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Please change insulin needles and lancing device needles EVERY single time.

V

VTBagnell

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Type of diabetes
HCP
Treatment type
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Please this is a very important step in your daily regime of taking care of diabetes, don't for a moment think of NOT changing your sharps evey single use!!!!!!!!
Also remember the importance of site rotation when administrating your insulin to prevent lypohypertrophy.
 
l dont inject so no comment on that score on changing inj. sites and reuse..

l am t2 and test most days though and l do use my lancet but only change it when l ouch loud enough. l have not had any health problems and out of everyone here who in a lot of threads do not change no problems as far as l know reported there.

So l think you are being a bit of a scaremonger to folks often not changing esp for a t2 is often linked to cost as t1 get supplies t2 rarely do.

lf reusing lancers (again no comment on needles re insulin l dont use them) then every cut and skin break we get in everyday life would mean we wouldnt survive because the item was not clean.

Please also note the lancet even on first use is NOT sterile and your post suggests it is this is very misleading.

Reuse is a very individual thing and l feel trying to scare new people because of your choice is not really fair to them.
 
Having just started testing (and I've read the lancet confession thread) it seems some pragmatic balance is reasonable for a T2. I can't envisage going for weeks on end with the same lancet as some seem to, but 3 days or so doesn't seem inappropriate.
 
For many years I used the same needle for the entire length of a carterage of insulin(week +). This is a throwback from the years ago when type 1s had to pay for their needles and it was never mentioned by nurses.

Cant say it ever really did me any harm.

Disclaimer ** Dont do this I dont recommend it at all now.
 
I've not gone through one box of lancets yet in 10 months.

They get changed...
 

Could you please state WHY it is so important?
You've clearly stated your opinion but you haven't said why it's so necessary.

Thanks.

Indiana


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I have to say I've seen someone on DAFNE asking for a new pen because "it wasn't working"

Turns out she'd had the same needle on for over a week and it had blocked. Boke. I always change needles and rotate sites.


Lancets though..... Well I AIM to change it every day. But I get distracted....


Blogging at drivendiabetic.wordpress.com
 
I change needles when I change cartridges, or more rarely, if it hurts or feels blunt. I change lancets when they hurt too much, or if someone else wants to use the meter. In fact if I don't blunt the lancets, I can't get enough blood out. I've been doing this for twenty years without problems. I don't like costing the NHS money, and increasing manufacturers profits, through needless waste.

I'm not giving anyone any medical advice of course. Just saying what I do. What I do is contrary to the advice of the companies who sell needles and lancets. It is contrary to the advice of companies who are risk averse and who don't bear the cost of the needles and lancets. And to be fair it's also contrary to the advice of the NHS diabetic specialist nurses.

I do always do an air shot before and after to clear old insulin from the needle.

@hale710, I've seen a blocked needle a handful of times in twenty years, and they were obviously mechanically damaged, bent at a severe angle. I may once have seen a needle that was blocked without being obvious visibly damaged.
 
I agree on the needles, but don't really bother changing lancets.

I used to only change needles per cartridge and certainly have never had any infections but the thing is the needles are designed for single use, and as insulin absorption is slightly random anyway and blunt needles in the same place can cause a fatty build up which further distorts insulin absorption it makes sense to change them.

This costs the NHS money I admit but that is the situation we are in.

Remember how the British cycling team did so well at the Olympics? Some of that was down to them focusing on micro changes/improvements to their techniques and bikes; by making lot's of apparently trivial improvements (warming up tyres for instance) they managed to do really really well.

I think the same applies here; we have so many variables that can disrupt our control that if we can improve in some areas, if even by an apparently small amount, then our overall control will improve and we will all grow sideburns like Bradley Wiggins.

Best

Dillinger
 
I think we all know that we should change our needles every time, my lid doesn't fit on my pen if I try and put the cap back on the needle! That's obvious enough!

Still doesn't stop me reusing though. I'm changing more recently but I used to change mine every time I changed the cartridge.
My lancets are changed each time I open a new box of test strips.

Indiana x


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hypertrophy / lipotrophy is a good point re blunt needles. But - that's why we do site rotation isn't it?
 
HI. I think common sense applies. I change my lancets every 5 or so shots. I gather the infection risk is vanishingly small. I change my insulin needle once a day which typically means 3 shots with the same needed. The modern fine ones (e.g. 4mm) can blunt quite easily but the 3rd shot is no different from the first for me. Disposing after just a day means the infection risk is again very small. I rotate but still around the stomach area. I know some people have skin problems and need to rotate to different body areas.
 
Change my needle every-time after seeing some pictures on the internet of a used needle, my lancet I do try and change after every use but do make a point of rotating the drum (fastclix) first thing in morning before my first bg test.
 
The basel/bolus regime is not exactly a lovely regime for diabetics to use especially with the need to inject insulin multiple times per day (approx 6 times) so that would mean about 300 needles every 2 months and at about £15 per 100 needles wont work out very cheap either and lets not forget the doom and gloom that will arise from diabetics pulling out a pen and putting a new needle on every time they need to do an injection. Trip to GP for anti depressants me thinks. The same can be said about using a fresh lancet every time a finger prick is done. Testing bg levels anything from 4-12 times per day is going to make prescribing lancets very expensive if everyone uses a fresh one every time.

I would much rather have sufficient test strips than lancets and needles where money and who pays for everything is concerned.
 
@iHs , agreed. I have my GP beating me up for spending too much of her budget on test strips. I asked her how much a hypo or DKA hospitalisation costs. The NHS does get ripped off on the price of those strips though.

Not sure I have ever heard of a case of a diabetic needing some NHS budget due to an overused needle or lancet....
 
Doom and gloom to put on a new needle?!? I certainly don't suffer from that!!


Blogging at drivendiabetic.wordpress.com
 
hale710 said:
Doom and gloom to put on a new needle?!? I certainly don't suffer from that!!


Blogging at drivendiabetic.wordpress.com
Click to expand...
I recently switched to NovoTwist needles - far less 'traumatic' to change (they almost snap on)
 
I already have.

I make sure I have the right tyres on my bikes as well.
 
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