CGM and Scar Tissue: What could one expect?

@Michel, pumping does not work well in scar tissue. If the scarring is very bad my pump gives a “No Delivery” alarm, and the BG is very high, It is impossible to see scarring on the skin surface, and I might place a set in a spot where everything seems to be ok. Then I start running high, and it gets worse later that day. I can bolus a couple of units, and the BG keeps rising. The insulin is having very little effect, so I move the set over a couple of inches. I don’t have to use a new set. The Sure-T sets are easy to move around.

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I’m breaking all the rules of etiquette and am replying to myself.

I’m gone back to meal injections for lunch and dinner for the last few months. I typically injected in my thighs during my MDI during 2006-2014. I favored my right thigh since I am right handed. Gary Scheiner figured I’d probably developed scar tissue there. I never injected anywhere that obviously had been recently injected into, but I guess that wasn’t good enough rotation.

SOooo…doing thigh injections again. I follow a track pattern up and down my left thigh and then switch to my right thigh. My old preferred area on my right thigh feels very different than my other areas when injecting now…which I think means scar tissue. It feels like the pen needle is trying to get through gristle. It’ll go in a mm…then get stuck…then pop through another mm…then get stuck…etc. There were three levels of gristle on my lunch injection just now. I did the whole flex, then pinch an inch of loose skin on top of that…so it was not muscle.

My skin looks fine. It is not visibly scarred. It is not lumpy. It feels no different to me than any other area. But maybe I don’t know what I’m looking for.

Just wanted to pass this along in case it helps someone else.

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I love it when you guys do this. No one does it better than @Thomas, but this is pretty sweet, too. :rofl:

I feel more normal every minute I’m with you guys. Thank you for that. :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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And now that I see you were actually doing something really good, and I have just exposed myself as the immature clown I am…

I’d just like to acknowledge how organized this is. I am currently working under the “if I don’t check for anything, I don’t know there’s a problem, and if there’s no obvious problem, which there isn’t because I haven’t checked for one, I’m good to go to my favorite spot.”

I know this is absolutely not going to end well, and I’m going to wish I had spent a little less time laughing at everything and a little more time listening and thinking, but for now… there’s no clear reason to change. :roll_eyes:

I’m going to try rotating in some kind of organized pattern, @T1Allison. I’m going to try. What you said has already helped someone. :crossed_fingers:

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And how come the change to injections for lunch??

Oh man, I have at least 27 reasons, but probably only 4 or 5 are of interest or relevance here…

  1. To protect my pod sites as best as I can from tunneling. I use them for my relatively small breakfast bolus, and then for one or two corrections in the day. Otherwise, my pod sites leak/bleed/die sooner than they do otherwise. Bc they pretty much all do anyway.
  2. I’m a moderate carb-er. Lunch and dinner have my most carbs and therefore need the biggest boluses.
  3. If I inject insulin, I HAVE to pay attention to it and plan for it (mostly because I need to find a place to take off my pants). And I psychologically do a MUCH better job of prebolusing if I inject for a meal than if I dial it in through my pump. If I just hit a few buttons and am not inconvenienced enough…then I figure, “Oh this will be fine”…and then I think, “I can just dial in more insulin later to fix whatever I missed”…and then the rest of the day is a disaster.
  4. It helps with site problem solving. If I inject for a meal and it doesn’t turn out well, it’s one less variable to worry about (the pump site, that is…it’s always possible for an injection to leak or bleed out or whatever, too…)
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I’d love your other 24 reasons. Those were great. All great things to keep in mind, too. Especially the being careful where you drop your pants. :grin:

I’m a believer now that pump boluses aren’t the be all end all of boluses. They all used to be the same thing for me. It was all just insulin. Couldn’t be further from the truth now. I like hearing that you’re doing something similar… because I do think of you as relatively not crazy. :grin:

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You are in the minority. :joy::joy::joy:

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:rofl::rofl:

Well, all the more reason for us to stick together. :grin:

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Is there enough sub-q fat there?

I’ve personally not had any issues with it and I’m pretty slim, can’t speak for everybody though!