# Accu Chek Tenderlink



## Phil65 (Oct 31, 2014)

Cannulas have always been my main frustration with my pump. I have had various steel 6,8 and 10mm (my current) and have found that I need to change them daily. I am very insulin resistant and find I get tunnelling and fails regularly, my DSN has given me some Tenderlinks to try today......anybody in the same boat?


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## Pumper_Sue (Oct 31, 2014)

Hi Phil,
I use the inset 30 (Animas) which is exactly the same cannula but with a self serter.
It's the best I have found to use so far.
All you can do is try it and see if it works for you or not as the case may be.


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## Phil65 (Oct 31, 2014)

Pumper_Sue said:


> Hi Phil,
> I use the inset 30 (Animas) which is exactly the same cannula but with a self serter.
> It's the best I have found to use so far.
> All you can do is try it and see if it works for you or not as the case may be.



Thanks Sue and very true! I've just inserted my first tenderlink .....fingers crossed!


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## trophywench (Nov 1, 2014)

I've got a box of Tenderlinks I've never dared try since the cannula looks so flippin LONG due to the angle, plus being as you have to DIY too, puts me off more than a bit!  Perhaps I'll try one next change on Sunday - I know they don't stick out so far from your body so perhaps I'm just being daft. 

Do you just stick em in like you would a straight needle?


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## trophywench (Nov 1, 2014)

How daft, the needle's always straight LOL


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## Pumper_Sue (Nov 1, 2014)

The tape goes on exactly the same as the straight cannula.
I was told many years ago that the angled sets were better for people who have had diabetes for a long time as better absorption. No idea what that was based on but hey it works for me


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## trophywench (Nov 1, 2014)

LOL - I meant before you get to the part where you stick the tape down Sue, I mean when you stick it physically into you.

Do you insert the needle at an angle (you know like years ago when we had to pinch and ram in a hedgestake long enough to come out the other side nearly) - or dead straight at 90 degrees like a syringe/pen with a very short needle, which is the same as you do with a 90 degree cannula.

See, bats as it may be cos I'm not partic needle phobic, so if you have to have ANY injection well you just have to have it so why bother making a fuss, just get it over with asap - but looking at those angled cannulas reminds me too much of the old syringe needles which very frequently hurt - but there again I was told I always had to inject in my thighs, and having no fat there it still hurts like stink now, 40 years later.

So I'm scared, basically, Sue - but I like the sound of 'better for old hands' LOL


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## Pumper_Sue (Nov 1, 2014)

Ah ok TW sorry half asleep.
The cannula and needle go in at the angle required. I use the inset 30 and quite surprising with a name like that it goes in at a 30 degree angle  It has little feet on the inserter which sit at the correct angle so no mistake. Pain free and easy to use. No problems withdrawing them either. Will own up and say I'm a complete wimp regarding putting the angled sets in manually.


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## Phil65 (Nov 1, 2014)

I inserted my first tenderlink (13) last night, happy so far! Easy to insert not much different to whacking a steel one in, one noticeable difference is if I press on the cannula there is no discomfort whereas if I pressed on a steel cannula patch, it was a little sore. So far no cannula fail.....wonder if it will last past 24 hours?


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## Hanmillmum (Nov 1, 2014)

Good luck with it Phil, hope this one works well for you - we have had a few problems with cannulas in the past, v frustrating!


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## trophywench (Nov 1, 2014)

Oh well tomorrow morning, my turn to try with one.  Had em 3 years, hope they're not out of date !


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## ingrid (Nov 2, 2014)

The angled ones def fail much less than straight ones (teflon) apparently - never figured out why & DSN/reps couldn't answer that one either?? 

I found they went in ok and then you pull needle out whilst holding plastic pinch bits BUT then I struggled to get silly sticky pads off without partially pulling the cannula back out!! Eventually a rep showed me I had to press my finger on top of cannula where it entered whilst peeling off stickies, and I also found it best to semi-loosen the sticky bits BEFORE starting the whole insertion. Finally got the hang of it! 

Gave up on 'em in the end though cos they tended to leave a bigger entry scar for me than straight or metal sets. 

Good luck with them!


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## Phil65 (Nov 2, 2014)

ingrid said:


> The angled ones def fail much less than straight ones (teflon) apparently - never figured out why & DSN/reps couldn't answer that one either??
> 
> I found they went in ok and then you pull needle out whilst holding plastic pinch bits BUT then I struggled to get silly sticky pads off without partially pulling the cannula back out!! Eventually a rep showed me I had to press my finger on top of cannula where it entered whilst peeling off stickies, and I also found it best to semi-loosen the sticky bits BEFORE starting the whole insertion. Finally got the hang of it!
> 
> ...



