Using a Pen Injector with Arthritis

dazzagil said:

I have been a T1 diabetic for 35 years and my age is catching up with me. I have used a pen Injector for almost 20 years. However I have developed Arthritis in my finger joint and now find it very painful to grip and hold a normal pen injector. I have looked with local diabetic nurse for any device that would allow me to hold it in the palm of my hand with a very light grip and would deliver the dose with the touch of a button , as pusher the plnjer is just as painful.

Does anyone know of such a device and if there is one can they let me know the product manufacturer.

Thanks

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Hi @dazzagil ,

Welcome to the forum. What took you so long with your first post? (Nevermind, let's see what can be done.)

What insulin & associated pens do you use? I do know there were addons for the old Lantus pens regarding aiding dexterity included with the pen package?

dazzagil

I sympathise because I too have arthritis in my hands and it has caused me major problems trying to use my insulin pen. Unfortunately, I know of no type of device which you've described. However, possibly what follows might help.

I also use (and love!) the Luxura. My diabetic specialist nurse swapped me over to the much lighter and plastic Humapen Savvio as she felt the weight and size of the Luxura wasn't helping. Perhaps you could try this alternative but I need to be honest and say at first the lightness helped but it really didn't stop the severity of the pain when I used my thumb to push in the plunger.

Next, she referred me to a physio at the same hospital. She tried to think of ways around it and came up with something that works and I still use. I went back to using the Luxura, bought very, very thick foam rubber had someone slice along it (my local DIY shop helped with all of this) and curled it into a tube shape. I'd to make sure it's width was an inch shorter than the pen to allow me put the needle on and push in the plunger. My other half then wrapped twine around it all to make sure the pen was tight inside. I'm therefore able to grip it better now because it's so much thicker and weirdly, possibly due to that, the thumb pain is not half as bad.

I should say that for a few years now I’ve looked for equipment of any sort to help but with no luck. Even the arthritis charities couldn’t find anything. That’s pretty bad as not everyone can easily use an insulin pen. So, my physio's wee suggestion makes it a little better.

Bill

I too have severe arthritis in my hands which is going to become more of a problem as time passes. When it became painful for me to use insulin pens ( which were originally termed 'pens' because they were the size, shape and weight of a pen ! ) I chose to use disposable syringes instead. Current insulin 'pens' are closer to a cosh in weight, so doing an injection left my right hand, particularly my wrist, aching for several hours. I have garden secateurs specially designed for those of us with arthritis and all the advice available on the subject suggests that the lightest tools for any task will suit people with arthritis best.One DSN seemed reluctant to believe that I had any real problem, so getting disposable syringes prescribed took months. If I had one of the original light insulin pens from the 1980s, I would still be able to use it.

I do not understand why something lighter cannot be produced. I suppose the manufacturers are not interested in a limited market.

JMK1954 not too long ago I tried to switch back to disposable syringes but my insulin isn't produced in bottles only pen cartridges. I had more pain with the fiddly way of extracting insulin from those and gave up! I agree with you that something lighter helps a lot. Lilly make a plastic pre-filled KWIK pen and that was the first thing I moved over to. Unfortunately, there was quite a resistance when trying to push down the plunger and the pain in my hand a few hours later was hellish. Thank god, the Luxura offers no resistance at all.

The consultant at the diabetic clinic told me last year that if things get so bad that I am finding it almost impossible to take the insulin then they would have to arrange for a nurse to visit twice a day and do it for me. I don't want this to happen and will do my best to make sure I manage somehow. I asked if they'd put me onto a pump which would surely reduce the number of visits the nurse would have to make but that option was declined. I'm a pensioner now and I find, more and more, that sometimes I just don't understand their reasoning.

Only just spotted this last post. I agree. It's just insane and the so-called logic escapes me completely. I have been having cortisone injections in my basal thumb joints for about 7 years, but the CCG decided to discontinue this service last September. Because of the cortisone, my hands are currently very much less painful so I can currently do quite a lot, in the way of chopping vegetables, pruning in the garden with my super secateurs or loppers etc. It's the small complex movements that cause me difficulty. I can just about sew on a button, but that is a real struggle and only to be tackled in an emergency. I would love to embroider again, but I'm afraid that's past hoping for. The lightness of disposable syringes, plus the fact I only ever need to take an absolute maximum of five units, means I can inject without a problem.
You are plainly in a difficult postion. I wouldn't want to have to depend on a visting nurse either. My aunt needed one after a cataract operation and they were never ever on time. I too have had to draw up insulin from a pen cartridge when the DSN prescribed them by mistake, which was unbelievably fiddly. I wonder how many other people have this arthritis/injecting problem ? I just hope some other answer materialises for you.