Sarah Howard
Sarah Howard has worked in the diabetes research field ever since she was diagnosed with T1D while in college in May 2013. Since then, she has worked for various diabetes organizations, focusing on research, advocacy, and community-building efforts for people with T1D and their loved ones. Sarah is currently the Senior Marketing Manager at T1D Exchange.
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Approximately how many areas of your body do you use for pump sites and/or insulin injections? Cancel reply
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Experiencing 46,000 MDI injections, 3120 inserts, and 73,000 finger sticks (all rough approximations), real estate – whether land or body surfaces – becomes rather scarce. Sic transit gloria Mundi. (༎ຶ︿༎ຶ)
61 years for me math impossible on this one !
I use 6 areas around my waist and vary up down and sideways at each site so that it is 2 weeks before I am back in the same area. Rotation is critical for pumps but less so w cgm
what does “area” define ??
Left and right abdomen, left and right belly, left and right thigh. Tried arms, but cannot reach to insert needles. Thigh areas keep getting knocked off, even with tons of tape.
Use my buttocks exclusively or CGM’s. They don’t work anywhere else on me.
If you are counting general areas I use my thighs, lower and upper abdomen and upper arms. Of course there are multiple sites within the general areas.
I use calf, thigh, belly, back, forearm, upper arm, chest, and shoulder blade on both sides.
How do you use less fatty areas like your calf and forearm? Also how do you reach your shoulder blades.
I was also unsure how to count “areas”. I selected “3 or fewer” because I use 3 body area TYPES: upper buttocks, lower abdomen, and more recently thighs. If you count each cheek and thigh separately, make it 5.
Belly with rotation of cgm and infusion sites. Hips, arms, legs, back all get in the way of work and cause excessive bleeding, brusing, and premature site failure. Plus sensors are so tightly controlled by insurance I don’t feel comfortable experimenting.
Very confusing question!
That I had no idea how to answer. I use only my stomach, but up and down all the way around, (Except the spine and belly button) would that be one?
That would vary greatly based on what you define as an area. I chose 7-9 as I use many uncommon sites due to poor absorption from obverse of stomach tissue.
Sixty-seven years of injections has greatly limited rotation sites. Right now I use my abdomen above the waist for infusion sets and upper arms for CGM sensor.
I agree! What is a “same area?” I could answer from 1 to 100. I only use the sides of my belly, but I try to avoid using the same specific site more than once in a month or two and I alternate sides ever time I change my CGM (using the opposite site for insulin injections).
I didn’t know whether to answer 2 or 4: both arms and both legs.
I can’t use my stomach because of lipoatrophy and my back/buttocks because I can’t twist that far around (and the sites, when I did use them, were SO uncomfortable… and got pulled off way too easily.)
My wish for my pump is that they could make a smaller cannula so that the “damage” is lessened.
My 9 year old son, the T1, uses thighs, back of arms, and just recently his lower back – 6 sites.
Areas – 1 or 2 ? – abdomen – above the belt for CGM, below the belt for infusion. But that becomes 6 above the belt and 6 below. so I chose 12.
When I had been on multiple injections per day, I made use of back of arms, thighs, tops of hips, and abdomen.
With the pump, it’s too difficult to detach the infusion set other than the top of thighs, abdomen and side of hips… Yet, pants put too much pressure on the sites if on my thighs, and laying on the sites when on the hips is incredibly uncomfortable – So I am stuck with my abdomen. Sadly – leading to a build up of scar tissue in an over-used field. Hoping for more innovation as time moves on with the infusion set applications so that we will all have more of our body surface to make use of.
Without putting too fine a point on it, the landscape question has become, for me, more about how much longer am I going to need to find spots that will be delighted to become today’s insertion site. I’m quite sure scar tissue has something to do with the ups and downs of my attempt to manage good control. Not insisting on perfection somehow makes life more livable and lovable, and after 70 years of trying to make my docs happy with my blood sugars, I’m pretty sure worrying about getting prime acreage is self-defeating. Rotating sites is good. Scrambling for sites that I can’t reach is up for grabs by the contortionist :*}!
From Sweet Charlie…. 70 yrs for me also.. I am 90 yrs OLD now and 124 lbs.. I quit using my belly about a year ago when started the Dexcom. Now only using upper legs only.. Not having any problems.. I remember back when we had the hollows and lumps from the animal insulin and glass syringe !!!!
I figure I only use one area since I only use my tummy/abdomen. However, since I rotate all the way around it from top to bottom and all the way out on both sides, I am not sure if that should have been considered more than one area. I have never felt able to use any other area.
I use 12 sites after developing lipodystrophy on my abdomen. I didn’t use my abdomen for over 6-7 years and it’s still not very receptive to insulin!
I respectfully suggest this question would have given you more insight if you had (1) separated cannula insertions from injections (more potential sites with injections) and (2) had defined “area” in greater detail (either by a general description, such as abdomen, thigh, etc, or a geometric definition, such as a patch of skin measuring 4×4 inches).
At least 8 different sites on my belly. I only inject into abdomen.
Arms, buttocks, stomach. Back in the days when I injected insulin, I used my thighs also, but I no longer use that region.
I am on MDI and use just about every inch of my skin – barring my face – as real estate.