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HELP!!! What do i do?!!!!

sicko666

sicko666

Well-Known Member
Messages
51
Location
UK
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Textbook medical profesionals! Narrow minded people.
After visiting my GP today to get my usual once a year repeat prescription for the needless SQ-Pen i was told i can no longer get it.After asking what am i supposed to do, i was told they don't know! They then asked me what was i using before the Sq-pen and i told them syringes,they then tried to make a prescription for these,i told them, the pharmacist told me syringes were no longer available only capsule types, at which point they said they would send a prescription to the chemist anyway other than that they dont know what to do!!!!

What the hell am i supposed to do?
I have a needle phobia, and the Sq-Pen was the only device i know of that i could use.What am i supposed to do,how am i supposed to live until the "cure" is discovered? Sorry but i am furious at the moment, i have no idea what alternatives there are avaliable on prescription, if any, for needle phobia people like me.Trying to get to see a consultant is a joke,i had to show him the Sq-pen in the first place he never heard of it,i have contacted the makers of the Sq-pen to but dont expect a fast response from them,The diabetic nurse is "busy" at the moment and i have to wait till 2pm until i can try her again, the chemist has no idea,nor does the GP,its like they just expect you to go and die somewhere quietly!!!! :x :x :x :x :( :( :(

Are there any other needless systems still available now the inhaled one, and the Sq-pen are not available any more?
Who is responsible for killing the brilliant,no,FANTASTIC Sq-Pen, as i wish to go visit them with a shotgun to return there death sentance!
 
Hi,

I've never used a needle-free injector. But i remember seeing one in the diabetes clinic. I googled the sq-pen and it looked nothing like yours. So i assume there must be a few different ones available if the one you was using you can no longer get.

Did your GP look to see if there was an alternative available?

how much supplies do you have, do you have enough to last you until you can sort it out?

Your diabetes team should be quite concerned with this as you have a needle phobia and it is their job to make sure you can continue taking insulin!

are you available to go to your diabetes clinic in person, It's easy to avoid a phone call but not someone in person.

I wish i could be of more help and i didn't want to see your post go unanswered.

I understand how furious you must be, use this anger to fuel you into getting an answer about what steps you can take to make sure this is sorted ASAP.

good luck!
 
Thanks for the quick reply :D you have been the only person that is bothered, no "health care professional" seems to care less!

The Sq-pen has been around for a couple of years now, i asked for one as soon as it became available on prescription and i was the one who was the first to use one in my area (in fact the "rep" from the company asked me if i wanted to travel the country to promote it but i couldnt at the time). It has changed in design only once but not that much really,but it is the ONLY needle free device available which is why i am so frustrated & scared at the same time! If there was an alternative i wouldn't feel such worry... :(

Lol GP looking to find an alternative lol thats a joke? He is your typical GP, writes repeat prescriptions and then only if he has too, other than that its my problem! What with the new "patients choice" approach to medicine i think its more like "patients treat yourself" at least in his clinic!

I just got off the phone to my diabetic nurse (the first time i phoned i was told i should phone back 3hrs later so i had to wait to do just that!). Mind you it hasnt solved anything instead she told me to email all the details to her,which i tried to do but my emails bounced,i phoned her again and now she wants me to phone her 10;30am tomorrow instead!

The reason i went to the GP's in the first place was you have to replace the main piston once a year, and it has been a year.I will continue to use it, as i have no choice, but when using my last one for over a year it exploded ( caused a huge bruise believe me ). Anyway there is no immediate threat as such, (though it took 2 months to wait to get the one i am using now from getting the signed prescription! ). Its just how slowly things move in getting prescriptions and us diabetics cant exactly wait a few months between injections like the way the health care pros think we can, can we.I no longer have any stockpiles of needles to fall back on (they were used last time)....

What really annoys me though is i was never informed about this or given any alternative treatment to keep me alive.Now i am ok, but what about all the others out there who are using the same device, do they know, or been given alternatives or will they find out on say a Saturday morning when there are no GP's or hospital diabetic nurses to contact? Its worrying isnt it!!!! :shock: :(
 
Have you tried an insulin pen with 4mm needles? They are tiny. I panic when faced with blood test needles (and injections, but blood tests are worse. I can't even watch on TV when people are having blood tests), but pen needles don't produce the same reaction in me, I assume it's because of the size.

The DSN I saw said the needless ones weren't often prescribed, she said they could be painful (I often do not even feel the insulin injections), are larger than insulin pens and make a noise so aren't very discrete. She could have just been saying that because they don't like to prescribe them because they are more expensive though!
 
