- Messages
- 154
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
Insulin pens are handy, easy to use etc but occasionally I hate the one I have here. When I used syringes, I always pulled the plunger back a few units to check if any blood came in. If it did, the needle came out and I re-injected after repeating the process. That was one of the first rules taught to me by the hospital when I was a kid.
I understand why I can’t do this with a pen as the functionality isn’t there but this morning, once again, I had a problem that’s ‘lived’ with me all day. The needle went in fine, pushed the pen plunger and when I removed the needle, blood everywhere. I know it wasn’t anywhere near an artery and that I’d probably hit a wee capillary but that didn’t make me feel any better. Stress levels went through the ceiling ‘just in case’ it WAS an artery and all day I over-compensated in testing my sugar levels. Also, some blood had actually made its way back into the insulin cartridge so, rightly or wrongly, I binned it (that’s not the first time this has happened).
Thankfully, sugar levels were OK but if they still made my insulin available in the little bottles instead of exclusively in pen cartridges I’d return to the ‘old days’ way of doing it.
Bill
I understand why I can’t do this with a pen as the functionality isn’t there but this morning, once again, I had a problem that’s ‘lived’ with me all day. The needle went in fine, pushed the pen plunger and when I removed the needle, blood everywhere. I know it wasn’t anywhere near an artery and that I’d probably hit a wee capillary but that didn’t make me feel any better. Stress levels went through the ceiling ‘just in case’ it WAS an artery and all day I over-compensated in testing my sugar levels. Also, some blood had actually made its way back into the insulin cartridge so, rightly or wrongly, I binned it (that’s not the first time this has happened).
Thankfully, sugar levels were OK but if they still made my insulin available in the little bottles instead of exclusively in pen cartridges I’d return to the ‘old days’ way of doing it.
Bill