Today, diabetes can bite me. I changed out a perfectly good – and working perfectly – cannula this morning because it had been in for four days and I sometimes follow some diabetes rules.
Fresh out of the shower, I stabbed in my line and knew straight away something wasn’t right. I am more than used to (and expect) the little sting that comes with the introducer needle piercing my skin. But this one really hurt. And then when I primed one unit of insulin into the empty cannula it hurt. Really hurt.
So, I ripped it out. Which was a good idea! I present exhibit A:
This resulted in swear words galore because I am classy and a lady. I pulled another infusion set from the cupboard, ripped it open and shoved it in my skin. And again – ouch! I didn’t even bother to prime it – I just ripped it from my skin. Which again, proved a good idea. I present exhibit B:
Ripping this one out was fun. It bled. Down my leg and onto the floor. So I swore again (more classy, more lady) and cursed the diabetes gods and possibly stamped my foot. Actually, I definitely stamped my foot. And threw the useless thing across the room at which point the puppy thought it had a new play toy.
The next cannula went it without a hitch and is behaving itself. Third time lucky.
So, what did I learn from today’s exercise? Not much. Probably that I shouldn’t follow diabetes rules and should have left the four-day-old-slightly-manky-but-working-perfectly cannula in. Because nothing good comes from following rules. Yep. That’s what I’m taking away from this. Also, I need a cupcake.
Diabetogenic 
4 comments
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April 27, 2015 at 4:34 pm
Jenny
Not being a pumper as yet is it poss to have a refund ?Perhaps a quality check @ the company is Needed ?(please don’t swear @ me right now, having a bit of a time)
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April 28, 2015 at 3:22 am
endocrinegremlin
I hate the horrible reality of needing to use pain to judge. Hurts too much and it is probably bent, don’t feel it at all and something else has gone horridly wrong.
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April 28, 2015 at 9:18 am
Scott E
I don’t know how things work in your part of the world, but in my part, we’re alloted a certain number of these things, and they are prescribed to use a new one every X number of days. This story is a perfect example of why that model doesn’t work. If one (or two) pieces fail, we need to make up for it by breaking the time-limit rules with the ones that work. It’s the only way.
Some rules are made to be broken.
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April 30, 2015 at 6:41 am
Mike Hoskins (@MHoskins2179)
This is so frustrating, and I share in the “bite me” message to D when these problems come up. For me, it doesn’t happen as much as it did in those times I tried 90-degree sites that just don’t work well for me. I do angle-inserted silhouettes, and rarely see kinked cannula issues. But it’s always a bad time when they come up.
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