Just a Little Girl and her Mommy…and Mommy’s Diabetes Accessories

Ruby's-AccessoriesLittle girls do love their accessories and mine has an eagle eye for detail.  Here, my daughter Ruby has on her cool Reef flip-flops, a white snap bracelet with cherries, blue mirror shades, a pink and green striped raccoon tail, and a multicolored hair wrap with hot pink feathers on the end.

Needless to say, when I changed up my diabetes supply cases this weekend, she was quick to notice.  “Mommy I like your new gold case with the white case better than the old silver case with the green case.  And I like the pink case too.”  Hmmm, that’s a lot of cases. She’s grown up knowing it’s “Mommy’s diabetes stuff” but we haven’t ever talked about which case is for what.

New-Diabetes-CasesMy husband and I explained that the white case was a “skin” case for Mommy’s OmniPod, the gold case was Mommy’s diabetes kit and the pink case was for Mommy’s CGM, which stands for Continuous Glucose Monitor.  “Rubes, do you know what continuous means?”

“No.”

“It means all the time and Glucose means sugar.  Do you know what monitor means?”

“No.”

“Monitor means watcher.  So, the pink case is Mommy’s all the time sugar watcher.”

Ruby grinned and chimed in with “And your bracelet is your sleep watcher!”

Oh, yeah, that’s right…there’s also the Fitbit Flex I wear, which tracks activity and sleep. Little girls…they don’t miss an “accessory” beat!

Wearing My OmniPod On My Back: A Little Help Here?

So lately I’ve been trying out OmniPod sites to experiment with my insulin absorption rates.  Wearing the pod on my back is great as far as insulin absorption and blood sugar are going, however, how the heck do you reach back there to change your pod?

If I was just using the OmniPod and the adhesive it came with, I’d probably be ok using a mirror to place new pods and remove old ones…but I use Skin Tac and (as many of you know) that stuff is messy!

When I place pods on my belly, the circle of Skin Tac I apply first is larger than the circle of the OmniPod adhesive, so I’m left with a sticky ring around the new OmniPod when I’m done that I have to go back and carefully clean off.

No way I can use an adhesive remover on my back and just wipe off the extra “ring” of Skin Tac without also getting some on the OmniPod.  If you can do this…more power to you!  But, I’m just not that flexible/coordinated anymore.  What’s a girl to do?  Well, actually I’ve been asking my husband to assist with hard-to-reach site placements.  He diligently sprays the old pod with De-Solv-it, removes all the old, yucky residue, places the new pod (where I actually want it instead of where I’d probably accidentally stick it if I was trying to place it back there myself), and wipes away the “ring” of leftover Skin Tac.  Yeah, I know…he’s a great catch!

What would I do without him? Anyone have any good tricks to share for hard-to-reach sites?