I'm needlephobic. I was diagnosed 3yrs ago and had no idea there was an alternative to the needles I was given (a pen with screw-on disposable 6mm needle tips). I was just staring at the nurse while she was explaining it all, in a total state about it, thinking "You will have to follow me round all day every day injecting me if I'm ever to eat again". OK it's not fantastic to start off with. It's not. But I did it, and my technique (which I taught to a friend dying of cancer who had to inject herself with something for her heart, I think) is to never, ever look at the needle. I realised that therein lies the essence of the problem! You look at your skin, and decide where it's going in. Think about your skin. Only your skin. Decide. Then your hand, which has been joined to your body since before birth, does exactly what your brain has already silently instructed it to do - ie, the hard work of getting the thing into you. You honestly don't need to even look. Just the quickest glance maybe, to make sure it's all in - remember, you're not actually going to be seeing needle at that stage. Just the pen against your skin. What you need to be concerned about at that point is looking at the other end of the instrument - the plunger/dial, to make sure you've put the whole lot in. The hardest part for me was holding it in for a count of 10 while the chamber emptied. So I initially would sing in my head a bit of a song that I worked out was the right length of time. Mind tricks - it's all mind tricks. Then - OUT! And relax. It took several months to start getting past it all, being totally honest, and even longer for me to be comfortable injecting anywhere other than my legs. But I stuck to my technique and little by little it became 'ok'. It was only whenever I accidentally looked at the needle that it became really, really tough - funny how it suddenly looks 10ft long when you're in the middle of a panic session. To this day I do not focus on the needle. I don't like injecting, but I'm no longer phobic when injecting myself.

I would suggest just trying to do it. It's only added loads of fear and tension and panic into your life trying to find an alternative, and I can understand how worried you are. It worked for my friend, it enabled her to live at home for the last several months of her life instead of hospital. She was petrified and had a huge amount more going on than we have to deal with. I know that doesn't really help when you have a phobia but anyway. And yes I'm rubbish still at having blood drawn although having said that, I had it done today, and it was my most 'successful' blood-letting to date even though it was 1st thing in the morning - and the other day, I realised that I'd watched a needle going into someone's arm on the tv without batting an eyelid (I think you can guess what normally happens). I've also become much better at having flu jabs and suchlike. I just think "oh just stick it in". So I'm definitely gradually getting over the whole needlephobia thing by doing my own injections. I just bit the bullet. It was hard, but in the end, for my 'test' injection in front of the nurse, I said to myself "CHILDREN DO THIS!!!" and stuck it in.

You'll feel much more relaxed knowing you have more choices. And if you were to go on holiday and your sq pen broke? You'd be really up the creek. I think you should, and genuinely could, get to grips with it, for your own sake, give yourself a break and more flexibility. Jiminy I can't believe your other option - and you were happy to go for it - was a syringe!!!! I still to this day would lose my cool if I had to use one of those. That would probably require a full 30 minutes of complete meltdown before I could do it the first time. So FULL credit to you for that - to my mind, that's a thousand million times worse than the pens *shivers*
 
I know what you are saying i used the same mind tricks myself for 30years before the needless pen eventually arrived here in the UK, but the thought of going back to needles after living without the dam things for several years.......Painful experiances as a child caused my phobia, feeling the bone in my leg being scratched for so many years of my childhood has made me petrifid of the dam things,hell even thinger blood testing is a non accurrence,when they eventually develop and offer working wrist strapped testers i will wear it constantly but until then....
I have emailed all the manufacters from the link you gave me LaughingHyena thank you :) Though i do not know if or when i will hear back from them not being a pro but just a patient.I have also emailed N.I.C.E asking for a list of needle free devices that are available on prescription but i very much doubt i will hear from them any time soon either, and am pretty sure i will be told like everyone else has sujjested that i should get on a plane and fly out to holland and buy it myself, hell if only i had any money i would!
This is really worrying and frustrating as i even have had to contact the diabetic nurse daily to inform her about whats going on instead of her informing me, i feel like i should be being paid by the Nhs a consultation fee for finding out all this information and contacting all these people and companies!
Anyway if i ever hear anything ( which i am beginig to doubt! ) i will post what happens.... :? :( :x :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:
 
Sorry to inform you catherinecherub (but thanks for trying) ,the Mhi-500 was the predecessor to the Sq-Pen and there made by the same company ( and yep i had it first and it was better than the Sq-pen is ).
I dont know if i mentioned it or not but the Sq-pen is still available in the rest of Europe and you can still buy one and have it shipped over if you have the money, but unfortunately i dont i am a poor person so poor infact i was made "insolvent" at the beginning of the year.The reason its no longer avaliable so i have been informed,is just no medical supplier is importing it,its not worth there while and because its not in any warehouses its no longer being offered on prescription.If these importers were not so greedy then there would not be any suffering and for the life of me i cant understand why it would cost so much.... Hell £20 would cover any shipping costs and i would be more than willing to pay that if it meant i could get the thing on presscription, but i cant afford the quoted £200+ on top of the hundreds the device it self would cost as well!

