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Permalink Reply by Turtle Dove on May 9, 2012 at 8:14am

Once in a while I'll have a bit of blood and a cotton ball with finger pressure works good. Sometimes I have some dried blood under the tape of the infusion set, sometimes that would clog up the tube and often the pump would beep an alarm that there was an obstruction, sometimes it wouldn't, yet if my bg was going hi I would switch the site and see that the tube had filled with blood, switching from silhouette to quick-set with a shorter cannula helped that. I haven't noticed any particular area of my abdomen that this occurs, yet sometimes if the site feels uncomfortable, irritated or painful, I remove right away and re-insert. Anyway, the squirting and spraying has only happened to me twice,,, a few months ago, after some intense exercise, my pump ran out, I pulled the insertion out,,, and omg,,, the blood sprayed, I guess not squirt - cuz that may mean intermittent, it was spray, like a kung fu movie when someone's leg or arm gets cut off - and the blood sprays. I think I was in shock by it, cuz I just stood there staring at it, blood sprayed all over the wall, a huge puddle on the floor. My friend walked into the kitchen, grabbed some paper towels and it soaked up about 30 paper towels and took about 15 minutes before the bleeding stopped. I was surprised, no bleeding or tenderness remained in the area, but I had kept pressure on it for about 10 more minutes after the bleeding stopped. I have never been freaked out by blood, mine or anyone else's, but this experience did freak me out. I have had finger pricks spray a stream of blood, and often thought it was cool. One time I got my blood testing fingers slammed in a car door, and all the little finger pricks opened up and sprayed. As a kid, I was frequent to nose bleeds, I had my nose cauterised three times. I don't have nose bleeds any more, and I don't bruise very easily.

I am curious about the itchy, tingling sensation, and 'gushers'. The nosebleeds as a kid were really bad before diagnosis of diabetes. And if my bg is running hi, about 200 or 300,,, which isn't that often, I will also get an itchy, tingling sensation around the infusion site, or all over my body, it feels like my skin is crawling.

I think the condition is 'blood-heat', and interesting, the site of the infusion that bleed like I described, did not bruise, Yet it is now where a white patch of vitiligo is,,, a red itchy circle remained around the white patch. And before the white patch, it was just very itchy in the area. I have avoided the area for insertion. Oh, my poor tummy, has sure taken it for a lot of years...

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Permalink Reply by Sagwabetes on May 9, 2012 at 8:35am

My medtronic rep and endo told me to put a warm cloth on this and let the blood ooze out so it doesn't pool under the skin and bruise. weird. it happened one time. the very very first infusion (the one where i was practicing with saline)
After one day it hurt so bad, and i could see the blood from the top of the site. it bled for a good 5-10 minutes. at work. so embarassing.

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Permalink Reply by gawnfishin on August 3, 2012 at 9:01pm

It happened a few times when testing. I thought it was kind of cool.

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Permalink Reply by Zoe on August 4, 2012 at 1:03am

I've had a few gushers. Usually the set hurts or else I can see through the plastic window that there's blood. This time I had no warning and of course was wearing my white sleep shorts...could have been something more expensive than sleep shorts from Walgreen's though! I've never had one from testing - I can't imagine that's as much blood as the infusion set! But yeah I find them kind of amusing too.

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Permalink Reply by Mayumi on August 6, 2012 at 1:19pm

This blood squirting or spraying has also happened to me on occasion, usually when I least expect it. Now I remove the infusion set (Silhouette or Sure-T) very cautiously and try to have a kleenex handy. I once pricked my finger with a lancet, applied a little pressure so I could get a drop of blood for testing blood sugar - and was I surprised when quite suddenly it spurted across the table at home and just missed the wall. Fortunately that doesn't happen often.

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