I recently saw a consultant at the hospital. I have been waiting almost 4yrs to have a proper consultation with my diabetes consultant (pandemic messed everything up) but they kept cancelling my appointments to the point I refused to take it any longer and got my GP to refer me to the hospital to see someone which meant I was seen a little quicker.
It's frustrating and scary enough being a T1 for 30yrs, knowing that you are at the point where the damage will start to show, I already feel this happening in many areas and want to make sure I look after myself with medical support. But I just can't get it. If I was pregnant they wouldn't leave me alone, if I was newly diagnosed, they would be making sure I got support and guidance...however I currently feel abandoned, not cared about and even when I do try to get help there is noone to talk to who takes me seriously.
So I was relieved and happy to see this consultant, even though she was new to me and Russian so a little hard to understand. But she did at least take the time to listen, check my feet and my skin for bumps. She told me not to inject into my right thigh as it showed some signs of being a bit worn out. There are no hard lumps or anything apart from the obvious small bruises we all get from injecting every day, but I took her advice on board and have made efforts to avoid that area and mix it up a bit more.
My main point was going to be that I have been on Libre2 sensors for about a year now ( getting those prescribed to me was another stretch of stress you wouldn't believe) and I am a bit worried about the damage they are doing to my skin. The plastic tube we inject into our skin is hypoallergenic and so far I haven't had any bad reactions to the adhesive or sensor materials. However when I remove a sensor and swap to my other arm I am left with a scab, a hole where the tube went in, and a raised bump for about a week before it heals up.
I appreciate that you can move these sensors around and so rarely hit the same spot twice, but still, as they have to be changed so frequently the damage to the skin and tissue will surely mount up and at this point I am certain this is not something that has been clinically trialled for a long enough time.
I am getting increasingly worried that just as my thigh has seen damage over time from being injected into, that my arms, which are on display more than my thighs ever are, may end up turning into a lumpy pock marked saggy mess over time and that noone has really through that through, as the sensor has limited places where it can sit and be attached to safely, we have a much more limited area to get readings from.
It's just another worry to add to the list and it bugs me that it's never mentioned.
It's frustrating and scary enough being a T1 for 30yrs, knowing that you are at the point where the damage will start to show, I already feel this happening in many areas and want to make sure I look after myself with medical support. But I just can't get it. If I was pregnant they wouldn't leave me alone, if I was newly diagnosed, they would be making sure I got support and guidance...however I currently feel abandoned, not cared about and even when I do try to get help there is noone to talk to who takes me seriously.
So I was relieved and happy to see this consultant, even though she was new to me and Russian so a little hard to understand. But she did at least take the time to listen, check my feet and my skin for bumps. She told me not to inject into my right thigh as it showed some signs of being a bit worn out. There are no hard lumps or anything apart from the obvious small bruises we all get from injecting every day, but I took her advice on board and have made efforts to avoid that area and mix it up a bit more.
My main point was going to be that I have been on Libre2 sensors for about a year now ( getting those prescribed to me was another stretch of stress you wouldn't believe) and I am a bit worried about the damage they are doing to my skin. The plastic tube we inject into our skin is hypoallergenic and so far I haven't had any bad reactions to the adhesive or sensor materials. However when I remove a sensor and swap to my other arm I am left with a scab, a hole where the tube went in, and a raised bump for about a week before it heals up.
I appreciate that you can move these sensors around and so rarely hit the same spot twice, but still, as they have to be changed so frequently the damage to the skin and tissue will surely mount up and at this point I am certain this is not something that has been clinically trialled for a long enough time.
I am getting increasingly worried that just as my thigh has seen damage over time from being injected into, that my arms, which are on display more than my thighs ever are, may end up turning into a lumpy pock marked saggy mess over time and that noone has really through that through, as the sensor has limited places where it can sit and be attached to safely, we have a much more limited area to get readings from.
It's just another worry to add to the list and it bugs me that it's never mentioned.
