I make the site last as long as possible. I ignore the hurting unless it starts to swell and throb. I’m really terrible. I don’t conserve test strips though, and I don’t re-use reservoirs. I’m thinking about re-using reservoirs now though….

Kerri-

How long do you make a site last?

We always try to change out Joseph's set every three days because we're afraid his sites won't absorb insulin as well over time if we don't... are we just being overly cautious?

I make my sites last until it gets itchy and or its coming off. I refill my resevoir 1 time after the first 200 units are gone.

Here's how I solved the problem.

I have my Flexible Spending Account set up at the max. It's about $500 more than my deductible.

Then I just pay for everything with the FSA card until I meet my deductible. After that I don't pay anymore for supplies.

Then it doesn't feel quite like MY money. It's is, but it's a head game.

I'm religious about changing my site every three days, but that's just about how much insulin I can fit in my pump, so it's more like 80 hours than 72. But I reuse the same length of tubing several times and put it on a new reservoir, just because that's 20 units of insulin I refuse to throw away. And I wait until my pump is screaming at me to change it, but that means I have to keep supplies with me all the time because I may run out at the office or the restaurant we're at or at home or anywhere.

I also use the same lancet *forever* and just cut the callouses off my fingers.

Extended, painful sites, bordering on going bad...Check

Old, dull, rusty (no, but close) lancet....double check

Reservoir on its 3rd tubing set....check, check and check.

I do not keep track of days. I fill my resevoir and change my site when Master P is empty. That is sometimes 4-5 days although this week I almost changed it every day! Dang that stuffing was good!
Lancets are changed bi-monthly or so it seems. :)

I literally give thanks every single day that Jeff has good health insurance. They basically give us whatever we want with no extra money other than the co-pay which we pay out every 3 months.

Have you gone to E-Bay for supplies? My cousin's mom does that and she gets great deals.

Don't do it for insulin of course.

Kerri,
I keep my sites in as long as humanly possible. I can't tell you the maximum amount of time I have kept a site in. I also reuse reservoirs and try to not change the reservoir out till I am down to 0 units of insulin in the reservoir. Lancets get changed only when they do NOT draw blood anymore. I am very frugal, cheap, and just downright grumpy about this disease. I also have not had any issues with site infections or absorbtion issues and been pumping for 5 years. I also use my arms, legs, butt, tummy and hips for sites.

I only have to pay for O's insulin and test strips. Unfortunately there's no way to reuse those. They run me about $100 a month, which is peanuts for most people, but right now, it's killing us.

O would never change her site if she could get away with it. I make her change it every other day, otherwise she gets infections. But our insurance covers all of her pump supplies. I hope to god that continues or we are screwed.

I also wear my infusion sets until they either fall/get yanked off my body. Have never had an infection(despite wearing one for two weeks-I took it out because I figured it was pushing the limits of sanity). I don't reuse resevoirs, because I have ten zillion of the things + won't run out for years. But I test whenever I need to-thats one thing I don't skip out on, no matter what the strip copay is.

Hi kerri,

Where I don't have the pump I can't say anything about the infusion site but I can tell you I am very , very stingy (did I say very ?) when it comes to medical supplies and or meds. I do NOT want to put out a penny for any of it. I think I have a resentment going here (I hate being a diabetic)but I don't care.

At this moment I am 9 days late in picking up my Levemir, metprolol and lipitor. I do have the novolog and have enough for a month. But "other" more important things have come up and I have decided that I can live with the novolog until I get the other meds.

I also am extremely stingy with my lancets. I make those suckers last for at least a week before I reluctantly change one.

What are the "other" more important things I mentioned above? A new cell phone, a scanner, sneakers and a slew of things I totally do not need in the least bit!

But hey ... I'm happy!

of course!

we both re-use lancets until they hurt (the boy taught me well, what can I say). he re-uses syringes until they dull. In both cases, we have plenty from his grandfather, who passed away how many years ago? FOUR. If that gives you any indication about how old some lancets/syringes are...

