Bleeding My Own Blood
Monday, July 20, 2009 at 9:23AM My CGMS use has been almost 24/7 since I received my sensors from Minimed. I have however taken a day off between just to give myself a little break since I have been able to get 7 days out of each one.
Except for the one I put on Friday night.
I think I have mentioned how intimidating the needle is for this thing. I swear, it looks like a sewing needle and no I am not exaggerating. It does make my infusion sets look like nothing which is good.
Anyhow this one was a bleeder. Like massive amounts of blood. And what was annoying was it didn’t start bleeding until after it was in and all taped up.
I noticed it felt funny so I lifted up my shirt to take a peek at the site and what I saw looked like a sea
shell in a small aquarium filled with blood. So gross.
I pulled of the Tegaderm, mopped up the blood that was everywhere at this point, and applied some pressure to get it to stop. After a few days (it seemed) the bleeding stopped and taped the transmitter back down.
Saturday morning was spot on. A finger stick and the CGM were 3 points apart which is pretty awesome. Later the day we went to a friends how for a BBQ. I snacked on some cheese and crackers when we got there as I chatted away with my friends.
We all went outside and cracked open beers as we played some Bocce Ball. I realized that I never bolused for the crackers and beer so I pulled my pump out of my pocket to check the CGM, it read 108 and showed that I had been at 108 for the last hour. Yeah right!
Try 364!!!
So I just stopped the sensor on my pump and took the thing off.
I think I will try again tonight but I was just too frustrated over the weekend to try again.
For those of you without CGMS, I still love it even though I do get frustrated and for those of you who do have it, does this always happen when you have a bad bleeder? Any suggestions on how to avoid this?
Reader Comments (5)
Not good! I'm sorry, I don't have any suggestions. I don't have a CGM. I'm sure someone from the DOC can help.
Can you add a fish or scuba man to that interpretation?
WV: haggdome?
The very first CGM site I tied was a total bleeder. The nurse showing me how to use it said, oh, thats normal.. but it just kept bleeding! So i ended up taking it off. Actually, later that day I went into DKA so it wasnt the best day to use it anyway! I havent used it since :( I plan to again soon though. And youre right, the needle IS huge and scary!
I have had the same problem with incorrect readings when the site is realy bloody. I agree with you on the size of the needle. It usually takes me a day to work up the courage to put one in.
We've only had one that was fairly bloody (not like yours, but far more than normal) and it happened the one time I didn't ice her arm first, this last time we put one on her. The readings have been seemingly accurate, but we keep having periods of no readings, which has NEVER happened with the Navigator before. I'm not sure if that's related to the bleeding or not.
FWIW, I put EMLA cream on the site, then when I take it off and wash the spot well, I have Meg hold an ice pack on the spot where it will go for at least 10 minutes so it's WAY numb. Thankfully, there is no visible needle...she was scared enough by the size of the inserter. :(
Here's wishing you spot-on accuracy from all the rest of your sensors, and no more blood-filled aquariums. *shudder*