Taking insluin in public places like restaurants

[corbanwolf]

Hey
I sometimes go to restaurants or small diners. Unfortunately some of them don't have a toilets. And here's my question. How do you go about taking insulin in places where bathroom is not available. Is it okay to take inslin while at the table? Obviously making it discreete and quick but is it acceptable?

 

[Emily95]

You really shouldn’t take insulin in toilets. It’s unhygienic as there are airborne microbes. You should do it at the table, yes, if you want to, be discreet but it’s life saving medication- you need to take it so the table is fine.

 

[EllieM]

Obviously making it discreete and quick but is it acceptable?

I've been doing it at the table for decades. A quick look round to make sure the waiter/waitress isn't just about to come over, followed by a quick jab from my insulin pen (it would have been a lot harder with a vial of insulin and a syringe but I got given an insulin pen at the same time as I was moved to multiple daily injections nearly 40 years ago). I also do my pre meal blood test at the table. Just be discreet.

 

[Tophat1900]

At the table

 

[Circuspony]

Always at the table - in fact I find it harder when I'm at people's homes!!

 

[ert]

I prefer injecting into my legs, so from my bag to my leg under the table is easy.

 

[JMK1954]

In any cafe or restaurant, everyone else is more interested in their meal, talking to their companions, reading the paper etc. It may sound unlikely, but it's true. I only started injecting at the table about 6 years ago, but I've been diagnosed for 56 years now. I only made the change after reading comnents on this forum and realised what was said was probably true. My husband was a bit dubious about my attracting attention at first, but it just doesn't happen 99% of the time. Only once have I noticed an elderly woman staring at me. I smiled and then ignored her. Nobody has ever said anything. Don't make this an extra thing to worry about. We all have more important matters to concern ourselves with.

 

[Jaylee]

Hey
I sometimes go to restaurants or small diners. Unfortunately some of them don't have a toilets. And here's my question. How do you go about taking insulin in places where bathroom is not available. Is it okay to take inslin while at the table? Obviously making it discreete and quick but is it acceptable?

Hi,

Since the advent of mobile devices.. Most "norms" are to enchanted looking at social media.
Even when dining out with the "love interest?"
So whilst they are busy Tweeting to hassle the diabetic about the injecting at the dinner table?
I'm too busy working out the carb content & giving a quick bolus for it to worry about..

I carry my pen with a needle already attached. Deftly pull it out of the cargo pocket slip the cap, 2u airshot under the table.
Do the needful.. Shorts? In the leg. Full length, lift the shirt.

 

[porl69]

49 years T1D and still have not used a toilet to inject. They are not the cleanest places as you are undoubtedly aware.
People do not take much interest in what you are doing when eating out.
No one complains when someone takes an inhaler.....just go for it wherever you are

 

[KK123]

Simple answer is YES. I always think that simply just getting on with it is the best strategy, nobody else's business. Now if you administer it by whipping off your skirt and gamboling up the table squirting insulin everywhere that's a different matter. I always give thought to others in any public place though no matter what I am doing and as long as it's all legal(!) then it's all good. The toilet?, erm, I don't think so! x

 

[MattH892]

I started off doing it in the toilet due to being a bit self conscious injecting in public, but felt like a junkie and just imagined the look on someones face if I was caught in the act

Table makes much more sense

 

[JenniferM55]

I've seen many who've discretely injected at the table and I've thought nothing of it. It's life.... all part and parcel!

 

[ROE100]

Now always at the table or where I am sat to eat, but yes back on teh 80's tolilet was my choice until I dropped my vial and it broke on the floor so then couldn't eat what I had ordered.

I once was in Paris early 00's and was near a popular torist attraction and we decided to eat in quiet corner - lots of very stern police working around with guns - so before I injected I checked phase book to check I could communicate diabectic then injected. Now if aboard or anuwhere I eating I just inject where I am.

 

[Miriam12345]

I used to be so embarrassed taking insulin in restaurants, so I would take it in toilets or wait (stupidly) until I got home and was sky high. Then I realised, there is no shame, I don't make a big fuss doing it, I do it through my clothes so no one is going to see anything major! I now do it at the table when I eat, much more hygienic and I feel absolutely no embarrassment, although I do try to be a bit discrete as I understand people do faint at the sight of needles.