Pregled posta

Marketing

Using an insulin pump with a visual impairment involves a few creative adaptations.

I can't see the needle at all when I am inserting infusion sets because it is impossible to get close to my stomach or my leg! When I used pens I used to use my thumb and middle finger to find where I wanted to inject, and my index finger touching the pen to guide it to the right spot. It took me the longest time to figure out how to do injections without having a sighted person give me directions like "up a bit more, over to the left," etc., and this technique was suggested by the mom of a friend with type 1.

With the infusion sets, however, I again found it difficult to aim because I couldn't touch the needle and often found it hard to position the long insertion needle at the right angle in the right area. I've recently discovered that if I keep the "border" on the Tegaderm on while I'm inserting the set, it provides a really good high-contrast, tactile way of positing the set. I just line up the adhesive with the edges of the border and it is perfectly centered, and then I touch the needle down on my skin while I find the right angle (using my index finger touching the plastic bit at the top of the needle), and then I can insert. Then, when I'm done, I take the border off.

In case you don't know, that up there ^ is NOT where my infusion site is supposed to be...you know...dangling off my body.....

I was just commenting on a picture of Nick Jonas yesterday where his pump tubing was hanging all out. I said "my mom would kill me if she saw me walking around with my tubing hanging out THAT much." .....I am terrible at tucking mine into my waistband...I don't even know why...it's really not that hard...anyway, while I was still chuckling lightly to me-self...I got caught...I ripped out the set....I whimpered. Yes, I did. I had fixed that site with skin-tac.
If you've EVER used skin-tac you know...that stuff is, well, tacky. Seriously, if you're car should ever get sliced in two, or your arm's about to fall off or whatever it may be...forget duct tape! Skin-tac is the way to go!

So yeah, you can imagine how that felt when that got ripped out. I was speedwalking through the house, so I was going pretty fast...

This makes me wonder how often this kinda thing happens to Nick...probably never cause he's awesome like that and his name isn't Jess and he's not as clumsy as me...but then again, not many people are -__-

So tell me: How often do you get caught and rip 'em out?