That all makes sense to me  so far so good, absorption seems better (might have to turn my basals down!) and no fail......yet! 2nd day.


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## Phil65 (Nov 2, 2014)

trophywench said:


> Oh well tomorrow morning, my turn to try with one.  Had em 3 years, hope they're not out of date !



......did you go for it TW? :cool


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## trophywench (Nov 2, 2014)

Not yet Phil - I hadn't realised until I got one out that I would have to change the tubing cos the ones from the Flexlink are different - and I'm not my best of a morning LOL - so I snoozed the message on my handset LOL and then promptly forgot about changing it.

I'll do it now!


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## trophywench (Nov 2, 2014)

Done it - great difficulty getting it into my skin to begin with though, nurses in hospital on DX doing my early jabs, told me I have tough skin in 1972 though !

Anyway I scrapped the first one cos I don't think I got the right angle and I could still see cannula in the 'window' so I used another and pulled the first one out.

Hell, aren't the needles long?

The old one (2 days) was beyond it's lifespan as usual though, so good job I saw this thread when I did - BG was 12.4 and admittedly it was 9 at lunchtime (from a nice 5.6 this morning) but I couldn't be bothered as we were late having it and it was going cold - so just bolused for the carbs and a correction for the 9, and then all sorts of things had to be discussed.  That's why I'm better changing sets first thing really before I get side-tracked. (ie someone attempts to communicate with me LOL)

If only I could see and function properly when I got up !

So I've had a correction through it and we'll see !


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## Pumper_Sue (Nov 2, 2014)

Instructions for use  https://www.accu-chek.co.uk/gb/products/infusionsets/tenderlink.html


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## Phil65 (Nov 3, 2014)

I'm a fan of these.....officially!  if I was to be picky......they are a bit chunkier and the connection between cannula and transfer is a liitle trickier than the steel, oh and the housing bit that connects to the pump is a bit chunky too. But hey.....so far so good!


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## Pumper_Sue (Nov 3, 2014)

Phil65 said:


> I'm a fan of these.....officially!  if I was to be picky......they are a bit chunkier and the connection between cannula and transfer is a liitle trickier than the steel, oh and the housing bit that connects to the pump is a bit chunky too. But hey.....so far so good!



Fantastic news Phil very pleased for you.


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## Phil65 (Nov 3, 2014)

trophywench said:


> Done it - great difficulty getting it into my skin to begin with though, nurses in hospital on DX doing my early jabs, told me I have tough skin in 1972 though !
> 
> Anyway I scrapped the first one cos I don't think I got the right angle and I could still see cannula in the 'window' so I used another and pulled the first one out.
> 
> ...



Hope it's going well? ......you do make me laugh!


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## trophywench (Nov 4, 2014)

Yes, Sue, I realised I should have done that - after  !!  LOL

I'm happy with the results, I have about a million spare Flexlinks at the moment (don't ask why it's a long story) but I'll certainly have a play a few more times before I order again, to see if I really want to go down that route or not.


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## Phil65 (Nov 5, 2014)

So, day 6 with my tenderlink cannulas, and my 1st fail. Actually not that happy putting in my stomach,my fail was evident after 3 hours with my BG up to 13, back to my thigh and fine again. Also, the last one i took out of my stomach left me sore and probably infected (had been in for 2 and a bit days) ......overall still much better though.


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## trophywench (Nov 6, 2014)

Well 2 days on the first one - marvellous.  Replaced it with another one elsewhere on my tum - I've either hit one of the many bad spots or it's not in right.  Just tested  again and it's over 11 (10.8 is the lowest today) which I'm not at all happy with so I've bunged yet another in I a different place.  It still hurts as it punctures my skin, that was ever the trouble, hence why I prefer the applicator cos bang! and its done, so fast it doesn't hurt.  I just can't get up to that speed and never could even with a pen.  This one was actually worse cos having looked at the instructions again LOL Sue - it tells you to pinch up which I haven't done for about 20 years but worth a try. Owwww!

I've had a correction by syringe and we'll see how this one goes ........

Oh and I have assumed its 1.3ml prime for them as they are 13mm cannulas, hope that's right but anyway if it's wrong that's not going to make that much difference, not all day after various boluses and basal dripping through anyway.


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## Pumper_Sue (Nov 6, 2014)

For the inset 30 which is a 13mm cannula it's a 0.70 prime.
Here's a link to them. http://www.animas.com/support/inset30-infusion-sets

I don't have the guts to self insert them. Chicken moi? Yep you bet.


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## trophywench (Nov 6, 2014)

Well I'm happy with Flexlinks anyway - so not bothered about trying a different make, unless this one is like the first one LOL

But I can get results like that from a Flexlink if it's in one of the 'right' places.  Trouble is, not many of em and I have to find em.


