I tend to avoid the front of my abdomen because of nearly invisible surgical scars. I use a pattern on the top of thighs to the sides. On occasion I will use the love handles.
The last 2 sets were in my upper arm. I will need to avoid thighs and love handles for the upcoming surgery.
The absolute best number one site - love handles, followed by thighs. The upper arm not so good.
I’ve only been MDI/pumping about 3 years. I would am curious if some of you veterans have noticed a marked difference between the approved injection/infusion sites and response to insulin. Unscarred sites, please.
We have 8 unique sites we rotate between so each unique site only gets a shot every month or so. Going on 9 years so far and he has no skin or occlusion issues. So far so good! No marks at all of any of the shots persist.
It’s hard to say definitively. We do have issues on occasion where he gets stubborn highs, but why? It could be one of several things…without spending the time to rule out all the possibilities, it’s really difficult to isolate those occasional stubborn highs. But generally, yes, response is always the same. What I have the most difficult time with isn’t the pump…it’s the CGM refusing to be correct. Sometimes his CGM will refuse to leave the “LOW” reading, even though he’s a cool 100 the ENTIRE TIME. Calibrations don’t work, nothing works…it just changes when it wants to change.
A humorous story that is somewhat related to this post…
Some of the sites I use are on my back-side. (Upper butt and also lower back area.) I can get to them to put on a pod, but it is much easier when Leslie helps me with those.
One time it was getting late at night and Leslie had to go to bed. No problem, I could do it myself.
I went to the mirror to do it. It was supposed to be placed on my right upper-butt area.
I wiped the site with alcohol and then put on the skin prep. I let it dry, and then applied the pod. It was perfect! No wrinkles on the adhesive.
After leaving the mirror and walking around a little bit, I came to a stupid realization.
The Eric in the mirror who got it on his right butt cheek…well, “mirror Eric’s” right side is “real Eric’s” left side!
I had put it on the wrong side because the mirror image is flipped!
For me it’s more individual insertion sites than general area. I use mostly my abdomen and upper arms and they are consistently good at absorbing, but now and again something’s amiss and a pod just isn’t in a good place, even if a previous pod very close by was perfect.
I’ve had consistent results with my pecs, but also find the adhesive can get very itchy, which it doesn’t elsewhere.
I have never tried the arms at all, but maybe I will. I use these for my CGM. I’m interested to know where the tube goes (unless you’re using omnipod which I am not). Is it difficult to get dressed? I thought the tube also might go under my arm pit and feel weird?
I use abdomen and upper thighs, and rotate through any 25 different sites. The thighs give me more variable results, and sometimes start hurting before 3 days is up, sometimes with more bruising or bleeding.
I use my upper outer arms for infusion sets with 60cm tubing (Tandem t:slim). I aim the tubing to go behind me. I don’t notice the tubing going under my armpit at all. I’m quite short, so the 60cm tubing easily reaches my waist with plenty of slack.
If I also have my CGM on my upper outer arm, I put the CGM lower and the infusion set above it.
If I’m wearing trousers or leggings, I tuck my pump into my waistband (on the front on the same side as the infusion set so the tubing goes down my body parallel to the seam on a top), in my pocket or in a SpiBelt (at night).
If I’m wearing a dress, I usually have a sewn hole in the pockets that the pump can fit through and I thread the pump through after getting dressed.
If I’m wearing a short-sleeve dress without a hole sewn in the pocket, it’s usually with a sweater or top over my dress. I put the tubing over the dress (I hold the pump in my hand when I put the dress on) and put the tubing under the sweater/top (I put my pump in my dress pocket before putting the sweater/top on).
It took a few tries to figure out how to get dressed, but now I just have to think ahead a bit when I want to wear a dress without a hole sewn in the pocket. Yesterday, for example, I planned to wear a short sleeve dress without a hole sewn in the pocket, and with a long sleeve top over it, so I placed my infusion set on my arm, rather than my thigh or lower back/upper butt, and got dressed using the steps above.
If you put infusion sets on your arm, you need to be a bit mindful of the infusion set when changing clothes (especially when wearing something like a sports bra). I’ve never had problems, but I did have some close calls early on!
