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    • 14 hours, 25 minutes ago
      Greg Felton likes your comment at
      If you have T1D, have you ever dated or married someone who also has T1D?
      I fell in love with an insulin-dependent Type 2 20 years ago. There’s something terribly romantic about taking Lantus together at the end of the day.
    • 14 hours, 57 minutes ago
      ConnieT1D62 likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      One time I was explaining that a new pump would be too expensive at the time because my deductible had just started over.. and she asked if I had insurance and I said yes….. then she said “then it should be free with insurance.” 🤦‍♀️ She may know a little about the challenges of living with diabetes, but she knows nothing about how insurance works or how costly T1D supplies are.
    • 15 hours, 15 minutes ago
      Steve Rumble likes your comment at
      If you have T1D, have you ever dated or married someone who also has T1D?
      I fell in love with an insulin-dependent Type 2 20 years ago. There’s something terribly romantic about taking Lantus together at the end of the day.
    • 15 hours, 46 minutes ago
      Lawrence S. likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      I am an RN. Been going to same doctor for about ten years. Took me six years to train him. I am very well read when it comes to my LADA. He trusts my judgement and gives me excellent parameters to make decisions. Recently had a bad case of Covid. Insulin needs changed dramatically. Getting back to normal but he made sure I had scripts to cover my ups and downs with insulin needs.
    • 15 hours, 47 minutes ago
      Lawrence S. likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      Mine acknowledges the struggles and challenges that go along with managing T1D in my daily life. She gives suggestions as to what may or may not help and has often asked me I how I handle situations so she can give suggestions to other T1D patient's.
    • 15 hours, 48 minutes ago
      Lawrence S. likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      None of my endocrinologists or NPs have had T1D but I always discuss my challenges and they are incredibly helpful. What I always find astonishing is they are constantly amazed at how well I’m doing even when i don’t think I’m doing that well because most of their patients have nowhere near the A1c’s I’m able to achieve. And just hovers in the 6’s!
    • 16 hours, 13 minutes ago
      Jubin Veera likes your comment at
      Have you developed lipohypertrophy due to repeated injections/infusions of insulin? Lipohypertrophy is a term to describe hardened lumps of body fat just under the skin that resulted from repeated insulin injections/infusion sites. If so, share how you’ve handled lipohypertrophy in the comments!
      The hard spots are fairly frequent with the pump infusion sets. Especially if I go past 3 days which I try to avoid! I don’t think I ever got one from injections. I try heat and massaging to treat them and they normally go away after a day or so. Once I had a large area that I had to treat with antibiotics.
    • 16 hours, 15 minutes ago
      Magnus Hiis likes your comment at
      Have you experienced any symptoms of physical sexual dysfunction as a result of having diabetes, or having diabetes-related complications?
      I’m 79. My last orgasm was springtime about 3 or 4 years ago. When I complained of ED, my PCP Rxd 3 to 5 (60-100 mg) sildenafil tablets by mouth about one hour prior to sexual activity. This alone hasn’t worked to bring me up to former sexual capacity that I had 10 years years ago. I’m still considering consulting finding a doctor who’ll prescribe a safe but effective way of administering testosterone or an anabolic steroid in a dose low enough to avoid causing cardiovascular problems but high enough to restore normal ability that I had up to my sixties. My present doctors say it can’t be done, but there are doctors who advertise otherwise. Analogs of the hormone insulin can be delivered in small safe doses, why not testosterone?
    • 1 day, 8 hours ago
      Becky Hertz likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      We are all so very different, and trying to say that all of us with T1 understand what it's like for another who has the same hill to climb is unproductive. Having a health care provider with T1 may often be helpful just because there's apt to be more knowledge about the specifics. How we respond to the disease is such a personal matter, that I really don't think there are any guaranteed benefits beyond the grasp of the factual. Finding a doc with the same general attitude about the disease does feel good, and sometimes that's all I hope for after working hard to make peace with the disease for 70 years. Asking my doc to "get it" used to be almost my mantra, but I've come to realize that the ones who don't just see us as unruly childrenchildren
    • 1 day, 8 hours ago
      Becky Hertz likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      Both my endocrinologist and my nurse practitioner are great. They compliment me on the way I take care of my life and health and make aure I get all the supplies I need managing all the paperwork Medicare and insurance requires. My nurse practitioner who works with me on managing the pump has her own opinion about the pump settings based on her technical knowledge which is different than what I do with my settings based on living with them. She has thru the years learned to respect what I do and is surprised with how my settings work. So we are now at peace. Both very supportive.
    • 1 day, 11 hours ago
      pru barry likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      Yes. However, for those of you who assert, "It takes one to know one," the same might be said of age. Geriatrics is a marvelous array of marvels.
    • 1 day, 11 hours ago
      mojoseje likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      I said yes but that refers to my nurse practitioner who sees me every other visit, if not more often. The doctor may know how hard I try but perhaps takes my efforts for granted.
    • 1 day, 13 hours ago
