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No time to inject!

Sarah69

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,505
Location
Hethersett, Norwich
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Anything healthy!
Hi, I'm in need of a bit of advice regarding injecting at lunchtime when at work. I work 12 1/2 hour shifts, I have a 15min morning break, 1/2 an hour luch and a 15min afternoon break. Ive tried to try inject 15min or 1/2 and hour before my lunch but its not always possible infact i can never go, As I only have 1/2 an hour luch break I dont have the time to go to the toilet to inject come back and get my lunch sorted. Any ideas what I could do?
 
how long does it take to eat your lunch.......?

you could inject straight away, wait 15, then eat.....

injecting where you sit down would cut off a few minutes too....
 
@Sarah69 .
A toilet. A communal room where people defecate and urinate.
Why are you using a toilet to perform what should be a sterile as possible procedure?
I would save time and inject where you have your lunch. Save time and take some hand wipes along with your pack up.
Personally I don't think any diabetic should use a toilet to inject.
 
30mins is enough to inject and eat but as of digesting properly and in a calm fashion without getting indigestion is another matter.
I've been there.

Could you not ask for a better insulin which allows inject and eat? Are you on a mixed insulin routine?
 
I've known some work places to have the staff lockers in the toilets. Oh yes. It happens.
Maybe a faster acting insulin would be more practical for OP? Worth asking about and explaining why so many missed injections in the routine? @Sarah69 .
 
If you eat less carbs, the overall impact of injecting immediately before eating will be less.

Although, to be honest, there has not been any detailed research into the effects of the short term spikes caused by injecting and eating immediately afterwards.
We have all become obsessed with maintaining a profile as flat as possible from our Libres without knowing if this obsession is necessary.
So the other option is not to worry.
 
I wonder how many type2s on insulin have an immediate no need for an injection with lunch on low carb?
I know my units halved but I was on mixed insulin then. Not flexible but now on seperates I'm reducing even more, on low carb way of eating.
 
Surely if a person needs to inject insulin a workplace should be making reasonable adjustments for them to do that, eg an extra 10 minutes or something. They always seem to accommodate fag breaks.
 
I've been in work environments that aren't sterile, not even their toilets were cleaned. Luckily we fitted a pc and ran out of their. Disgusting workplaces. None of the regular staff knew what a cleaning cloth looked like. I carried anti-bacterial handwash and wipes, everywhere. Some werent fit for a rat, never mind a human being. Health and Safety would have had a fit. Luckily for the company I wasnt prepared to close the place down from trading til clean. I went out of the office to use the toilet. Public toilet in London was cleaner, by half.
I left a stinking note to regular staff to order cleaning products via their line manager. Some lazy people.
Luckily I wasn't on insulin then!!!
 
For many reasons...
Not everyone on this forum lives in the country where you do. I live in Australia and there is a small but influential group that is trying to get injecting insulin in public made a criminal offence (I'm certain they have another agenda and at the moment they are not getting very far). I have been thrown out (by security) of a shopping mall and chased out of another shopping mall. It depends on where the poster works . I know a number of companies that would take a very dim view of injecting in front of customers and although technically companies can't discriminate (in most countries) there are plenty ways to get around that technicality. A number of years ago we were all taught to inject in public and never use a toilet, the world is changing, well at least some parts of the world. Unless at home alone, I don't think I have ever injected anywhere else but a toilet for the last few years.
 
@Chowie . Apologies, good point. But I still believe that this is a very very big world and no one should have to inject in one very small part of it. I find it strange that Australia is the way if is on subjects like this. As a pommie it always seems you guys and gals do things more sensibly and openly than us Brits. Seems I'm mistaken.
The OP to which I replied was in the UK and I based my response on her circumstances. I appreciate things are different worldwide BUT I still think it's fundamentally wrong to make use someone use a public toilet to administer life saving medication. Surely there has got to be some common ground that suits the majority.
May I ask you one question. Do you feel comfortable injecting in a public toilet?
 
JohnEGreen said:
Not any more they don't.
Click to expand...
Vape breaks now.. Apparently you don't vape for as long as you used to smoke but you do vape a lot more often.
So where I work the " mandatory " 7/8 10 min fag breaks a day have become essential 5 min trips to the nearest door. But hey these people are only vaping to save us poor non smokers.
 
