The Most Painful Infusion Set Insertion Ever

I came home this morning at 7:00 after an early run.  I walked with my son Tom to his bus stop, walked the dog and got ready for a shower. Before getting into the shower, while disconnecting from my pump, I noticed my adhesive was coming off. I was scheduled to change my infusion set anyway so I decided to take it out and just put a new one in after my shower. 

I got dressed and hurried to put my new infusion set in before taking Guy and Adam to school. I prepared the reservoir and set and when it was time to insert I got up, held my shirt up with my teeth and inserted the infusion set on the lower right side of my abdomen, a little towards my stomach. 

I don’t know why, but it killed. It hurt so much I wanted to scream and just pull it out. But I didn’t. I figured it would pass in a moment and Guy was standing next to me telling me he was ready to go.

Inserting a new infusion set is usually a little painful, although sometimes it just kind of slips right in with no pain at all. This time was different, it hurt so much it was hard to control myself.

I put my shoes on, feeling terrible pain. It hurt when I bent down or moved to the side. It also just hurt. We went downstairs and walked to Adam’s nursery school and then to Guy’s school.  

I was really in pain but thought it would pass soon enough. I was wrong. It didn’t stop for a moment. When I got home I told Jessica what had happened.

“I don’t know what I’ve hit, but it kills,” I said.  “It’s never hurt like this before.”

“So take it out,” she said.

“I’m waiting to see if it gets better. If it doesn’t I’ll take it out and put a new one in on the other side.”

It didn’t get any better. It got worse. So after three hours of pain – serious pain- I removed the set (which wasn’t fun with the new well-sticking adhesive). It took me an hour of being disconnected, to get the courage up to put in a new set on the other side. This time it was fine (normal pain).

Now the pain is mostly gone but not knowing what caused it, what I hit, bothers me. It makes me worry that it I will do it again.

Michael Aviad

Michael Aviad is co-founder of ASweetLife. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2002. Michael was born in Santa Barbara and grew up in Jerusalem. He studied law and after passing his bar exam went on to get an MBA with a major in finance. Michael worked for many years as an economist. He and his wife Jess, also a type 1 diabetic, have three sons. Michael loves to run and is always training for the next marathon.

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