Pass the word along…

 

My lovely infusion site tattoo

 

 No, I’m not making it up. Roche Diabetes Care, makers of the ACCU-CHEK® meters and test strips has named August 30-Sept 5 National Infusion Site Awareness Week – and with good reason.

For those who use an insulin pump there are a few things to pay mind to and your infusion site is one of them. 

The infusion site is the area of skin where a pump’s needle introduces a little plastic tube under your skin for  insulin delivery. 

Cleaning the skin properly before the needle insertion and rotating your infusion site each time so you don’t use the same spot can prevent infection and the build up of scar tissue that can block the flow of insulin.

A 2007 study in the American Diabetes Association journal Diabetes Care reported that some adult patients experience as many as 12 issues of irritation or infection a year because of improper site maintenance.

Infusion site management includes: choosing a location on your body, cleaning and preparing your skin at the site, properly inserting the needle, regularly rotating the insertion site to avoid infection and monitoring insulin flow. It’s recommended people change their infusion site every three days and not use the same site for about two weeks.

Notable irritations due to infusion site problems include: having two unexplained high blood glucose readings in a row, itching, burning, pain, blood or air in your tubing.

Roche launched Infusion Site Week to help diabetes educators increase understanding and education among their patients. Roche has also distributed Infusion Site Awareness Week kits to CDEs across the U.S.

Inside is a DVD, fact sheets and talking points, calendar, buttons, media outreach materials and site tattoos. I know because I got one. If you’d like to request a kit you can do so here.

Actually, I don’t use an insulin pump but today I’m wearing the pin and I’m sporting one of the tattoos that came in the box. The tattoos are meant to mark where your infusion site is so you don’t use the same spot twice.

Of course I thought about tattooing all my injection sites until I realized there’d be no skin left showing on my body.