Hi Nic – thanks for the mish mash today.

1) I’m in for Rotovegas!
2) Great article, just a shame they need to raise more for consumables before they can use their pumps! Torture!!!
3) Yes, I get more sensitive on my left side. I have a feeling that it’s because I’m right handed, so inserting my cannulas on my left side using my left hand may be the cause? Maybe I don’t get the angle right or something, I don’t know…

I usually find that after I’ve inserted the cannula on the left side of my tummy, I can feel an uncomfortable kind of ping under the skin where the end of the cannula is (that’s where I think the pain is!) for a few hours afterward and if I attempt to sleep on that side that night, I get pain there and the site aches. If I put a little bit of pressure on the site to check it, it hurts too. If I put it in my right side, no pain at all and I can sleep away and get no pain too. The pain in my left side usually goes by the next day or so, but I just put up with it rather than waste another cannula! (I rarely have it where the pain is continuous and I have to do a site change but it does happen.) Is this similar to the sensitivity you get??

Just want to say I did my first manual insertion last week and I was amazed at how it went!! I’ve changed brands for a trial and the new Tenderlinks don’t fit my Silhouette sil serter so I bit the bullet and it was totally fine! I have one more Tenderlink set to use then I’m trialling some Cleo 90’s … it’s all so exciting! haha

That’s choice Nic – god it makes me happy to see good people get help. I used to work for IHC for years so I’m equally stoked to see that kid get his share from variety as well…

For me, I get more sensitive on the right side in terms of inflammation from the cannula and sometimes take them out after only 2 days. Nothing too serious and I’ve never had an infection or anything which is a bonus.

Good luck for the conference!
Re: sensitivity – some days everywhere hurts, even the slightest prick, other days I could be injecting into rubber. It’s weird, I might have to do a paper on physiology to figure it out. I don’t think I have side preferences, although I do favour the left side since I am left-handed. I am wondering whether a site-rotation tattoo could be a good look…avant garde, right?

Interesting that we all have ‘favourite sides’…. I don’t recall this when I was injecting a million (NB slight exaggeration) times a day, but I’m sure it was still the case (guess the needles are a bit finer).

Ruthie, let’s talk road trip sooooon!

BTW if anyone uses the Ace Gold 90s, email me. I have about five in my cupboard which I am not going to use because they don’t sit so well for me. Will give them to you, no money paid!

Nic – sounds good re road trip!

So what sets are you using now (if you don’t mind me asking) as you’re not on the Ace Gold 90s anymore??? Back to Cleos?? Reason being, I have decided to try everything out there just to see what works best for me. I do have a sneaking suspicion that I will be less likely to get infections in my sites if I use the 90 degree insertion sets … but then again, I suppse anyone will get infections if they use the cannulas for twice as long as they are meant to – naughty Ruthie … haha

Do they video and distribute DVD’s from the DYNZ conference sessions? I think your talk on pregnancy would be an awesome resource to share with pregnant T1’s and those contemplating pregnancy. I’m at T1 training to be a midwife, just because I was curious about what pregnancy was going to be like for me as a T1. There is some great resources out there for health professionals, but a lot of these aren’t accessed. There seems to be a severe lack of knowledge of women’s experiences of the challenges of diabetes, pregnancy and birth. It would be great if we could get some of your experiences and other women’s experienced collated and published to be a snazzy resource to help women know they are not the ‘only’ ones on the lonely path of diabetes and pregnancy

Ruthie – I’m still in trial mode. I’ve tried all sorts – Cleos, Ace Gold 90s, Comfort, Unomedical, Flexlink, Rapid Ds and Paradigm Quicksets. I find that nearly all of the expensive ones are on a level – but have yet to find a ‘cheap’ one which does the business without a bit of pain involved!

Felicity – not sure if DYNZ tape their conferences (part of me screams “nooooooo!”) but I’m sure if you contacted them via their website they’ll tell you yay or nay. There are some great resources out there, and some excellent medical professionals in NZ. The woman who runs this blog – http://thesweetnesswithin.blogspot.com/ actually has just launched a great book about the topic too, I’ve been meaning to do a blog post for ages now on it.

Hey Nic, this site is amazing, am so proud of you and what you’re doing here. Well done. Belinda x