It’s been more than 2 years since I last injected anything into my arm. As soon as I went on the pump, pretty much the only sites I used were my belly, hips, back, and sometimes upwards on my derriere. I was never a fan of injecting into my arm anyway; always felt like I could feel the cold insulin going in, a shock to the system I did not like. However, that all changed yesterday.
Ever since finding out I was with thumb-sucking alien baby, I’ve been totally creeped out about inserting infusions in my belly. I mean, the needle, that sucker is like two inches long. And it didn’t matter how many times the pregnancy endos told me it was perfectly okay to inject in my belly, or the fact that I know the baby isn’t quite in that region just yet, I still keep picturing thumb-sucking alien baby popping out with puncture wounds. That would NOT be a good mom thing to do!
And so, I ordered super long tubing (seriously, it’s like the length of a skipping rope) and yesterday I went back to the arm. It was a little more difficult than regular needles I got to say. It seems I need two hands for the infusion, whereas with needles I only needed one. There was a point in the whole process where I had the sticky part of the canula stuck to my finger, and the needle stuck in my arm, and confusion all over my face as to how I was gonna pull the whole thing off. Big Ring saved the day. He became my second hand. With him holding the sticky part down, I was able to pull the needle out and get the other sticky side down and was good to go.
Two days in and I can tell you, I still don’t like the arm. For doses larger than one unit, I can feel the insulin shooting through my skin – it’s like a shock the second it goes through. And because my pump vibrates when it’s about to inject the insulin dose, I’ve got plenty of warning, and waiting for it to get through the long tubing to underneath the skin is like freaking torture!
And then there’s the whole ripping out aspect. Here I thought I only had to worry about that with legs and butt locations, but nope, it seems the arm is a danger zone too. Last night, just before heading out for a walk with Big Ring, I went to put a sweater on anddddd totally ripped the canula out. At $15 a piece that’s gonna get a little pricey to say the least. Awesome.
But, least thumb-sucking alien baby won’t have any puncture wounds 😉
No puncture wounds allowed was first published March 22, 2012.