Site recovery time

[diabpump]

Hello All,

I have been pumping for about 8 years and have only ever used the tops of my thighs as they are the most painless and discreet. I don't use the stomach as I don't like the dot scars it leaves.

After all of this time most of my upper leg has has turned from soft skin to a harder, rubbery feel. This is obviously due to site overuse. The sites were also becoming increasingly insulin resistant, where the insulin would take a long time to start acting causing high BGs.

I decided to restrict the use of my pump by only delivering basal insulin and delivering all bolus with an insulin pen to other areas such as the glutes, I've been doing this for about 6 months, but my legs feel quite the same.

I have now gone completely pump free for a few days, injecting Lantus once a day and insulin pen injections.

How long do you think it would take for my legs to completely recover back to soft tissue?

 

[tim2000s]

Hello All,

I have been pumping for about 8 years and have only ever used the tops of my thighs as they are the most painless and discreet. I don't use the stomach as I don't like the dot scars it leaves.

After all of this time most of my upper leg has has turned from soft skin to a harder, rubbery feel. This is obviously due to site overuse. The sites were also becoming increasingly insulin resistant, where the insulin would take a long time to start acting causing high BGs.

I decided to restrict the use of my pump by only delivering basal insulin and delivering all bolus with an insulin pen to other areas such as the glutes, I've been doing this for about 6 months, but my legs feel quite the same.

I have now gone completely pump free for a few days, injecting Lantus once a day and insulin pen injections.

How long do you think it would take for my legs to completely recover back to soft tissue?

Hi diabpump. Sounds as though you've lipohypertrophy on your thighs. I'm afraid that the news isn't all that good in terms of time to recover. The longer you have used an area the longer it generally takes to recover, and the guidance I've been given is that it can take a couple of years for it to properly recede (My thighs also suffer it from over use for injections - but in my case about 20 years too much). It's unlikely to be a short period I'm afraid.

Others use arms and buttocks for pump sites, so its worth consider those as well.

 

[rockape37]

I used to have these lumps of hard fat under my skin due to continued use of the same area. I was told it would take 3 months to return to normal.

Having said that I'm now on a pump and despite that I have no lumps in a particular area that had many an injection i have found that if i place a canular in that area i too suffer from really high BG's so there still must be scar tissue affecting insulin absorbtion.
I now leave this area completely alone and will do so till January next year when i shall try this area again.

Regards

Martin

 

[noblehead]

How long do you think it would take for my legs to completely recover back to soft tissue?

Who can say, I still have a small but noticeable lump on my stomach from 30+years ago when I over-used the site and we were encouraged then to reuse the needles (talking about the days of glass syringes), however I've experienced some lipo issues on my arms over the last few years which have recovered once I've kept away from the sites.

The red marks on the stomach from the infusion site soon disappear @diabpump so don't be put-off from using the site, I've found since starting on a pump that the sides work extremely well for infusing insulin.