      Anneyun likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      How can someone without the disease really understand what it is to live with it? I have never had a doctor with T1D in 60 years.
    • 1 day, 14 hours ago
      Bruce Schnitzler likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      Yes. However, for those of you who assert, "It takes one to know one," the same might be said of age. Geriatrics is a marvelous array of marvels.
    • 1 day, 14 hours ago
      Kristine Warmecke likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      My endo is young, very empathetic, thorough, always asks for my input, and does research. I am blessed too. have him, and the one before for over 25 yrs.
    • 1 day, 14 hours ago
      Kristine Warmecke likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      Yes. However, for those of you who assert, "It takes one to know one," the same might be said of age. Geriatrics is a marvelous array of marvels.
    • 1 day, 14 hours ago
      lis be likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      None of my endocrinologists or NPs have had T1D but I always discuss my challenges and they are incredibly helpful. What I always find astonishing is they are constantly amazed at how well I’m doing even when i don’t think I’m doing that well because most of their patients have nowhere near the A1c’s I’m able to achieve. And just hovers in the 6’s!
    • 1 day, 15 hours ago
      Daniel Bestvater likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      My provider does not have T1. Only someone with it can truly understand the various daily challenges and worth it takes to manage this.
    • 1 day, 15 hours ago
      TEH likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      My provider does not have T1. Only someone with it can truly understand the various daily challenges and worth it takes to manage this.
    • 1 day, 15 hours ago
      Lawrence S. likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      I have no clue what my T1D health care provider understands about my daily challenges and I don’t know about his daily challenges either. Not sure why I should care as long as I have access to information how to best take care of myself.
    • 1 day, 16 hours ago
      Jeff Marvel likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      My provider does not have T1. Only someone with it can truly understand the various daily challenges and worth it takes to manage this.
    • 1 day, 16 hours ago
      Richard Wiener likes your comment at
      Do you feel that your T1D healthcare provider understands the daily challenges and work that goes into living with T1D?
      My provider does not have T1. Only someone with it can truly understand the various daily challenges and worth it takes to manage this.
    • 2 days, 7 hours ago
      sweetcharlie likes your comment at
      Have you developed lipohypertrophy due to repeated injections/infusions of insulin? Lipohypertrophy is a term to describe hardened lumps of body fat just under the skin that resulted from repeated insulin injections/infusion sites. If so, share how you’ve handled lipohypertrophy in the comments!
      Hi Connie, I still have my glass syringe and show it off occasionally. We boiled the needle and syringe every morning and sharpened the needle with a file. I was diagnosed at age 6 in 1963. Life is so different now! Then, my diet was extremely limited as was my exercise. Now, I am very active and eat pretty much as I please. I maintain an A1C in the low 6s (6.2 was my last).
    • 2 days, 7 hours ago
      sweetcharlie likes your comment at
      Have you developed lipohypertrophy due to repeated injections/infusions of insulin? Lipohypertrophy is a term to describe hardened lumps of body fat just under the skin that resulted from repeated insulin injections/infusion sites. If so, share how you’ve handled lipohypertrophy in the comments!
      Connie and Beth, I was diagnosed in Nov 1962, age 10. During the early years I developed lumps and indentations on my upper thighs from my injections. In fact, I was able t o spot other t1 kids in my junior high school based upon the lumps in their upper arms.. (I eventually met up with them and learned that I was correct.) By the time I reached my twenties, these indentations had more or less disappeared, but I still have remnants of the lumps. I wish I could say that the layers of tissue now deposited on my legs disguises them, but they don't. I think the changes in insulin have been responsible for this improvement: the isolation and purification of animal insulins were refined, and then the various human clones were game changers in many ways.
    • 2 days, 7 hours ago
      sweetcharlie likes your comment at
      Have you developed lipohypertrophy due to repeated injections/infusions of insulin? Lipohypertrophy is a term to describe hardened lumps of body fat just under the skin that resulted from repeated insulin injections/infusion sites. If so, share how you’ve handled lipohypertrophy in the comments!
      Yes in my upper arms when I was a petite and skinny child in the 1960s with T1D. In those days we used glass syringes with stainless steel 1/2 inch long heavy gauge needles. My mother would jab me in the upper arms, it hurt like the dickens, and I developed several hard nodules. I was diagnosed at age 8 in December 1962 and after the initial two months of her jabbing me in the upper arms, I took over giving my own "shots" and started self injecting via site rotation in my thighs for several years. Eventually the lipohypertrophy in my upper arms resolved and I never injected there again until many years later as an adult on MDI using disposable syringes with very short and fine gauge needle tips. Periodically I would give my tired pin cushion thighs a rest and take a break for a few months or a couple of years and rotate injections in my abdomen or upper arms. Have been using a pump for over 20 years now and rarely use MDI unless I am taking a pump break for a short period of time. Happily, I no longer have lumpy sites.
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    If you wear a pump or sensor, how often do you put a site somewhere visible, such as on your arm or leg?

