[Diabetes-talk] Insulin Pumps, and Scar Tissue from Years of Syringes

[Everett Gavel]

Hello All,

I've recently realized an amazing difference in my
insulin absorption with my insulin pump that I've
been using for I believe it's going on 3 years
now. Might be 2 years, though. I'm getting rather
forgetful anymore. That's what years of pretending
you don't have Diabetes gets you. It's amazing how
much you learn after those teenage years when you
know it all. Anyway, about the insulin
absorption... 

I thought I'd been safely sticking my tubing in
spots where there wasn't any, or at least very
little, scar tissue from the decades of multiple
syringe pokes per day since I was 10 years old,
y'know? Up along the edge of my rib cage, above my
belly button, on my kidney areas, etc. Places I
wouldn't have and don't think I did, stick nearly
inch-long needles into when I was using syringes,
y'know? 

But I just the other day, almost a week ago now,
tried sticking the site up on the side of my chest
area, between my nipple and my arm pit, basically.
And what a surprise, my blood sugars have not
registered this well for this many days in a row
for years. Possibly decades. Seriously. I've had
near perfect sugar levels for almost a week
straight now, and I'm not doing anything different
than I have been for the last couple/few years.
The only difference that I can recognize is that
the injection/tubing site is in a place where I
have never, ever stuck a needle in my life. And so
I'm recognizing that not only over the last few
months where I've been having trouble finding
sites where it will absorb decently through my
scar tissue, but it looks now like even when I
thought it was absorbing okay most times, it
hadn't really been. Because I'm telling you, this
past week has felt great! 

Now, my question to you all is, has there been any
research done on getting injection sites for
insulin pumps that will penetrate past and/or
through scar tissue, to absorb better? Because it
seems that others like me, who've been taking
syringe shots multiple times per day for decades,
might have problems like this too. And as we
continue on, the scar tissue isn't going to
dissipate or lessen, but rather, get worse. So,
has any big pharma company been researching how to
help life-long type 1 diabetics absorb insulin
better as they age and deal with growing scar
tissue?


Thanks,
Everett