Painful sensor insertion

Jenny says:
We got a little busy since the last sensor was in Tommy, so we didn't try to insert a new sensor until tonight. This was our first one all by ourselves and it did not go well.

I decided to try it tonight because the kids don't have school tomorrow. The manual says that it is better to insert in the morning because you need a steady blood sugar two hours after the sensor insertion and then another steady one 6 hours after that. But we never woke up in time to do that before school this week. Plus he would have to enter some figures into the monitor while he was in school. I didn't think he was ready to do that on his own yet. I think I better try a few week-ends first when I am with him. (Summer would also be a good time to try this.)

Well, I decided to try tonight and then just wake up two hours later to calibrate it. We numbed the two spots for 30 minutes. Then he took a shower, he needed one anyways. His pump insertion went fine, as always lately. Quick and easy. Then we came to the sensor.

He had told me earlier, that he did not want to wear it, but I told him that he had to give it another try. It has been a little complicated that we don't have to wear it, like with his pump. That is a good thing, and in this initial case a not so good thing. I think in his mind, since he isn't very fond of it yet, he hopes that I just forget about it. So he puts up a little resistance. I will definitely not make him wear it all the time if that is what he chooses. But I feel that we should probably try it 5 or 6 times before we come to any real conclusion.

He tried to put the sensor in with the automatic inserter. It must have been too steep of an angle. (We had this same problem with the Silhouette inserter.) He immediately began to cry. (Being 9:30 pm didn't help either.) I believe that it went too deep. Maybe hit some nerve endings. It didn't bleed. We slowly took the whole sensor needle back out. I gave him a hug and told him that we would wait until after his basketball tournament this weekend.

I called minimed and they gave me some pointers about how to angle the inserter so it is not so steep. Also, they recommended that I try to find a spot where I can "pinch an inch" on him. Those spots are limited. They also said that they would give me a credit for a sensor.

I'll write more on the next sensor insertion try.