Sil-serter

I've had an insulin pump for many, many years now. I've also been using Silhouette infusion sets for the entire time but have been absolutely terrified to use the Sil-serter. Don't ask me why. So yes, I have manually inserted EVERY SINGLE INFUSION SET I've ever done. 

When I recently got my new pump, they included a Sil-serter. I originally was going to throw it out like I've done with the other ones. But something stopped me. I remembered when I was first diagnosed with diabetes many, many (24) years ago, I was terrified of the lancing machine too. The nurses always did fingerpokes manually; it was my dad who talked me into giving the device a try (he refused to do the manual pokes for me - I was quite young at the time and my parents were taking care of my diabetes needs back then). So I did try it and it honestly wasn't so scary.

Thinking back to that, I decided yo try cobquering my fear and at least giving the Sil-serter a try. Besides if I hated it, I could always go back to manually inserting the infusion sets. I was going to try it a few days ago when I wanted to try another alternate site (my bum) and realized I couldn't reach everything on my own. But I took one of the papers off too soon before I read the instructions. I probably *could* have used it anyway, but didn't want to be worrying about it sticking when I've never used the thing before.

So today, I did a site change with the Sil-serter. And it was honestly 100% totally fine. Well, other than the moment I realized I couldn't really hang onto the thing with both hands and worried about how I'd detach it from the inserted site. But I got it detached!

And yes, I was left wondering what I had been so afraid of all these years (we are talking like over ten years by the way). The Sil-serter worked totally fine, didn't hurt, and gave me access to a whole new place I didn't realize I could use! That's great. My advice for anyone else who is afraid like I was - honestly, just give it a shot. Even if you hate it, you'll feel so much better having conquered your fear!

Now we'll see how my bum works as an alternate site! :)

The Sil-serter