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Permalink Reply by Mike S. on July 21, 2009 at 4:51am

I just had this happen last week. I stayed high all day. Not terribly high, but high none the less. I woke up at 145. Ate breakfast, and retested two hours later. Still 145. Didn't eat lunch, and tested at lunch time. 135 or something like that. Tested later and I was 180. Ate dinner and tested afterwards. 196 and I stayed that way for about three hours. Did a correction, and came down to "normal" after another couple of hours. Went to bed and got up. Tested and I was at 155. AND my site hurt really bad. I had it on my thigh. It was painful. Put another site in and I stayed in the 140's to 150's for most of the day while tweaking basal and I:C.

Finally settled down around dinner. Yes, I am stubborn. I am also pretty new to pumping (seven weeks). After looking back, I must have been a little sick and my body noticed it. I also believe I had a bad site. That site hurt like Hell the second day, but it wasn't red or anything. I am not sure what I could have done differently, since I changed out the site and still was high. At that point I just assumed I was sick.

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Permalink Reply by jodiiiii on July 21, 2009 at 11:56am

This makes me nuts! I seem to have a bad infusions ALL the time. maybe it's P.E.B.C.A.K. But its a source of frustration/anxiety for me not knowing and having to wait for a big high. Sometimes a good site just hurts - I pulled a good one out and was so annoyed. I test like a madwoman the first 6hrs of a new site

To the designers of the infusion sets: Please work in a color change or some other indicator to notify the infusee that the insulin has leaked.

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Permalink Reply by Tom S on July 22, 2009 at 5:31pm

Bad site = feeling insulin running down my tummy - even though the occlusion alarm has never gone off. Or when pain does not subside. Or when I see blood in the cannula or around the canula. Or when skin around the site turns red and itches

I just went through 4 site last week that were all bad. I have never had that happen before. The last couple have been fine.

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Permalink Reply by mwags on May 26, 2012 at 2:30pm

Ditto on all the below including being an idiot insisting a site problem is really my fault i.e. all the below mental gymnastics including I ate pizza, duh! I had a tough talk with myself and said as soon as my bs doesn't come down with one correction, change the site. With the Omnipod that is so easy the only negative is the cost in pods and insulin and the fear that the new site will hurt. I use my lower abdomen. Have tried back, hip, thigh, and leg but have no better failure luck with anywhere and I find the security of having the pod protected under clothing and where I can see what's going on reassuring. I also aim to change every other day tho sometimes I forget and the site is still working. My recent A1C was 8.3 so I'd like to know if anyone has found any 'magic' answer to minimizing this issue.

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Permalink Reply by Zoe on May 26, 2012 at 3:33pm

Even though I notice this is a very old thread, it's still a great topic.

My list of the things that make me question a site are an "all of the above" including:
Discomfort either from first insertion or starting later on
Knowing when I inserted that it probably "didn't go in right"
High blood sugars with no other explanation, especially if I correct them down and they go back up
Looking at my Inset 30- since it has a little window you can see part of the canula (which I love!) and so I can see things like a drop of blood, redness, or either too little canula (may be bent) or too much (may only be in a short ways)

I recently posted the question about how often people lose sites and discovering mine were way too frequent I reviewed my insertion technique and found I was doing something wrong. I now keep most sites for 4 days (what an improvement!). I think some of the problems I was having was with something (probably slightly bent due to wrong angle) were leading to poor absorption rather than outright failure. I also realized I was blaming the site way too readily because I'd come to expect failure. I won't wait too long, but now will give it a try to see if I can get high numbers in range before changing the set.

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Permalink Reply by busymom on May 26, 2012 at 7:10pm

I just sat down to the computer because I am grumpy that I just lost a pod to a bad site and I found this thread. I hate to give up on a site/pod too. I wait and test lots and up and up the insulin and if my BG doesn't go down I then change the pod/site. So, I go by BG or if I can feel that it's leaking or if oddly I can smell the insulin - it smells like bandaids to me. This is because I have had the reservoir leak and only the bottom of the pod is wet which I can't tell until I have removed it to change sites. It doesn't happen very often but it's so frustrating when it does - mostly cuz I am already high and then the pod change will raise my BG too so I have to compensate for that as well. I also, like mwags, like to have the pod protected but somewhere I can see it. I had just tried my thigh for the first time and just now changed it - but I think it was a leaky reservoir not a placement issue. Thank you for listening to my grumpy rant! And, for being there right when I needed this thread!! :)

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Permalink Reply by Catherine Jane Vancak on May 26, 2012 at 8:43pm

Usually it's the pain that lets me know the site has gone bad. A shabby, throbbing, horrible pain!

I try to hold my own till I can get home to change it. Luckily it doesn't happen too often as long as I don't place my set on a muscular spot.

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Permalink Reply by Natalie ._c- on May 26, 2012 at 9:19pm

With me, a bad site usually painful or itchy. Once, I got blood running back up the tubing, and that was a clearly bad one! My BG will often come down after a PP spike and then start going back up again, but it might be because my stomach is still not completely empty. So I correct with the pump, and if I don't see some effect within an hour, then the site might be bad. But on the other hand, I've had nights where I correct every 3 hours for 8-12 hours after a large dinner, and it does eventually come down. So I'm not quick to blame the site. But remember the pump companies always say to correct with a syringe if your BG is not coming down, and that really does make sense if you think it might be the site.

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Permalink Reply by Richard P Cosgrove on May 27, 2012 at 11:47am

I try to change every three days but if the site begins to hurt I yank it.

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