When your child wears an insulin pump or CGM, you get used to site changes becoming part of life. Still, sometimes something small can feel really big.
Tonight after removing my son’s Omnipod, the site started bleeding. Not just a tiny dot — enough to scare him. Enough to make him upset. Enough to make him say, once again, how much he hates diabetes.
And honestly? I don’t blame him.
He didn’t choose Type 1 diabetes. He didn’t choose site changes, insulin, alarms, carb counting, or the constant awareness that his body needs help doing something most bodies do automatically. He’s just a kid who wants to be carefree.
We have had “bleeders” before, but this one was a lot more than normal. It took lots of pressure and bleeding through paper towels to stop it. It stopped, we bandaged and he was fine. But emotionally? That’s the part that lingers.
Because after something like that, the hardest step isn’t stopping the bleed — it’s putting the next pod back on.
He was scared. Worried it would hurt again. Worried it would bleed again. Frustrated that this is something he has to think about at all. And underneath it all was that heavy feeling so many T1D families know: diabetes burnout can show up even in kids.
What I saw tonight wasn’t weakness. It was exhaustion.
So we paused.
We talked about how sometimes a pod just hits a tiny blood vessel. It looks dramatic, but it doesn’t mean anything is “wrong.” We reminded ourselves that one rough site doesn’t mean the next one will be the same. We took a few deep breaths.
And when he was ready — not rushed, not forced — we put a new pod on together.
That moment of bravery? That matters more than the bleed.
If you’re a T1D parent and you’ve had a site bleed after removing a device, you know how unsettling it can feel — especially for kids. You’re not alone. These moments are hard. They stir up emotions that go way beyond a little blood.
But so much of living with type 1 is this:
Scary moment. Big feelings. Deep breath. Try again.
And every time our kids choose to put the device back on, even when they’re scared, that’s resilience in action.
Diabetes is relentless. But so are they. 💙
The bruising picture from the day after. It will heal and so will he.
