Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Allergies to adhesives suck

Our woes with rashes to adhesives started about 3 months after Ella started on the Omnipod.
 
It started with a small little rash once I removed the Omnipod.
It quickly progressed to a red, inflamed, itchy rash that would develop within 24 hours of a new Omnipod.
So, we quit the Omnipod because I wasn't about to do Omnipod changes on a daily basis and Ella's skin had taken a serious beating.
 
We've been plugging along with Animas ping for a few months now.
We do site changes every 2 days and full (insulin & site) every 4 days. 
That seemed to work swell.
Every once in a while she'd have a rash after 2 days but it cleared up quick with a low-dose corticosteroid.
 
But now that it's summer and she's swimming every day, I noticed she develops a rash to the site very quickly.
So we're having to do DAILY site changes.
 
So imagine how thrilled I was when, after having done a site change at 7am on Monday, Ella tells me a mere 12 hours later that the site is itchy and she needs to pull it.
 
I think I pouted like a 3 year old and said, "FINE - PULL IT!"
And slammed a new site on her tooshie.
 
But when I pulled the little plastic inserter gizmo thingy off, I noticed the fat part of the site, where the little insulin connector thingy plugs in, hadn't stuck all the way down and I could see underneath the site where the cannula was in about 3/4 of the way.
 
So I did what any responsible Type 1 parent would do: I pushed it down and then I texted my T1D Mommas to see if they thought it would work. The consensus was it could go either way and they all wished me luck.
 
I know you're dying to know the results, so here's the play-by-play:
 
7 pm: Insert new site. BG 96. Looking good.
9 pm: BG 160. Hmmm....could be the pasta she ate for dinner. Small correction.
11 pm: BG 170. Not bad. Still could go either way. Small correction.
1 am: BG 230. 0.3 blood ketones. Crap.
 
I pulled the site.
Cannula was completely bent over.
 
 
Freaking Skin Allergies.
 
 
 

7 comments:

  1. You know what is also fun? Being allergic to one adhesive (pump sites) but not another (Dex) because then the doctors have no idea how to help you!!

    I use Contact-Detach sites now (steel needle) because I had wayyy to many bent cannulas with the other sites.

    Your friend in itchiness!

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  2. that is one sorry-tooshie cannula! sorry for the itches.

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  3. That headstone! So funny!

    I am so sorry for the itchy allergy. My mind went straight to "will their insurance pay for daily site changes?" Are you going to try Sara's steel needle sites??

    Look at the helpful comment from diabeteshealthcare---maybe you should add them to your D-mommy text list for the next time you need advice.

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  4. Ugh, I'm so sorry. As if diabetes isn't hard enough even when everything works right.

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  5. bummer! I hope you can figure out something!!

    oh, when is the memorial service...I'd like to attend to flick sleep off, oh, I mean, pay my respects! ;)

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  6. Just catching up on blogs! Sorry you are still having issues with sites and allergies...ugh. There is always something with t1d isn't there? Can so relate to the headstone!

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