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Can’t seem to inject my son without panicking please help!

M

MeMyCatsAndMyBooks

Member
Messages
11
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
My 7 year old son has been diagnosed with T1D for 3 months, on MDI.
I've always done his injections nobody else bar school, I've always been fine about them and done it really well so I like to think.

However this week I got sick and my hands got a bit shaky and it's eroded my confidence massively when doing injections.
I've swapped to holding the pen like a thumbs up which has really helped control and no longer shakey but when it comes to taking the needle out of the skin I panic and it's like my brain goes blank so my husband has to help me remove it!

How do I get over this? It's ridiculous and really annoyingoff, as it's the most easiest part! I've stabbed a orange at least 100 times and had no issues, I've done it in the air praticing and can do it fine it just comes to my son and head goes blank! I’ve ordered a tickle flex but won’t be here till Monday at the earilest, I just don’t understand up till Wednesday I was fine and now I just seem to go blank!
 
Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

I learned to inject myself at that age. 1976. However, what I was taught was primarily practiced on an orange too.

Could you go “back to basics” & retain your fluid confident technique trying the same?

Is your son usually on the whole OK with your technique? Has he been given the opportunity (under supervision.) to do it by himself?
 
Welcome @MeMyCatsAndMyBooks (love the username!).

Can your husband take over for a bit to prevent injecting becoming a stressful event for your son?
In the mean time, you may be able to come over your anxiety. Maybe by talking to someone, 3 months is a short time to get used to a complex diagnosis for your child. I can imagine it's all adrenaline and just dealing with it at first but now things are starting to become the 'new normal' you're getting some backlash from that.

Have you considered practising again, not on an orange but on yourself or your husband? Maybe this can help to get over this sudden issue with injecting your son.

How does your son feel about helping with the injections himself? If he's interested, it could help him feel more independent and in control as well, 7 is not too young if he wants to. (If he doesn't want to, by all means let him be 7 and do it for him of course.)

You're doing well, allow yourself to have some trouble adjusting, it's part of the game!
 
can your son do the injection on his own? usually, children easily cope with this and often rejoice at how independent they are if they know how to give injections. I was only a year older than your son when I was diagnosed and my parents practically didn't give me injections
 
He won’t inject himself yet, he’s still funny about the idea of it. He will do his own lancet and take his glucose number happily but that’s as far as we’ve got! He also doesn’t let my husband do his injections which isn’t helping matters.
I think you’re right it’s the backlash I’ve been working on auto pilot for 3 months and now I’ve had time to stop and think I’m just like “ughh what am I doing!”
Never taught the basics I was just told by the endo team inject they only saw me do it about 3 times at the hospital. I also can’t do it on myself which would really help as I’m not diabetic.
I think my technique is fine it’s just the taking it out, I took it out fast to begin with when we started and that was fine and it started causing him to bruise a little so I started taking it out more slowly which was also fine and now my brain is just blank when it comes to it. I think deep down I’m scared to pull it out incase I hurt him or bend the needle which is crazy as we’ve been fine up to now!
 
MeMyCatsAndMyBooks said:
I think deep down I’m scared to pull it out incase I hurt him or bend the needle which is crazy as we’ve been fine up to now!
Click to expand...

Bruises do not appear from how quickly you pull out the needle, but from the fact that you get into a blood vessel. But if you're interested, even if a bruise appears from the injection, it still doesn't hurt. If you are afraid of hurting your child, use a new needle, this is almost a 100% guarantee of painlessness
 
@MeMyCatsAndMyBooks ,

It probably sounds a bit harsh with the suggestions of get the lad to do it. It was a day or so after a week in hospital for me.
(Glass syringes.) started off I learned to pull the dosage up out of the vial like we were taught then my mum would inject I would push the plunger down. (In the legs.) then I could pull the needle out. Then I remember her saying, “you gotta do this all by yourself at some point. The sooner the better.”

Which oddly enough a couple of months later my mum was taken ill..

Do you “pinch up” when injecting? It’s an old technique with the larger syringe needles. But I still use it for the 4 or 5mm pen needles too.
 