    Home > LC Polls > If you wear a pump or sensor, how often do you put a site somewhere visible, such as on your arm or leg?
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    Were you already connected to anyone with T1D before your/your loved one's diagnosis? If not, tell us in the comments how you first found others with T1D.

    Next

    Today is the start of National Diabetes Awareness Month! Based on your experience, what percentage of the general population do you think knows the difference between type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes?

    Sarah Howard

    Sarah Howard (nee Tackett) has dedicated her career to supporting the T1D community 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. Sarah and her husband live in NYC with their cat Gracie. In her spare time, she enjoys doing comedy, taking dance classes, visiting art museums, and exploring different neighborhoods in NYC.

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    23 Comments

    1. Anne Blayney

      I used to wear a Libre sensor, which was often visible (at least in warm weather). I now wear a Dexcom sensor and I get better results when it’s on my abdomen, so that’s less visible — but not because I’m trying to hide it. The pump sites are typically in covered areas because I want to avoid snagging the tubing!

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    2. Mick Martin

      I used to wear a Freestyle Libre on one of my arms, which were visible, but now I’m using the Guardian Sensor 3 (MiniMed/Medtronic) I only occasionally use one of my thighs, which are generally not ‘visible’ unless you’re there to see me undress. 😉

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    3. Sean Gallagher

      I don’t put insets or sensors anywhere to specifically hide them but since I put them on my waist, they are not visible. I did wear the sensor on my upper arm for a while and that was visible at times.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    4. Gene Maggard

      I guess I’m just vain but I don’t like anything related to my diabetes care visible. Whenever I get a new pair of pants or shorts, my wife puts a slit in the inside of the right pocket with a velcro closure so I can hide the pump there along with the tubing. I used to clip my pump on my belt but it always brought up questions whenever anyone saw it and I’d rather not advertise the fact that I’m diabetic. My Dexcom G6 is placed on my abdomen. I tried it on my upper leg a couple of times but either due to circulation issues or other factors it was not comfortable.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    5. Dorian Dowell

      Mine is mixed. I wear the Dexcom G6 Sensor on my arm. Infusion sets are on leg, abdomen, Glute (Somewhat of a rotation). I find the CGM sensor works fine on my arm. Abdomen is a little inconvenient – especially with summer perspiration! I have tried the infusion set on my arm before. However, can’t get the tubing in the right length anymore – either too short or way too long!

