Not completely related to diabetes... one day I became startlingly aware of how little upper body strength I have when I tried to do push-ups and failed miserably. Since then, I've been doing them everyday before my shower, systematically increasing the number each time they seem easier. I do them with my arms on the bathtub so they are easier because the angle is lesser (Yes, I realize that this means I'm doing girl-pushups, but I'm fine with that!). Within a few weeks, starting at 5 pathetic ones, I can do 25, and still increasing.
I'm certainly not buff, but I'm realizing that my arms have more muscle mass in them than most other areas of my body. Because a lot of the infusions sites hit muscle, a lot of them resulted in 'pooling' where it takes a few hours before the insulin is absorbed and works. I only had one out of the 5 sites that did not have pooling, and that site was problematic for completely other reasons: adhesion!
The site that had no pooling and had really good absorption didn't even last 2 days. It dislodged overnight and I woke up with ketones. That site was on the back of my arm, close to the armpit. I don't have problems with adhesives, so I'm thinking that this problem was because my antiperspirant was interfering - each time I applied, it would hit the plastic nub on the site. Or, it could be due to sweat, which is also quite likely.
In general, comfort was ok. The tubing has a way of creeping upwards, which can feel a little tickly when you have a bunch of tubing conglomerating at your armpit. Because the tubing is so long, I have to wear an undershirt at night to keep it in place, otherwise arms and legs and other appendages might get caught in it .
In general, the arm went well.
I put in a new site last night in my right upper back. I imagine I'll be able to get at least 6 sites out of my back, so here goes another few weeks or a month.
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