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Type 1 Missed insulin emergency!!

M

Mr.White

Member
Messages
9
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi, I rely upon 4 injections a day.. however today I stayed over a friends house and forgot to my needles, I haven't taken my insulin since 4pm.. I don't know what to do as I'm so far from home and I have no way of taking my injections + I've been testing bloods and they are very high... help?.. what can I do?
 
steve_p6 said:
This time of night you had better scoot down to A&E
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I know I should but problem I have no way of getting there due to the time of night.. I was thinking if it is possible to go to local surgery and demand emergency needles early in the morning
 
Ring NHS 111 I expect they will tell you to call an ambulance, if you leave it till morning then you will be over 24 hours without insulin which is going to be dangerous. You have made a bad mistake but they understand that sometimes it just happens, better an ambulance than DKA admission in morning!
 
Thanks I did your advice ringing 111 and they have set me up with an out of hours GP who are going to provide me needles to get at 8/9am
 
Call 111 and see what they say. If they think you need an ambulance they will most likely send you one or get you to call one. You don't want DKA. I hope everything goes okay and you get it sorted out. Rather worried about you. Do let us know what happens.
 

No I definitely don't want DKA.. thanks for the advice and I'll let you know.. I rang and so far they've said an out of hours GP will ring to set up an emergency prescription to collect in the morning.. not sure if I am worried more that I possibly won't get insulin until morning!!
 
Your question is too vague to answer.

You say you're on 4 injections a day, which suggests you're on mdi with a pen. Then you say you've forgot your needles. Have you forgotten your pen, or just your needles? If you've still got your pen with the last needle on on it, then assuming you've kept the last needle on the pen, just use the last needle again. That'll take care of your bolus. Re-using a pen needle more than once is way better than not injecting at all.

You're also vague about how long this "staying over at a friend's house" is. If it means you've missed a basal shot because of the length of stay" think about carrying your basal pen around with you for long visits to friend's houses.
 

So I take 4 injections per day, 3 novarapid before breakfast, lunch and dinner then levemir before I sleep!

I have the insulin pens with me but not the needles that screw onto them, and I haven't got the previous needle as I was told never to inject with the same needles

I'm staying my mates house for the night and the last time I injected was lunchtime, so I have so far missed my injection of novarapid before dinner and my levemir before bed, won't be getting any until 8/9am!! ... this is what 111 nhs advised me
 
Mr.White said:
have the insulin pens with me but not the needles that screw onto them, and I haven't got the previous needle as I was told never to inject with the same needles
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Well, that sound's like an extraordinary bit of bad planning on your part! If you change needles each time you inject and have thrown the last one away, why the hell haven't you taken more with you? Go home and get some more. Sounds harsh, but T1 takes some planning. You can definitely use a needle more than once if you've not got a spare.
 
Cut the guy some slack. We all know how difficult it is living with type 1. You did the right thing! And now you know for next time. It happens to the majority of us that have a life .. which is sometimes a challenge.
 
We all get it wrong sometimes and we learn going forward.
Basal levemir is 24 hourly so in theory wasn't due until bedtime. Ok no way of getting basal on board until next day possible delay of 12 hrs not end of the world.
Bolus is problem. Why did you have dinner knowing you couldn't bolus for it? We can all fast for a period of time and not inject bolus, this would have kept your sugars from going high.
If your sugars are running high and you're in this sort of a position then go for a walk or do something exercise based to bring levels down.
This is a dangerous situation to be in but you sometimes have to figure out what you would have to do if the emergency services were not there for you.
Live and learn.
 

Yes, that's the advice - to only use each needle once. However, the advice used to be change them once a day. I've re-used needles many times.

But even if you don't re-use needles, my advice is to leave the old needle on the pen and only remove it when you put the new needle on just before you inject. If you get in the habit of doing that, that will save you from a similar situation in future.

Another tip - always open your pen case before you pack it, so you can check it has spare needles in. I assumed mine had once and typically it hadnt. Lesson learnt.

I hope you're ok now.
 
Ok so it's a lesson learned for the future but there is also a group on Facebook you can link into they help people like you connect with other type 1's to get emergency supplies and can help - it's HELP We forgot T1 kit UK. Hope you get sorted soon
 

It is human to err, Le Corbusier ( 1887-1965) We are diabetic, not robotic
 
Thanks for everyone who commented, was the support I needed... currently with the local doctor of the area getting needles... real bad that after almost 20hrs I can now inject
 
Last night you said you were high - how high? Glad you're sorted now and hopefully lesson learnt!
 
I have done this in the past and managed to buy a box of needles from the Boots Pharmacy. Unfortunately they aren't able to just give/sell you a few and buying the box isn't cheap but it got me out of a jam.

Advice for anyone else that ever does this is to act as soon as you realise though, don't wait until you're high and in danger!
 
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