This is the main reason i dont hold out much hope,what ever needle free device is around no one will stock them as most diabetics are pushed towards pumps and needled 5 injections a day there will only be a very small number of people that suffer from needle phobia and no businesses will care! :( :cry:
 
Hi,

didnt see the replies until now,

Sorry you haven't yet found a solution.:( has your diabetes nurse been in touch yet?

If there really is no alternative to a needle free device, and it resorts to using needle i'm sure (and i hope) there will be some sort of professional support in helping you to do this.

Wouldn't the hospital pay for the costs of shipping? as they pay for pumps etc?

I really do hope it works out for you and please keep posting so we know where you are with everything.
 
Thank you ebony321, looks like there might be hope,lol, never thought i would here myself say this but facebook might have helped, lol....

----------------------------------------
http://www.facebook.com/diabetesuk

Leigh Arthur
The person I was in touch with at Injex (which was supposed to be available on the NHS at the time, in 2009) was John Dinan -

[email protected]
John Dinan BA
National Account Manager
Ocon Chemicals Ltd
Laboratory & Healthcare Supply Solutions
5 South Cork Industrial Estate
Vicar's Rd Cork City
Republic of Ireland
www.oconchemicals.com
VAT Registered No IE4539765B
T: +353 21 4318555
M: +353 86 8217993
Distributor for Ire & UK
INJEX Needle-Free Syringe System
www.injex.de / www.injex.com

I don't know if this info is still current, but I hope this helps.
about an hour ago · Report

Eswar Viswanathan
Hi, John Dinan can be contacted at [email protected]. His other details are as provided by Leigh Arthur. He will be able to guide you better.

-------------------------------------------

I have emailed this John and have everything crossed hoping this Injex is still available, if it is i bet a lot of needle phobic people here in the UK will be sighing with relief i know i will!!!
 
I knew facebook had a purpose!!

Looks promising:)

good luck!

you may have saved quite a few people! :)
 
You can get on the NHS Autosheild needle for insulin pens,

The Autosheild is designed so that you don't actaully see the needle it self at all, most clinics have succesfully used this with needle phoblic patients..


NPC FTR948
MPC 329325

Brand BD Autoshield

Supplier Becton Dickinson Uk Ltd

If you give your nurse the details above they will be able to find it on their list of presriptions drugs/items..

My husband has been prescribed these on occasions and you don't see the actual needle because it's covered it's a one shot then dispose can't use it for a second time, they were designed with saftey in mind, as it's impossble to get a finger stick injury off them!
 
dont b so bloody stupid and use a needle its not going to kill u but u will kill yourself if you dont take insulin,you wossssssssssssssssssss :lol:
 
Er........thanks pump994? If you bothered to read the entire thread you might understand why those comments dont really help, i stayed alive using needles for 30+ years, and dreaded every day of it, then changed to a revolutionial new way of injecting but now ( because of a purely money grabbing medical import business ) am forced into de-evolving back to a 100+ year old treatment method i thought i had finally left behind.... :( :!: :shock:

jopar i do thank you for your useful suggestion though, and i am sure it will help others who didnt even know these things actually existed but i think i will try to get the medtronic Paradigm Veo if i can persuade my diabetic nurse.The reason is that although the thought of using it ( the needles that is ) scares the life out of me, the comments someone left on facebook about once going over to a pump it helped their retinopathy and other conditions, got me thinking about my own retinopathy, and as the Injex can only inject 30units ( if it was more there would have been no question what so ever the Injex would have been my number one choice! ) and all alternatives invovled needles anyway it might be better to have to use 1 needle every 3days for the pump and 1 needle every 6 for the the needed BG.Lol sure beats the 5(injections) + 5 (blood glucose tests) = 10 needles a day my sister has to do every day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ewwww hidden or not,i dont think i could live in that nightmare! :lol:

Anyway thank you all for your all your help and support, this weeks been a living nightmare of fear and without you i just dont know what i would have done! You have all been absolutely fantastic and i cant praise you all enough, thank you, thank you all so much i just havent got the words to let you know how greatful i am. :oops: :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
 
That's really nice to hear :D good luck with your enquiries. My phobia was also caused in childhood - a local anaethetic in the nose. Put it this way, I don't recommend it. I had to be held down by two adults whilst screaming blue murder. And these injections last forever. Oh my God. I kept passing out on the way home. Noses are VERY sensitive!! Before that, I used to actually laugh at the kids who fainted after having vaccines at school, I thought it was hilarious...
 
