Saturday, February 7, 2009

Pump Site- Kayleigh's Interview

When we went to the Pump Class last Thursday night, our CDE gave us the option to have a site put in to see how it feels. I knew that I wanted to get one done since I will probably be the one doing Kacey's sites and I knew Frankie wanted to have one done but I never in a million years would have thought that Kayleigh would volunteer to have one done. She is VERY afraid of needles (just look at her face in the pic below) but this was something that she wanted to do and we didn't push on her. Now for my interview with her.....

Me: Kayleigh, you chose to wear a pump site so you could feel what it would be like for your sister to wear it. Was the site insertion as painful as you thought it would be?
Kayleigh: Actually no it wasnt. I am really scared of needles and the only thing I felt was a little tingle when the needle was being removed.
Me: Did you find the site uncomfortable to wear?
Kayleigh: In a way it was sort of uncomfortable because I was attached to it.
Me: You wore your pump site to school with the tubing tucked into your pocket. Did your friends notice? Were you more aware that it was there? Did you feel self conscious about it?
Kayleigh: My friends didn't notice until I showed them. I had gym that day and we have to change in the locker room. One girl looked at me weird and asked me what it was? When I told her what it was she really didn't understand what I was talking about. I was aware that it was there because I was afraid I would snag it and pull it out during school. I wasn't self conscious about it because no one knew I had it on unless I showed them. I did get alot of questions from the friends that I showed and was happy to answer them.
Me: You were only able to wear your pump site for 24 hours. What happened?
Kayleigh: The first night I got it, my arm snagged the tubing and it began to bleed a little. As the hours went on, it got more tender and hurt. The blood went further down the tubing and it worried us so I took it out.
Me: Was it painful coming out?
Kayleigh: I thought it would be but I soaked it with alcohol and it came right off like a bandaid.
Me: Did the area around where you had the site hurt after taking it out?
Kayleigh: No it was just a little tender and I think that was because it was snagged.
Kayleigh's pump site after 24 hours.... Is this normal?

Me: Do you have more respect for what your sister will have to go through every day?
Kayleigh: Yes, even though it will only be one stick every 3 days, I wish she didn't have to go through all of that. If I could take it from her I would. She's been so brave over the last 6 months and I'm proud of her.

Conclusion: This was definately an eye opener for Kayleigh and I'm glad she took part in it. I did have a question about the site though. If you snag your site like that, do you have to pull it out and do another one? I was thinking that since insulin would be flowing through a real one, then you wouldn't get the blood backup like that. Would you? I think having patients, parents, siblings, and anyone else involved in the care of a child with diabetes should have to wear a site. This has definately given us an inside glimpse into just a SMALL portion of what Kacey goes though.

My interview tomorrow :)

5 comments:

Amy said...

Oh Jill! Kayleigh is an AMAZING sister! This brought tears to my eyes. I don't even know if I could bring myself to wear it! I've been inspired!

Unknown said...

I have snagged mine many times and I haven't had to replace it every time. You wouldn't believe how they hold up to being snagged, sometimes it feels like your skin is going to rip off and the site will be fine. Other times I have snagged it and the site has come out. Just watch the site for bleeding, if blood sugars start to climb and you can't get them down then change it out. If I snag it and it starts to get sore then I will go ahead and replace mine.

Anonymous said...

How brave you are Kayleigh! :) Tristan's site looks way different and we've never had a problem with snags. We've had to change his site because it was kinked but there was never any blood in the tubing. Sometimes when we remove his site, there's blood where the catheter was and sometimes it looks like a big pimple.

After we remove the site, we usually put neosporin on it and it does the trick. Also, for removal, you may want to try "Uni Solve" wipes. They are great to dissolved the glue. :)

:) Tracie said...

I'd guess that the reason there's blood is because there's no flow of insulin to stop the blood from entering the catheter and tubing. It will be different once there's a flow going into the body. Site's usually do heal faster with Neosporin, just be sure to really move the site area around to allow the old ones to heal.
Your family is awesome in their support!!

Cara said...

I've heard of this happening to people, but never had it happen to me. So I'm not really sure.
As for the snagging, you get to the point where you automatically (unconsciously) avoid most of the snags.