Sluggish sites - do you bother changing them?

[MushyPeaBrain]

I have changed my site today and although the new one is working it's sluggish and slow to respond to boluses. With sites like these I have to do a +30-40% basal to keep stable. I don't have a huge amount of sites, I rotate religiously and this doesn't happen too often but is annoying when it does. I just put up with it as part of pumping but wondered if other have this and how they choose to deal with it?

 

[noblehead]

Hi @MushyPeaBrain

I was told pre & post pump to change the set (or in my case Pod) if there's any issues like poor insulin absorption, when it does happen I just change it rather than have high bg levels.

 

[MushyPeaBrain]

@noblehead I was told the same but as I don't have many sites I was running out of room at certain points! Also I figure if I can stay in the 5-6 with the extra basal then it should be ok. I would always change the set if I went up to 9.

To make my day even more annoying my first site change today resulted in an occlusion so I changed that one and got the sluggish one. If I change again I've lost 6 days of site in one day

 

[noblehead]

@noblehead I was told the same but as I don't have many sites I was running out of room at certain points! Also I figure if I can stay in the 5-6 with the extra basal then it should be ok. I would always change the set if I went up to 9.

To make my day even more annoying my first site change today resulted in an occlusion so I changed that one and got the sluggish one. If I change again I've lost 6 days of site in one day

Understand, I've some site issues and have to be careful where I place my Pods.

Strangely enough I had an occlusion on Tuesday morning when bolusing for my breakfast, I woke in the night and my arm was sore but didn't think much of it, then low & behold at breakfast the occlusion alarms went off on the PDM & Pod.

 

[MushyPeaBrain]

I'm really hopeful for this new BD infusion set that will help reduce occlusions and maybe even help with my sluggish sites. It's supposed to come out next year. Mind you occlusions were rare for me until I had several batches of dodgy Animas sets. My friend gave up her Animas due to the decline in quality and went to Omnipod and she loves it!

 

[tim2000s]

@MushyPeaBrain - I discovered that certain areas of my midriff don't absorb properly with 6mm sets, and had to interchange them with 8mm, but only after slow absorption of bolus on a couple of occasion. Always change if slow now.

 

[CarbsRok]

I have changed my site today and although the new one is working it's sluggish and slow to respond to boluses. With sites like these I have to do a +30-40% basal to keep stable. I don't have a huge amount of sites, I rotate religiously and this doesn't happen too often but is annoying when it does. I just put up with it as part of pumping but wondered if other have this and how they choose to deal with it?

Are you 100% certain it's actually your site or cannula causing the problem and not just you IE., hormones as in time of the month or any medication you are on?

 

[MushyPeaBrain]

Are you 100% certain it's actually your site or cannula causing the problem and not just you IE., hormones as in time of the month or any medication you are on?

The odd one might be to do with this but I can usually tell is it's sluggish rather than monthly by the fact that BG is fine right up until set change on the same day and also as I leave my old site in until I'm certain new one is ok I can also check with tiny bolus through old set and this is always more effective than sluggish one. If it's monthly neither makes a difference plus I find my period effects late night and morning much more rather than a flat needing 40% more. My period never used to affect my BG but as I've got older I've noticed it does have an impact now though!