Hello all! I am new to Type One Nation but have been a T1D since 2012. I’ve been relatively uncontrolled. Not horrible numbers but an a1c in the 8s. I’ve been on the Medtronic Minimed 670G for about a year and a half. I’ve loved it. My numbers have improved but I started on the Guardian 3 sensors in late september. Everything has been great up until a month ago. I’ve been using Simpatch and skin tac to help keep the sensor and transmittor in place but the last three times I’ve taken it off, my skin is oozing and hot with infection. I always clean my skin with alcohol wipes, wait to dry, wipe on the skin tac, wait to dry, put in the sensor, and then the simpatch. And I have extremely sensitive skin so I’m always expecting redness and irritation but this is nothing less than oozing, yellow pus coming from where the sensor was.
I’m just at a loss because I love the system. It worked so well for me and it changed my life so I don’t want to give it up but if i keep getting these huge infected welps on my skin, I may have to. I’m running out of healthy skin and I’m even more scarred up than the normal T1D amount.
Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. I’m happy ti have joined this wonderful community.
Red and irritated skin where the tac and tape was, is fairly usual… but what you describe is probably way less usual. I would start with a dermatologist or an internal medicine specialist to determine your sensitivity and the root cause… to the end game of what you can do, given the sensor and tape are necessary. You might be among the folks that cannot tolerate this generation of CGM. sorry I can’t be directly helpful.
Hi Cassidy @Ckirkland, it is “horrible” that you encounter this experience when you are making great steps forward.
I see three possible sources of your skin irritation and you may be able to narrow the cause:
Alcohol. If you have very thoroughly washed your skin and removed ALL soap and lotion residue you can forego the alcohol wipes;
SkinTac. This is a “super substance” designed to be used when the normal doesn’t work; if your skin area is completely dry and clean the Medtronic adhesive may work. I found, about 5+ years ago that the improvement in the Medtronic adhesive allowed me to forego use of IV Prep wipes.
CGM Adhesive. If this is the source of your irritation, the dermatologist suggested by @joe may be able to offer a solution.
Good Luck, and let us know how you survive this obstacle.
I use the Medtronic 670G system and just all of a sudden developed an allergy to both my port and sensor. I was using everything they gave me, but it wasn’t working. I finally told my doctor about it and he said to put a Tagaderm film between the port or sensor and my skin. Also, he said to use Fluticasone nose spray on your skin before you put the tagaderm on so your skin will be protected from any allergies. I tried that and I couldn’t believe the difference. No allergies. I use the 1626W Tagaderm film between my skin and the port & sensor. Just go to Google and put in 1626W in the search field and pick the one with the lowest price. You won’t believe the difference!