Living as a type 1 diabetic on the insulin pump has a lot of major benefits compared to having to take multiple shots every single day of your life, but that does not make life easy, just a little easier.
There are still many things that need to be learned and a lot of getting used to when dealing the Insulin Pump.
One of the most stressful parts of having to live with the Insulin Pump is having to change your pump site every three days.
It's really not too big of a deal because it only takes about five minutes, and there is really not any pain associated with it, though you may have the occasional stinger.
For me, it is just the idea of doing it that bothers me.
Having to fill up a vial with expensive medicine, hook it up to a tube that is attached to a half inch needle, blast yourself with that needle and then pull it out while leaving a small rubber-like piece inside you.
Yeah, that is not a lot of fun and gets me pretty stressed out whenever I have to do it.
There I was able to describe the process in just four steps, but the real process involves a lot more steps.
In this article, I will give you step by step instructions on how I change my pump site every three days.
This may be beneficial to those who have a hard time understanding the books way of changing the pump.
Before we begin here is a list of all the materials you will need: Pump, Alcohol swab, I.
V prep swab, bottle of insulin, Reservoir, Quick Set, and the Quick Set Inserter.
1.
After the pump is disconnected from insulin and yourself, press ACT then scroll down to Reservoir+Set and press ACT.
2.
Under Reservoir+Set, scroll to Reservoir Setup and press ACT.
3.
It will then remind you to disconnect the tubing from your body and to remove reservoir from pump, You will then press ACT to rewind the pump.
4.
As you rewind the pump, you will hear and see the device that pushes the insulin actually rewind itself back into the pump.
5.
Clean the top of the insulin bottle with an alcohol swab.
6.
Open the Reservoir and pull down half way and push air back out, Do this once again, but before you push the air back out hook the top of the reservoir up to the insulin bottle you cleaned with alcohol swab.
7.
Push the air into the insulin bottle while the bottle is upside down.
8.
Pull the Reservoir down and fill up with insulin.
Fill Reservoir with the amount of insulin recommended by our Doctor.
9.
Grab your Quick Set inserter.
10.
Open up your Quick Set and place needle part into the Quick Set Inserter.
After it is placed down, you will need to pull the Inserter down until you hear it click and it will stay down.
11.
Attach the Quick Set Rubber tube to the top of the Reservoir that is filled with insulin.
12.
Slide the Reservoir into the insulin pump and twist in so that it is securely attached to the pump.
13.
Now that everything is attached to each other and ready to go, next you will fill the tubing with insulin.
You will press the ACT button then it will ask you to confirm that the pump is not attached to you, then you will scroll to YES and press ACT.
14.
Hold down ACT and you will hear the pump begin to move and beep as it begins to pump insulin through the tube.
15.
Continue to hold down ACT until you see the insulin coming through the tube, and then once you see some insulin come out of the needle you can release the ACT button.
I usually like to let the insulin pump out about 8-10 units of insulin before I let go of the ACT 16.
Choose the location on your body where you wish to attach the pump.
17.
Open the I.
V prep pad and rub on your skin in a circular pattern where your site will be.
You should rub in a circular pattern about three inches or about the size of a baseball.
18.
Hold the Quick Set Inserter with up to the body, and press the two side buttons at the same time to blast the needle in.
19.
Put the Quick Set Inserter down, and then pull out the needle that is attached to you and the Quick Set.
20.
Now, press the ESC button on the pump and the insulin pump will give you the Fill Cannula option.
All you need to do is press ACT.
21.
Take a deep breath and relax, you are now done changing your insulin pump site, now repeat these steps in seventy two hours.
As you can see, it is a whole lot of steps that need to be completed every time.
Every one of these steps is crucial and needs to be completed with accuracy.
At first it may seem like a lot of work to have to do every three days and looks like it might be time consuming.
For me, it took quick some time to become an expert at it, but I believe everyone who has this pump will be an expert in time.
It may take up to ten - fifteen minutes to complete when you are first starting out, but after a year or two you will find yourself completing all of these task within five minutes, and will not need to look at the step by step process, but just go of memory.
I found it beneficial to have a parent of family member complete steps 17-20 during the first few years of my pump use.
I was young when I started the pump and was not as comfortable letting myself insert the needle in me, but after some time it became no problem.
I hope that this article and step by step process helps you know and understand how to change your pump site.