day.
The next check -- before dinner -- was solidly in the 300s. Crap, this isn't working, I thought. I'll give it some more time and see if an aggressive bolus brings it down. After dinner my eyes felt like they were on fire and three times their normal size, I was irritable and just overall felt rotten. I laid down and tested, even though it hadn't been that long since dinner: 393 mg/dL. Ugh. I felt paralyzed. I had enough active insulin that my pump didn't recommend a bolus. So I slept.
An hour later I had come down to 293 mg/dL. OK, this is a step in the right direction, but still too high. I bolused for the high and started to feel half-way normal again. Another half an hour or so later I was only down to 227 mg/dL. I had anticipated being lower than that. Now I'm starting to fear an overnight crash.
So I'm waiting. Waiting to see if my body will accept this new infusion site. Waiting to see if I'll have to pull the site in the morning. Waiting to see if I can start a serious rotation on my legs and let my belly heal for a month or so. Waiting to see what, if anything, my walk does for my numbers in the morning. Waiting.
Read Site Shuffle. Read Site Shuffle Revisited.
