Injecting

Bruising is pretty common, nothing to worry about. You should rotate your injection sites and avoid injecting into the same place to avoid lumps and bumps.

poacher_joe said:

Hi
I had my consultant review 2 weeks ago and was advised to change injection site. I have been using my legs but I get bruises such as this.
Should I be concerned or is this normal?
Thanks
Joe

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When I was a little kid I used to inject in to my legs all the time because it was easy - this was also at a time when most people still injected using glass syringes and the needles weren't all that fine. This had caused a lot of scar tissue and a grisly kind of texture to my upper thigh fat tissues, as well bleeding/bruising was common - then one summer day when I was attending a one month juvenile diabetes camp I saw older guys ( in their mid teens) injecting in to their stomachs. It kind of freaked me out - I was like 10 years old at the time but ironically years later after injecting myself too many times in the legs I stated using my stomach, near the waistline as another injection site and just by doing this eventually cleared up the scar tissue in my legs.
So just like what @mist suggested - try rotating your injection sites - try the stomach in the fatty tissue just above the waistline - I find I don't bruise and there's no pain - at least for me anyway. I still inject in to the side of my legs but only once a day.
You may find a difference in the absorption rate of your insulin.
Back about 10 years ago I also changed the needles I was using to Ultra-Fine Mini 5 mm 31G. They're very small and discovered that made a big difference too.

Looks totally normal though make sure you're using a fresh needle each time

anywhere thats fat enough to inject into, i'd inject in my arm if it was flabby enough, druggies use their arms to inject drugs so why not the same with insulin?

I have that same kind of bruising all over my belly. I 'sectioned' my whole belly into 6 areas (top left, top center, top right, lower right, lower center and lower left) and inject in these areas for about 5 days before moving on to the next one. I'm overweight so I have plenty of belly and fat to inject into I suppose.

The bruising only happens when I nick a tiny blood vessel though. I also don't inject near a bruise until it's been healed up. Unfortunately bruises do take some time to heal on me. :/

nmr1991 said:

druggies use their arms to inject drugs so why not the same with insulin?

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Intravenous injections are very different from subcutaneous injections.

I have just started injecting into my upper arm last week as the bruises and Lipohypertrophy was getting a bit much. Definite difference is absorption rate, but so far so good.

The stomach and thighs are the most common places but do rotate. If you Google the web for insulin injection sites there are masses of shaded body images. I can't guarantee they are all safe but can be useful.

There's a diagram of sites here:http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/diagram-of-insulin-injection-areas

Is there a better place to inject say, when you are eating out so that it absorbs much quicker? I often inject as soon as the food arrives to ensure that the portion size can be calculated

According to most guidance stomach is fastest then arms thighs and buttocks in that order.

yeah my diabetic nurse explains that thighs/buttocks are the most flabby part of your body, regardless of your weight, but problem is im always shaky when tryin to inject in places i can't see and i need to be sitting down to actually concentrate on the area incase i inject too deep or if the needle doesn't go all the way.