I too get pissy about having to spend money on diabetes related stuff. It just bites big donkey butt.

I think I get mad because I don't have a choice about that money. I can't "shop around" for a better house, or fancier car, or geekier gadget. It's my diabetes, I'm stuck with it, and I HAVE to pay for it, or die a miserable suffering death. Yeah, that's pretty much why I'm angry about it.

I admit that I'm pretty religious about changing my infusion sets every three days. I worry about scar tissue and stuff.

I also have good insurance that covers my DME (durable medical equipment) pretty good. I get the frickin rod when it comes to my pills (Lipitor, Synthroid, etc) and test strips.

I think Kathleen has a good point, and one I'm going to try this year. We'll see how it goes. My system is not as nicely done as hers - I have to pay out of pocket then submit a bunch of paperwork afterwards to get any money back. BUT - it will help when I'm robbing Visa to pay FreeStyle.

It has been so long on one of my lancing devices, I swear that if I looked at that thing under a microscope, it would look like it had developed a fish hook type barb in it. The damn thing pokes dully going in, then "hooks" my finger on the way out.

Yeah, I should probably change that bad boy pretty quick here...

I change infusion sets twice a week, always on Sun and then either Wed or Thur depending on available time. If I go any longer than four days my site will become irritated. Like a couple of other's said, I too worry about scar tissue... I may be playing this game along time and I want to make sure I don't have absortion issues down the road.

I recently experimented with going a full week before replacing sets. The first week went beautifully. The second week, I developed a knot under the skin that took two months to fully recover. I learned my lesson and am not doing that any more.

I change resevoirs once a week and refill as many times as necessary. Usually just once, although sometimes I have to add a little more insulin towards the end of the week to get me through to Sunday (official resevoir change day).

As for lancets, I change when I replace the batteries in the smoke detector... when the time changes! ;-)

I don't think you can call it stingy when we are already spending hundreds of dollars each year on our supplies.
I loved your comment on a "pump-free shower"! I always try to make my site changes in the morning for those!
How do you re-use reservoirs? Save the twisty part from the end to refill it?
Lancets... I think I only chnage those when I get a new meter? I really don't notice a difference.

If I don't change my sites every two days they turn into nasty red oozy spots that don't go away.

I only change and fill reservoirs once a week, which leaves me with lots of tubing, minus the actual site. Anyone need some tubing?

I have never bought lancets. I just use the free ones that come with the meter. Does that tell you how often I change them?

Anyone ever cut Chemstrips in half? Or even thirds? I remember cutting hundreds of them at D camp back ... well ... too long ago.

The lancet--ah, it used to gross my mom out sooo much when she found out I wasn't changing them. Now that I'm out on my own, I just change them when they start being less effective. (So probably every couple of weeks? It depends on the brand, I think.)

Unfortunately for me and my large insulin requirements, I have to change my site every 3 days, or I run out of insulin, but I'll wait until the last possible second too. When I was working, if I knew I'd be low on insulin during the day, I'd take syringes and a vial along, just as long as my basal rates would hold out. Then I'd bolus for things with the syringe.

We're some thrifty people!

I don't really remember when I last changed the lancet on my glucose meter. And the little needles on my insulin pens - hey they can last quite long also!

I guess that I am lucky to live in a country, where all diabetes supplies, except for insulin, are paid for, either by the local government or the hospital (pump and pump supplies are paid by the hospital treating the patient). That is not to say that I don't reuse some of it occasionally (lancets in particular), but when it comes to site changes, I do them twice a week, usually with a new reservoir every time. Unless I am running low on pump supplies and haven't ordered them from the hospital, of course :-) With daily bike rides and weekly soccer and swimming sessions causing me to sweat, the sites will not stick more than 3-4 days, even with additional adhesives – which by the way are a pain to remove again!

I am cheap with the insulin, though, that is expensive enough so I don't want to waste more than absolutely needed - I still think that the waste of insulin seems greater with the pump than with pens. It is virtually impossible to draw up the last units from a vial, whereas you can easily empty a pen, leaving only 1-2 U that the devise refuses to deliver.

