So I have chicken arms and legs, right. Ok who cares really, but when you wear a pump and Dexcom it matters, a lot.
End of last year/beginning of 2014 I decided to get brave. I hear SO MANY people talk about wearing Dex (one of my nicknames for my Dexcom CGM) on their arm.
All my attempts had been bad, hurt like hell, and I wanted to rip it off.
So its the dead of Winter here in freezing cold Illinois, so I am not wearing short sleeve shirts. I figured lets give it a try, again.
My husband is my life saver, he puts my Dexcom on me, everytime. In fact I am unsure I could do it myself.
So we started trying it down further on my arm. First time we tried wire going upwards, OUCH, figured out for me, that the wire going down is better. This one is three inches from my elbow, I just measured.
You have GOT to pinch your skin up and have the person putting it on angle it outward so it goes in more shallow. This one ended up going in too deep and it jabbed the crap out of my muscle. Hurt. Like. Hell. In fact, I had to sit down with the applicator still on because I got light headed and thought I was going to puke, yeah it was fun. The pain went away and now, I cannot feel it at all.
It's crazy I know. Trust me I KNOW, I was so scared to DEATH to try this.
So I used things for comparison of size so you can see that even if you have skinny or muscular arms you more than likely have enough fat/tissue to use. My arms are not fatty by any means and we make it work. I do not whack it on anything when it is here. The only wierd thing is showering, you gotta remember not to scrub your arms! Sleeping on your side takes a bit of getting use to having it there. I am a side sleeper.
I also have my trusty smith and nephew opsite flexifix around it, this is the only way I keep Dex on. Period.
Please ignore the terrible wallpaper in my office that needed to come down 10 years ago and the terribly pasty white person, it's Winter here, remember.
Boom. There is it, on that scrawny chicken arm of mine.
I hope this helps some of you, I hear over and over how people are afraid to try or think their arms are too skinny. I want to help you out any way I can!
I hope this helps some of you, I hear over and over how people are afraid to try or think their arms are too skinny. I want to help you out any way I can!
You know what I do to insert them myself? I press my arm against a door frame which presses up my arm much like pinching it. It goes in more shallowly and works real well. It took me awhile to perfect this technique, but it works great!
ReplyDeleteThat's great! I am glad you figured out a technique that works for you. My husband is a pro and it works good almost every single time so I figure why mess with what works for me. As always with Diabetes, ymmv, your mileage may vary.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can go do diabetic camp to learn to insert your sensor yourself? Like we did as kids, ya know?! LOL! I learned to give my shot at age 7 at Camp Herkto Hollow near Des Moines. :)
ReplyDeleteI never went to a Diabetic camp and no doctor ever helped me learn how to give injections. My mom showed me, as she is an RN, so I just had to figure it out that way. I am perfectly happy letting my husband do it, it takes away the anxiety for me, just shoving a comfort short into myself gives me anxiety even after five years of pumping. Its better than injections anyday, I would bruise everytime and they looked terrible.
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