Infusion Set Cannula Length

You will find out…on Friday!!!

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can’t wait, then!!!

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Hi. I have been having alot of trouble with my site changes. I use 90degree 6mm cannula set. It always goes in blood in my stomach area . I have luck with my arms only. I wonder if I were to use an angled set if I would have better luck. This has really been stressing me out. I usually have to change a set about 4x before I start to get insulin. I need answers.

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I am currently using 6mm steel cannulas in my upper butt to avoid overusing the abdomen. I suspect I have more fat than you do, but I do hit blood once in a while, and just leave it in and use it. Insulin response is faster, and it doesn’t seem to do any permanent damage to the blood vessel. Some people here shoot up in veins when they are high and want a quicker insulin response. I have also had success with Dexcom sensors that show blood. But do ask your endo about it. You need better advice than mine!

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Hi @Dee I avoid my trunk area as much as possible and use my thighs and arms in a regular rotation. I mix 90°steel sets and 30° nylon sets depending on where I’m actually setting. If I absolutely must set in my trunk area I use 30° sets, which usually occlude before the 2nd day.

Someone had mentioned that pinching the fat might help me to avoid getting the cannula in blood. I don’t actually see blood while the infusionset is in me but when I bolus wait ten minutes and then eat my blood sugar rises quickly even though I ate the same thing the day before. It doesn’t show up until I eat as my basal is really low.I normally am like a 20/80 basal bolus balance. I know it is very unusual. My diabetes doctor knows this about me. I have been tupe 1 for 36 years without any complications so I must be doing something right.

One trick I heard of is to increase the amount of insulin in the “fill cannula” step. If the manufacturer says fill with 0.3u insulin, try 0.4 or 0.5 or 0.6 and see if that helps the infusion set start working sooner. In my case it helped, and the story I made up to explain it to myself is that my old overused subcutaneous tissue needs to build up a pool of insulin before the insulin effectively makes its way through to the capillaries. By the way, I’m typically around 30% basal, so I don’t know how unusual we really are.