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Type 1 rules we accidentally break :/

Leakage and contamination risk to the insulin in the cartridge. Allegedly. See the Pen Needles thread for the whole raging debate, if you have the stomach for it.

It is the official advice through, not to leave the needle on.

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Thanks Spiker, I had no idea !
I thought I had eliminated my lengthy list of "sins" but find I'm committing one I didn't know existed :-/ That's what I love about here, I'm learning new things all the time Great thread!

As for those "sins" I mentioned above, they were awful and not accidental but in my own defence I had severe burn out:

Same needle and lancet for four weeks or so.
Not being ***** to renew my scripts so therefore not injecting.
Eating whatever...when I did bother to eat
Ignoring all healthcare appointments

I'm happy to say I'm a reformed character now, perhaps swung to being a tad obsessive . Also very, very lucky as I don't appear to have long term effects from a bad episode in my life

Signy
 
Skipping appointments and losing contact with the healthcare team is said to be the biggest single predictor of bad complications. So of all the rules not to break, this might be the top one.
 
Spiker said:
This thread is not going to run long if everyone who confesses gets a pasting. ;-)

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He he.
  • Getting a prescription takes me about 4 days at least, and I have to be careful, especially at weekends, to request a repeat prescription in time. I don't always manage it, but I've been better recently.
  • I forget to rotate injection sites. Do others remember where they last injected?
  • In company, I don't assert the T1 rules enough. Fine line between being a bore and being alive?
  • Andy S and Heathen lass, I more often than not leave the pen needle screwed in, and if I'm good and don't, I curse myself for being a goody two shoes and causing myself extra trouble.
  • Mrs Vimes, I'm guilty of rage bolusing too but have never given it a name before. Great name, very apt.
  • I never rotate my lancet drum, I've never understood the mechanism and I don't want to, confession time.
  • Feeling virtuous for being hypo - yes, I know, this is REALLY stupid.

Alanp35, I agree with you - in the abstract.
 
debbiiee said:
Insulin may polymerise at the needle tip reducing its potency I think & making the dose inaccurate by causing blockage too. Not sure though.

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Yes that's another reason and also one of the reasons given for changing needles each use. But it is addressed by doing before and after air shots. It's a good reason to do air shots, insulin definitely degrades in the needle as I often see white stuff ejected from the air shot. In which case I do another air shot until it's clear liquid.
 
Heathenlass said:
"Leave the pentip screwed into the pen all the time"

Ooooh! Guilty! I've always done that , I replace the used pen tip with a fresh one straight away, as I've never been told otherwise.

Why aren't you supposed to ?
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I use one tip for all the injections in one day; there was recent thread about multiple use. I do, however, remove it when not being used my theory being that the tip keeps the cartridge rubber bung 'open' and germs could possibly go down the needle into the insulin? Unlikely I guess, but to be safe I remove the tip.
 
Thanks, I've just browsed "that thread " (Gulp!)

Spiker, you must have amazing eyesight ! I can barely see the air shot sometimes, let alone if it's got gunky white bits in it !

Signy
(Edited for an android predictive typo that tendered the sentence obscene !) LOL
 
Spiker said:
Skipping appointments and losing contact with the healthcare team is said to be the biggest single predictor of bad complications. So of all the rules not to break, this might be the top one.
Click to expand...


So true along with skipping injections and not testing.
 
debbiiee said:
Insulin may polymerise at the needle tip reducing its potency I think & making the dose inaccurate by causing blockage too. Not sure though.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...

Yeah I've read that before and is probably true to a certain extent, especially if the pen has not been used for some time (as in a spare).

As for air-shots, you should always do that to prime the needle, I've always done it when using syringes and pens.
 
I rarely if ever record BG test results (as long as they are within range I don't need to change insulin doses, and the only purpose a record would serve is... For bragging to the doctor?)
 
AlexMBrennan said:
I rarely if ever record BG test results (as long as they are within range I don't need to change insulin doses, and the only purpose a record would serve is... For bragging to the doctor?)
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I don't record bg readings in a diary myself Alex but they are stored in the meter memory, good thing as I was always hopeless at writing hem down.
 
Really interesting responses, thanks guys.

Yeah I would never recommend the mistakes I make, but as long as my diabetes is managed fairly well (HBA1C of 7 atmo), I'm too forgetful to change really. Old habits die hard! :/


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AlexMBrennan said:
I rarely if ever record BG test results (as long as they are within range I don't need to change insulin doses, and the only purpose a record would serve is... For bragging to the doctor?)
Click to expand...

I always record my results, even if it means trawling back through my meter in order to draw the graph or record the graph on mysugr. I don't really know why I feel this is so necessary because these graphs have such a short shelf-life. I would never look back at the bloody (sorry, literally, should say blood-stained perhaps!) pages and think, "I must get a publisher".

I know what the problem is: confession time yet again - I don't really use the results to make constructive changes. I know most people with diabetes do just that!
 
robert72 said:
Those animal insulin hypos were quite severe - I used to down 2 bowls of cereals with sugar if I had one during the night Now I'm much more calculated and rarely over treat.
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Hot ****! I remember pretty much getting to the "fitting" stage when I was about 10 years old? I was just up the road from my house on a bike & was heading back.. I could bearly keep my feet on the pedals... Just my legs were throwing what I called at the time an "eppi fit". (It was the late 70's.)
I just about managed to get through the door bypassing some confused "surprise visiting" relatives & walking like sweaty "goose stepping" zombie, hit the kitchen cupboard contents hard...
I never let that happen again..!
 
I wouldn't consider this as something accidental and more of on purpose:

- leave it until a few hours for food to process into glucose in the blood then inject insulin
- I rely on what it feels like whether I am tired and need to go toilet alot or shaky and drowsy to determine if I need to inject or eat something sugary
- Always inject my insulin on my abdomen

On that note I haven't tested for my blood glucose for a couple of months now, you could say a reason is my test equipment are a bit inconvenient and alot of hassle to use, but the reason I go by mainly is I know what a hypo or hyper feels like as I said.
 
Oh those BG logs !! Gah! I hate those with a passion
Too small to write in, cumbersome to carry, no space for bolus injection records, and by the time I was asked to produce it at the clinic it always looked as if it should have been bagged and tagged from a crime scene

It was useless for me to gain info from too.I do have a nifty phone app now that allows input for all info I want to record and some I don't, and displays it as list and graph. I find it much better to use and useful as I'm still finding out what spikes me.

But log books - for me, a waste of a twig .

Signy
 
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