Monday, July 29, 2013

A Smooth Like Butter Dead Spot~


Yeah,... It was one of THOSE days - Know what I'm saying? 
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Last night I had a high blood sugar after a dinner (thank you leftovers that followed an amazing brunch) and I knew it was time to change my infusion site. 

My current site was almost 48 hours old and it was time to say goodbye. 
I found a rarely used spot on my lower right abdomen, about an inch and a half below both the waistline of my yoga pants and below the my previous site & went in for the jab - And I barely (as in didn't even feel it - like not at all,) felt the insertion needle go in. It was a smooth like buttah, transition and that made me happy. 

Sometimes infusion site changes hurt, and sometimes you get a spidey sense that the site may or may not work due to the amount of pain and or stinging involved - At least I do.  
And sometimes my spidey senses are wrong and the achy infusion site sucks down insulin like a rockstar groupie... And sometimes not.  

Like I said, this infusion site insertion was smooth like buttah (and now I can't stop saying that phrase) and I thought all would be right with my world. And at first, it was. 
My blood sugar went from 256 to 218 in record time and I felt safe in going to bed.

Cut to this morning and waking up with a 271 breakfast blood sugar and me making the executive decision midmorning, and when I was still hovering in the 220s to switch out this site for yet another new infusion site.  
I wasn't a happy camper for several reasons. 
First:  I hate having to change an infusion site after putting a fresh one it - it makes me worry about abdomen real estate and quite frankly, it just annoys the hell out of me. 
Second: The fact that the infusion site didn't hurt... or work,  made me realize that spidey sense or not - deadspots happen - even in the spots that feel all types of hunkey dory.
Third: I just didn't feel like doing another site change - my second in less than 11 hours - See First reason. 
Fourth: Normally, I'm pretty positive when it comes to my diabetes, but honestly, it really depressed me to find another dead spot on the precious real estate that makes up my belly. And in that moment I felt like diabetes was winning when it came to my body. And I mourned the fact that this little used infusion site would most likely not be used again because it just didn’t absorb insulin. 
If I’d have had a black sharpie near by I would X marked the spot on my belly in SCREAMING CAPS - And then I would have thrown said sharpie out the window! 

We all have those F-You diabetes moments - And this was one of mine. 

Also: The irony regarding an infusion site that was so incredibly painless but so incredibly useless when it came to absorbing insulin was not lost on me. 

With the new site I went from 271, to 220. to 156 to 96 and finally landing at 90 just before lunch and all in the course of an hour and 25 minutes. 

And while I’m happy to be absorbing pancreas juice like... well, like a pancreas. This roller-coaster A La Dead Spot has left me feeling like someone pissed in my Cheerios - And it’s made me tired and cranky and pissed off at my diabetes. 

But I’m not alone ( shout out to my twitter bad infusion site/ roller coaster of blood sistas and bros, @asweetgrace, @lifeont1, @dorkabetic, @cerichards21, @krisguy) and I've decided to let my issue of the deadspot that didn’t hurt or feel like a dead spot, go. 

And now that dead spot and diabetes no longer has the upper hand

My new site is absorbing like gangbusters and I’ve got things to do. 
Diabetes, you didn’t win this round - You were sneaky and put up a good fight - But you didn’t win, I did. 

So you can just SUCK IT. 

7 comments:

Colleen said...

Maybe our insets are related??
Came home at lunch to switch it out after waking up at 200+ and staying that way alllll morning.
And now, fine.
Oh well...

Denise aka Mom of Bean said...

bummer!

love those sites that don't hurt...especially because I HATE it when Bean gets hurt!

hate those sites that are worthless!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the shout-out. I'm not sure I have any dead spots per se, it's more like I have some sites that will work like a charm, but those same sites can give me grief a week later. It's the Circle of Life?

Unknown said...

yep. I know what you mean about the pain-function correlation. Although I MDI I swear when it doesn't hurt it doesn't work right.. unfortunately.. Nice win though!

Dr. Pullen said...

Talk about a swing of emotions related to changing infusion sites. Nice to hear your humerous and personal experiences so beautifully described. It will help others through their ups and downs I'm sure.

Anonymous said...

"feeling like someone pissed in my Cheerios". SERIOUSLY, I haven't heard that one before, but I sure could have used it a time or two. Love you K!!

Kelley said...

Ugh, I just dealt with that this weekend! I hate changing a new site-grr