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If you use an insulin pump, does your T1D healthcare provider typically examine your pump sites during your appointments?
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With video appointments, that becomes more difficult. However, I don’t remember my current T1D provider ever looking at my pump sites. I don’t even remember raising my shirt. My feet get looked at about once a year.
I said sometimes because virtual visits they don’t, but in person they do
50% of my apts are Telehealth ones
None of my physicians have ever examined my pump sites.
I have not seeing my endocrinologist or nurse practitioner in person since the pandemic began. Everything is telehealth.
When I first started on the pump, my endo did look at my sites. Then after a couple years he would ask about them. A couple of years after that he stopped asking. I think he trusts me to tell him if anything is unusual. 🙂
I said no but he could have looked as a general check of abdomen. He did not check my cgm sites. I guess he expects endo to take care of it ….
I said sometimes. On my visit my endo review my numbers – at before/after meal time, during exercise, rest and sleep. If my blood sugar goes up and my data shows that I changed sites often, then she inspects my sites. Otherwise no – she doesn’t check.
Examine your pump sites?? What’s that.? I’ve had a pump for twenty years and not once has an endo done that and I go every three months. I think overall most endos don’t really know much about pump use or TID. At least that’s been my 58 year experience.
My endocrinologist knows I have been on a pump for a very long time. He knows I rotate spots so I am guessing that’s why he does not check.
What are they looking for? I imagine the patient would be the first to know if there were a problem. and if there is a problem, what can you do about it? Doesn’t everyone change sites all the time? Or do pump users run out of good spots? (Seriously, I don’t know. I am MDI)
Pump users can run out of good spots, just like MDI users. I am imagining people who use MDI change their locations just as often as pump users. Some people change often and some never change.
She would if I had anything to show her. I don’t have site issues.
I selected “no” but thinking back, one of the first times I met with my (then new) Endo she checked the various areas where I have used for MDIs and pump sites, checking for scar tissue buildup. We discussed the topic of moving sites around but after that time she no longer checks them again.
I’ve been pumping for 18 years and the only time my site was checked was at my first or second appointment with my new endo 2 years ago. That was because I was experiencing so many “insulin flow blocked” alarms on my pump. I was manually inserting angled sets for 16 years exclusively in my abdomen. H ethought my abdomen felt okay but I did switch to a 90 degree set with an inserter so I can now use so many more areas. No “insulin flow blocked alarms” for the past 2 years, and my abdomen is getting a much needed rest.
I had a diabetes educator look at my stomach once because I told him that I had lost some fat at a few infusion sites. He was surprised as he said that most people he has seen get fat accumulation at infusion sites.
I remember being asked to show my site to my endo once, ~20 years ago. I’m not sure what he was looking for, but he never asked again. My endo’s NP commented that someone should look at my sites during our last telehealth visit. I’ve never actually seen her in person, but she’ll probably want to look if we ever do meet. I don’t have any issues with infections or fat build up although I might have some scarring after all these years.
Never in all the years.
When I asked my endo to review data he stated he could not. Following up with the “why” I found it was a limit by the Med Group he was a part of, IT.
As a result of asking him again I received a letter refusing to continue as a patient.
Only when I have a question about one.
No and I wish they would!!! I have really bad lipoatrophy and I’ve begun to have to really be pushy about getting them to help me with this.
I HAD A NEW ENDO THIS PAST YEAR AND HE ASKED TO SEE MY SITES AND ONE TIME SINCE THEN
I was in between “Yes, sometimes” and “No,” so selected “Other.” Rarely would be a better fit. I’d guesstimate my endo/RN have asked to see my pump sites maybe 5 times in my 22 years of pump use. I also haven’t complained about my sites. Probably just a don’t ask, don’t bother to look situation.
Sometimes. However she always asks if I am having any insertion site issues. If the answer is “yes” she checks and we have a problem solving discussion.
Pre-covid I’d have said “always” but I can’t seem to get an in-person appointment since 2019
They don’t check because I stay on top of it and have a system of about 26 sites that I rotate through.