:lol: i can well imagine ouch! My experiances were from 18month old till 8 years old when i was put into a boarding school run by the Nhs for children with medical problems they didnt know what to do with."Needle Phobia" is totally the wrong thing to call it as phobias are things that CANT hurt you,it should be called "Fear because they KNOW what needles CAN be like!" instead!!! :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol: :D Thanks for wishing me luck, i have a feeling i might really,really need it, what with all the cut backs in spending in the Nhs at the moment i feel i might have a REAL problem getting any alternatives offered than the usual 5+ harpoons a day that everyone else has to do :cry: :( but i will try,and if i succeed i'll let everyone here know so they can go demand the same alternative! :D
 
Hi,

Been away for a bit, so only just saw your post. Wishing you the best of luck with getting the pump..I agree, once every 3 days is better than multple times a day.

This isn't supposed to sound unsympathetic...becasue, whilst I admit I know that injections can hurt, and yes, like you hated them as a child, I found copin methods, and also using smaller needles etc helped. What I wanted to say was is it possible toget help to face the needles? As a diabtic, it is hard to escape them...and whichever route you choose, there is always a risk, that something will go wrong (or some thoughtless person will withdraw them!) and you need a back up. Even now, while you do your investigating, you do need an "emergency" plan...even if it is getting your significant other to inject you in the bum so you can't see the needle. Have you tried some sort of therapy? I do take your point about it not being a phobia, as there is a very good reason to be scared of needles, but I wondered if there was someway, that the "hate" could be reduced to a mild dislike?

Take care
 
Hi

Just wanted to say that although insulin pens look like glorified fountain pens, they are very easy to use really and with a 4mm needle on the end of the pen, injecting insulin has been made so much easier now. A disposable insulin syringe has a 8mm needle on the end so 4mm is half the length. The 4mm is also much thinner. I need to put my specs on to replace the needle cover; the needle is that thin and tiny.

Personally I could not get on with the jet injectors. I had no end of bruises and found it a bit painful. An insulin pen needle is nowhere near as bad as the jet injectors ------ seriously. Don't worry, you'll be fine :wink: :)
 
:) Thanks for asking,but sometimes therapy just dosent work, i have been under psychiatrists since childhood ( it was on their recommendation i attended the "boarding school" ). Sometimes learned experiences just cant be "unlearned" despite what people believe psychiatrists cant always fix "broken" minds...... :lol: That statment makes me sound like some sort of serial killer dosent it, i am not, well not until i am informed i have to inject 10 times a day anyway! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Ass for letting someone else near me with a needle NO WAY IN HELL thats how i got my phobia in the first place!!! I of course will use needles ( which i have done in the past ) if i have too,if its that or dying a painful death, i will inject myself. Its just after getting a breakthrough device thats been available in America since the 1980's (and was first created in the 40's!!! ) using it with no fear to battle through every day, then have it wrenched from me and not allowed another type of the same device, which i have found there are many available in the rest of the world including Europe.Instead i am forced to use an almost prehistoric device or a considerably more expensive device (pump which uses needles just in a different way) seems sheer madness i have difficulty in understanding why, wouldnt you?
On my searches i have found out about.....
Inhaled insulin developed by one company that was avaliable but not anymore but others are developing these devices.
Insulin pills which one Australian scientist is waiting to hear from any big pharmaceutical company to produce in numbers but hasnt heard anything yet.
An Indian company researching an explosive method to deliver insulin under the skin that would cost far less to use than syringes cost to use now.
Artificial pancarus to implant.
Add to these the numerous companies who sell (and have been for decades) jet injectors.
All of these have informed me about how they are being strong armed out by the big main giants because they want to continue pushing their old patented devices, and will kill off any other devices until there own patients have made them all the money they can.Why on earth is our NHS supporting these companies by pushing needles over these other devices? It really stinks of corruption!

Sorry about the last bit but i keep hearing the same old thing and its us who are having to suffer because of it i am just getting so fed up with it! I mean needless injecters since the 40's why the has it taken 60 years for the UK to let them in,and then only 1 make that has been withdrawn because nobody bothered to tell the diabetics in the UK they could get one, the same as they did with the inhaled insulin, instead they push needles all the time?

Oh hell i am moaning again, lol! I had better go do something else before i get really angry lol!!!!
 
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