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## Phil65 (Nov 6, 2014)

trophywench said:


> Well I'm happy with Flexlinks anyway - so not bothered about trying a different make, unless this one is like the first one LOL
> 
> But I can get results like that from a Flexlink if it's in one of the 'right' places.  Trouble is, not many of em and I have to find em.



Yep, my problem too, i think i get less fails in my thigh. I changed mine again today as was leaking from the patch......tunnelling i reckon as it seemed to be inserted properly and lasted for 30 hours, probably still an improvement on my steels though.


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## trophywench (Nov 6, 2014)

The good news is, not tested since immediately before evening meal, and I'm now 6.3.

The bad news is, just before that I went to the loo and the thing was over 50% unstuck, no sticky at all left.  So it's now taped up majorly - I've never ever had to do that before !  it was the part that the tubing attached to so the cannula itself was still firmly in, by the looks of it - we'll see when I test just before bed.

Have a feeling we don't get on, LOL


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## ingrid (Nov 7, 2014)

TenderLinks 13mm should be 0.7 prime I was told & I think it's on box or insert booklet or somewhere else too..

I bent some TL cannulas into stupid shapes getting them in, and at all sorts of too shallow and too steep angles, but never had fails or absorption probs. I got the overall impression they were much tougher cookies than FlexLinks/straight teflons & there's a paper/stats somewhere showing much lower failure rate for angled sets. So maybe it is more likely to be dodgy sites when there is poor absorption? I can't use upper thighs or bum due to overuse on MDI, have noticeably different type of fatty tissue in those areas and absorption is just, well, crap ;-) . I really wanted the TLs to work for me cos I could put them in leaner areas, like closer to hip/ribs, than any straight sets, but because they took longer to heal, left bigger scars and were fiddly to put in, I decided to part company with them in the end. I know they work well for some peeps who are extremely lean/muscular. And ok, I admit they were just a tad horrid to insert (I've never had a psychological prob with injecting/sticking needles in and really wanted to find a manually insertable set to use, but those 13mm's worth were not fun! There's a limit to how much needle you're comfortable with pushing in in one go!)


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## Pumper_Sue (Nov 7, 2014)

trophywench said:


> The good news is, not tested since immediately before evening meal, and I'm now 6.3.
> 
> The bad news is, just before that I went to the loo and the thing was over 50% unstuck, no sticky at all left.  So it's now taped up majorly - I've never ever had to do that before !  it was the part that the tubing attached to so the cannula itself was still firmly in, by the looks of it - we'll see when I test just before bed.
> 
> Have a feeling we don't get on, LOL



You might find that the stick has gone due to the age of them. Did you not mention that you had had them a few years?


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## trophywench (Nov 7, 2014)

Oh yes Sue, its just that cos the other two were quite sticky enough, it came as more of a surprise that this one wasn't.  I had realised 'why' as soon as I saw the thing - fortunately my granny knickers had kept it where it should be until then!


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## HOBIE (Nov 9, 2014)

& these are called "Tenderlink"  Hope they work & you get sorted


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## trophywench (Nov 9, 2014)

Gone back to Flexlinks, much easier to bung in and no worse results generally.

Incidentally that last one - I peeled all the tape off, ow! and then had to pick at the damn cannula sticky for ages as per normal with the Flex - to get a bit of the edge 'up' to pull the thing off !  

Must have just needed to warm up some more or something.


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## HOBIE (Nov 9, 2014)

I am sure Laura 87 from Leeds had a problem with this & problems with skin ?


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## trophywench (Nov 9, 2014)

Oh they never irritate my skin, either tape, nor tape (I've even been known to stick a bit of duct tape on something that bled, as a temporary measure and then forgot about it.  No probs when I remembered to pull it off and have a look!

My general prob is absorption, lack thereof, rather than the outside of skin directly!


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## HOBIE (Nov 10, 2014)

No Tw if you have a read of her post it sounded bad. Her skin seemed to be getting a hard time for some reason & it may be something to do with cannulas. Who knows


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## trophywench (Nov 10, 2014)

Hobie, she's had terrible problems I know, but I've not had anything of all she lists.  It sounds to me like a violent reaction to the adhesive but presumably her clinic are looking into that.

I've not had a single drop of blood in tubing or the cannula anywhere and as it's the same tape on the Flexlinks, if I was gonna be allergic I'd have known about it before know.


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## HOBIE (Nov 11, 2014)

Hope she is ok.  Life is tough at times


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## grandma (Dec 18, 2014)

I have only ever used the tenderlink and find it okay never had a problem with it in 2 years can't feel it at all hope it goes well for you too


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