My 7 year old daughter has been on the Minimed pump for about 4 years. I've been on one for about 11 years. I've used different infusion sets myself through mimimed but haven't had any big problems other than itching from the tape from time to time. I've been using the Quickset for my daughter but finally said to heck with it when I was sick and tied of the cannula bending. I've inserted my own infusion set probably a thousand times so I know how to do it. I take all the proper steps to insert hers but after a few blood sugar checks her bg would be sky high. We'd pull it out and sure enough it would be bent. I've missed several days of working spending the day getting her keytones down after a bent cannula. This remained true even after the Quickset recall. I got non-Lot 8 infusion sets and it was still the same things. I started using the Sure T ones and had good luck with them. It took a while for my daughter to get past the fact the needle stayed in her but it was better than the alarming "thud" sound after inserting the quick set. Now she's starting to have problems with the Sure T. After about a day she gets a hard lump the size of a quarter under the site and it gets really red and sore. This is very painful for her. Of course we change the sight right away. After another day or so puss comes out of the hole where the needle was. I'm at a loss on what infusion set to try next. I use the Silhouette sometimes myself and there is no way I'm using that one on her. I cringe putting that one in myself but it works well. I noticed minimed has the Sure T with longer needles now. Maybe the needle is too short so the insuin pools under the skin and gets infected?? Anyone else have issues like that? What did you do?
I too use the Quicksets but they did not work with my daughter. We are finally having luck with the Sure-T after fighting with her to get her to try them. I have noticed that after when it is time to change she does seem to have a bump that once in a while puss comes out of. I haven't tried the different length needle yet because the day my 90 day supply came I found out they were launching the new lengths out. I have to order in the next week or so and am thinking about changing to a different length. As far as the Silhouette they were awful for both myself and my daughter. I had a box that I gave to a neighbor because we both hated them so much. Let me know if you find a solution and I will do the same.
We use the Animas Inset 30's for my 4 yr old son. I don't know if those are compatible with Minimed or not.
We have had some problems with infections too on him. When he had the first one, which was the worst one, and of course it was on the weekend, the endo on call said that we should not go back to that general area for a few weeks. So my son only allows sites in his butt or hip right now and he's pretty thin, so it was kind of hard to just stay on one buttock and feel like we were rotating positions enough, but it did help.
I also wonder if this is happening now more for my son because it is summer? Just more sweaty, in the pool, lake, etc. Lots more ways to pick up germs and/or have them breeding under the site. So I have also started double alcohol wiping to get his skin extra clean before I do the IV Prep wipe.
Finally, we put a hot compress (just a hot wet washcloth) on any infected sites to help draw out the infection and heal faster. We do it up to 4 times a day for 2 days and by then it is usually totally better. We really had to only do it that many times for that first bad infection. If it is hard and red, it is infected - so even if puss is not coming out right away, I'd do the hot washcloth to help it draw the infection to the surface.