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    6. kristina blake

      Of course it depends on the season, if it is summer, short sleeves and shorts, more will be seen. But I do use my thighs and my upper arms. I did have one woman at a wedding insist I was beautiful, and to wish me luck when my Dexcom sensor was on my upper arm. (I was a guest). I guess she had seen one of those ads for the patch for chemo symptoms (Neulasta?). Anyway, I use patches that I turn into little paintings (my best is doing a sugar skull painting and a copy of Munch’s “The Scream” with the sensor as the face). Anyway, since I have ink anyway, it is barely noticeable.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    7. Sherolyn Newell

      Dexcom told me to put the sensor on my abdomen, so the pump is usually on the back of my arms or on my leg. If it shows, it shows. Doesn’t bother me. One day when it was showing, a mom with a newly-diagnosed 4-year-old saw it and asked me if I would talk to him. So sometimes it works out well if it shows.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    8. Jana Foley

      I use my upper arms and my forearms for my sensors and my upper arms for my infusion sets on a regular rotation. If they are seen, it does not bother me. If someone asks a question, I answer it and go on about my day. You just never know when your answer can help someone.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    9. Ernie Richmann

      I wear the cgm on my abdomen. I have had a few sensors not work and when I call Dexcom, I am always asked where I was wearing the sensor. I got the idea they will not replace a sensor unless I follow the directions.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    10. George Lovelace

      I use abdomen and arm and Love Handle areas BUT usually have pump in a Shirt or pants pocket, sometimes with tubing exposed. After 56 years I have no modesty about my Dm.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    11. Candace Jackson

      Our 1 year old loves my pump & sensor so I do my best to hide both of them.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    12. Janis Senungetuk

      Both are always visible, that’s not an issue for me. I’ve found wearing the CGM on my upper arm the most comfortable location. The pump inset is on my abdomen with the pump clipped to my waistband or pants pocket. When I was using MDI and a meter I’d check my bg and inject in public. I’ve always tried to go ahead and do what I needed to do without making a big production out of it.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    13. Kimberly Starkey

      Both the pump infusion set and cgm are on my abdomen. Having clothing cover them adds some protection from being bumped or pulled out. My pump, however, is in a zippered, padded case that I sewed a hole in and slipped a carbiner through to hook to my beltloop. The pump and tubing are visible, but the pump won’t fall off as it occasionally did when I used a clip. I tuck the tubing into my pants to minimize it getting caught on things.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    14. Donald Cragun

      I insert infusion sets in my leg (usually covered by pants) and CGM sensors in my abdomen (usually covered by a shirt). I sometimes remove my shirt if it is hot. I sometimes remove my shirt and/or pants for medical exams. I don’t care who sees my infusion sets or CGM sensors as long as I’m not exposing private parts.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    15. Nancy Taylor

      I use Omnipod Dash pump (pods) with no tubing to deal with. A much more flexible option! I wear both CGM and Omnipod on my abdomen (opposite sides). Like another user mentioned, I have had a number of Dexcom G6 sensors fail. Dexcom has sent me replacements for every single sensor. They do always ask where you placed it but that has never affected the replacements. They have aslo included an extra sensor in each of my last two replacement shipments when I had to return 2 or 3 sensors at a time. If you do have Dexcom failures be sure to call them. They have always been very helpful to me.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    16. Ely Kozminsky

      Pump – belly Sensor – Arms

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    17. Jennifer Wilson

      My arm is most comfortable but has the greatest risk of being accidentally hit or bumped off. In the extreme warm and cold months, I tend to not wear it exposed to protect it from the harsh sun or weather elements. Clothing over the pod does add another cushion of protection. I only really intentionally do not want it visible if I am dressed in evening or formal wear.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    18. Clare Fishman

      Since I use Omnipod my site options are limitless and I use them all. Generally my Dexcom is on the back of my arm. It is the most comfortable spot for long term use and I use each sensor for at least a couple of sessions.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    19. Steven Gill

      Wearing a pump folks see my tubing, which I often have to work hard to protect (pulled the insert loose before)..

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    20. Lenora Ventura

      With my Dexcom, I use my arm 90% of the time. With my pump, never.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    21. Bonnie Lundblom

      I use my arms a lot for my Dexcom and it depends on sleeve length whether or not it shows. My insulin pump does have tubing but the insertion site doesn’t show.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    22. Leona Hanson

      I wear my pump set so everyone can see it but also wear it so no one can see it because of rotation of sites but when visible the kids love it because they know that there not alone that there is someone else who has diabetes isn’t it great

      3 years ago Log in to Reply
    23. Sally Numrich

      I use all areas equally. I rotate sites so arms and legs get used as much as hips, buttocks and upper/ lower stomach. All areas are possibilities for site locations.

      3 years ago Log in to Reply

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