Yes we pinch when doing the injection and that works great. I didn’t know the bruises were caused by that, I thought it was the way I was pulling out fast and hurting him that’s quite interesting. We use a new needle every single time.
I know if I told him to inject he’d refuse and end up in DKA again.
 
I can appreciate even arter nearly 47 years of injecting. It’s an unnatural act to impale oneself. Let alone someone you love.
It’s only natural for a kid to “kick back.”
I remember my family dynamics changed after diagnosis & reasoned it would be easier if I’d “stolen a car?”

I was the only “D in the village” at that point. Is there anyway you could get your son to hook up with T1s around his own age?
Preferably, slightly older more independent kids to look up to?
 
I didn't mean tell your son to "do it yourself," and go drink tea while he does it. Something like "Let's you try to do it yourself. Look, here you need to click 2 times (substitute the necessary dose), and now squeeze the skin and sharply insert the needle ..." and sit next to him while he does it, accompanying each action with delight and words like "well done! What an independent son I have! I'm so proud of you." If you can not show your own fear, it will be perfect.
But this does not mean giving him syringes for personal use
 
Yes he does, there’s a kid at school with T1D and theyre pretty close and he’s been really helpful sharing stories about dexcom applications to my son!
His older cousin has also just been diagnosed with T1D too. If his cousin a 14 year old boy can inject himself then I should be able to inject my kid simple. I need to do his tresbia in a minute so gonna have a deep breathe and get on with it. Think when I go blank I’m mentally going to have to tell myself to just take it out.
 
Oh no I totally get what you mean, I’d really like for him to do it and I’d be happy as Larry to sit there and say well done at each part but he is a young seven. I think give us till autumn and we’ll be at that stage where he’s ready.
 
Sounds to me like you may have a form of “burn out.?” Which I totally understand.

I mentioned my mum becoming “Ill” a couple of months later? It was after the death of my Nan. I’d also worked out on my diagnosis she was told some out dated negative outcomes to my longevity with this condition..
These days it would be termed as a “nervous breakdown?” I remember her having a GP show up at home & do blood tests?

We had “this chat” in my teens. No son likes to see his mum upset.

This condition is nobody’s fault.. As I responded to my mum at the time, (paraphrasing for decency.) “sheds happen…”

You got this. & I’m certain he will be there for you later in life.
 
Just did his Tresiba, I had a moment again where I was like what am I doing but told my brain just take it out this is the easiest part and it came out beautifully no bruising or bleeding and no wobbling. So I can do this and I feel a lot happier especially as I managed it tonight so tomorrow I should be okay to do again. I think it helped my son was talking about minecraft to my husband and it distracted me as I even lost count. Might play some music in the background to distract me from now on.
Thank you for all the kind words you’re all amazing, I think I’m going to get some counselling booked and work through this so I’ll be ready when the time comes to gently push him to inject himself. (Although I’ll always be that mum that fusses )
 
You got this.. see my previous post. Yah fuss because you care. I get it!
 
Great news! I'm so glad you could do it!

It seems that your child treats injections calmly. This is a good sign!

In fact, when you save a child's life, you don't do anything wrong, even if he is in pain or crying. Just remember that
 
I’m so sorry to hear that about your mum.
It’s awful she was told that, I thought the outdated outcomes would have died off long before, I know they’re still lurking on the internet in places and I avoid google like the plague! it’s amazing what outcomes it is now compared to 40/50 years ago. I know a diabetic who is in his late 80s who’d of thought!
She’s lucky to have a son like you.
 
I think that's about how long ago we're talking about with @Jaylee 's mum!
 
We used to take in lodgers? A student nurse staying with us when I was 10 was out “clubbing” one night when I got into her room & read her “study books.” (No internet in the era of 1978.) what I read under the research on T1 shrank the generous room this student had.

A revelation understanding what was discussed with HCPs in hushed tones over my head.

But hey, I’m still here fully functional married & with my sister taking care of a great woman head butting her 91st year (11 of which.with Alzheimer's.)
She’s still the great woman we know. She don’t fuss over my diabetes any more..

I now got a wife for “that…”
 
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