Once again it proves, we are all different and like to be treated that way.
Injecting may suit someone in the only privacy is a toilet. I'd say I found a disabled toilet more roomy when pregnant to inject with full winter coat etc. off. I could take my time and no pressure from anyone with my anti-bacterial items at hand to give me confidence using any toilet.
I also injected behind the dining table awaiting our meal in restaurants. We normally found a corner tablet so not out in brazen view. I believe in being discreet. But that's just me.
I cringe when I hear the words"are you diabetic?" and get someone's life story when I'm out for an intimate meal with just hubby.
I've never been a person to blatantly put it out there. Anything.
I would have to be very drunk but then again I don't drink these days. I find alcohol and insulin don't mix! For me.

Finding time to inject can be very difficult if the local facilities aren't available in the work place. I feel.
I've had success in the past planting the seed to management and leaving it with them, especially if a refit coming in the offing.
Ps. One job I had was at London Bridge train station. Look at it now compared to when I worked there!
Changes happen. We sometimes have to be patient but making management aware in a positive manner worked for me. Everytime.
Maybe being pregnant on top swayed it that bit more?
 
Sarah69 said:
Any ideas what I could do?
Click to expand...

Contact the Equality and Human Rights Commission helpline 0808 800 0802

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en

As an insulin user, you are technically "disabled" under the Equality Act 2010, so your employer has to make reasonable adjustments to accomodate your injection and testing. Those adjustments might well include allowing a little time to find a clean non-toilet space to inject.

As an example of what the Act can do, see Julie Wyper v North Lanarkshire Council, where a school was required to employ an additional support needs person to assist a young T1 with his needs as existing staff were bottling it.

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/legal-work-scotland/julie-wyper-v-north-lanarkshire-council
 
@Sarah69 the information bit on your page says you're a HCA, so presumably you work in a hospital or a care home? I can't see either location having any issue with you injecting in the staff room /canteen. There's no need to inject in the toilet. Do you have your blood sugar testing kit and insulin with you as you're moving about at work?

I mean, I usually just inject half an hour before I start my lunch break, so the break starts and then I'm ready to eat. But my work environment involves sitting at my desk. I can see that might be a bit more difficult to do if you are on your feet, don't have all your kit with you and your with patients. If you are not on a break does that mean you can't have a 5 min break if you need a wee? If you're allowed a loo break, you can probably inject in half the time you'd take to have a pee. So you could pause to inject 20-30 min before you're lunch break is scheduled and then you are ready to eat when the break starts. But, obviously, that is rather dependant on the break starting at exactly the time it is scheduled to start, and I'm not sure that's an especially realistic expectation in a care setting.

Your signature says you are on byetta, metformin and lantus. None of these medications need to be talked half an hour before eating, so far as I'm aware. What exactly is it you've been told to inject 15-30 minutes before eating?
 

Yes I work in a hospital. I’m not going to inject in the staff room where other people are sitting and people in and out of the room. I don’t carry my testing kit or insulin around with me. Nobody has told me to inject 15/30 mins before eating it’s just the time I try to do it in before I have my lunch break. I have my lunch at 13.30 but due to circumstances of working in a hospital I can’t always go on time. It’s very difficult to explain. I work on an elderly ward with dementia. If some of the patients need 1:1 the staff that come in to do an early shift finish at 13.00. Then next shift is a late which starts at 13.30, so there’s a 1/2 an hour delay in staff so I have to sit with that 1:1 til the other staff arrive. There’s no time I can leave to go to the toilet to have my injection. I’m not doing it on my break because that’s taking the time out of the time I need to sit down for a while. I really have no idea what I can do.
 
Hi @Sarah69, this might sound blunt, but as the person administering insulin to yourself, you need to take the bull by the horns and do what you need to do. I can understand reticence to inject in front of others, but at the same time, the toilet really isn't a good place to inject.

I'd put it in a slightly different context. If you were asked by one of your colleagues to give one of the patients their drugs in the toilet, what would your reaction be? That's the same reaction you should consider when you feel that they would prefer you to do that to yourself.

With regard to your break, simply inject at the start of it, as other's have said. There's not really any other way.
 
You wont take the time out of your own time to deal with your own medical condition? ? U work for the nhs then i take it..do u like to make a big issue of injecting?..get real..it takes less than a minute to test blood and dial up your insulin and inject it...find the time to do it..and stay out of the bogs...deear oh dear !
 
You know @tim2000s is right.
I wonder why I feel more comfortable injecting in private. Normally a disabled toilet if no where discreet. Our hospital is like Piccadilly Circle. Only place I wouldn't be knocked or asked questions.
I've seen a thread about this problem somewhere. If you're interested @Sarah69 ?
 
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