I use 2 sets per week, but change out the tubing with the resevoir on empty (typically every 4-5 dyas).

I hate those alarms so I try to beat them, but I do shoot the remainder of the cartridge (and even what remains in the tubing) back into the vial before drawing my next dose into a cartridge.

I reuse lancets until then hurt.

You are not alone.

I change out sets pretty frequently (three days or so) because my pump seems to get less effective when there's less than ten units left in it.

But I probably change lancets three or four times a year, and therefore have plenty of them.

I used to reuse syringes for weeks, too. I still have bags and bags of them left over from when I was on shots six years ago.

Kerry, to answer your question - YES. I am gulty as well. Call me crazy, maybe lazy....you are not alone on this one.

Guilty here too.

I have started changing my lancet every week or so (my usual plan was to change them once or twice a year) lately because I accidentally got a huge shipment of lancets and don't know what else to do with them. I thought about maybe making holiday gift necklaces out of them, but alas...
I have an ample supply of infusion sets, but I only change that when it stings or falls off.
And YES, Meredith, I cut Chemstrips in thirds when I was young. Sometimes in fourths for fun :-)

I see bits of my own behavior in all the other comments.

One of the reasons I don't change my infusion set more often than I need to is because I HATE the anticipation just before I push the buttons on the sofserter. You know - maybe this will hurt A LOT, maybe not.

Can I do it...OK!

Like I few others, I change my infusion set every three days because that is how long I can go before it runs out of insulin.

I guess I'm less frugal than most with lancets. I usually change them a least once a week.

I never reuse syringes. (I can't remember using a syringe any more than 3 times in the past year).

I try and stretch an infusion set for 4 - 6 days. If the 175 unit reservoir runs dry, I refill it. I would let a site ride under it's either peeling away, it's not absorbing correctly, or until it stings like an SOB.

Lancets, about once a week. Sometimes less often than that, until it develops that "hook" Scott mentioned.

And back in the day of syringes, I would use the same one at least twice, but no more than four times. After that, I start to feel a little dodgy.

And YES do I remember cutting chemstrips into halves! I think my mother had them down to fourths at one point, because she was a professional supply-wrangler.

I'm laughing as I read this, because I too feel the same way. I'm on the Omnipod, so they stop working after 72/80 hours, so I have to change my site.

But I almost ripped my pod off the other day and held it tight against my skin then duck taped it back down - my husband thought I was nuts. But those things cost $30 each and I had just put it in!

Yes indeed, I'm stingy as hell too. I reuse everything I can get away with. Partly I hate the expense, partly I hate making piles of medical waste and plastic trash. BUT: After only 8 years on the pump I've already seen some absorption problems in my abdomen (even though I rotate ab/hips/legs/butt) and had some frustrating, unpredictable highs from them. I've had a few infections too. So I don't dare leave sites in even a day too long, cheap though I am. If the site hurts or turns red, it's making scar tissue, right? I want my skin to stay healthy enough for pumping.

Yep, I do that too. In fact when I was pregnant w/ Frances and the reservoirs would run out insulin in two or three days, rather than change the site or reservoir, I would refill it. The site was good fora week and so was the reservoir, so it was a waste of money to change it, right?

I make my infusion sets for as long as possible. I don't care what it takes (bandaids, glue lol) the thing is I probably have atleast a years worth of supplies upstairs but I can't help it. I just think - right now I don't have to pay for any of my pump suppies but in 2 years when I'm done with college, I won't be on my parents health insurance anymore ... what the hell will I do then? so I'm saving ... ha if I only use 1 or 2 sites a week for the next two years and I continue to get 5 boxes every 3 months then I should be ok :-D

and lancets ... what? i didn't know you could change those lol jk ...

Hi can anyone tell me the best place to get the cheapest prices on insulin pump supplies, infusion sets and reservoirs? Also is it safe to re-use the reservoirs? thanks so much