When you dwell with insulin-dependent diabetes and handle your blood sugars with an insulin pen or syringe, you’re most definitely taking 2 or extra insulin photographs a day.
That’s a minimal of 730 instances a 12 months that you just’re piercing your pores and skin with a needle to do an injection.
I do much more than 2 injections a day. I’m nearer to 7 doses a day, which isn’t uncommon for folks dwelling with diabetes. That’s 2,555 injections a 12 months!
I don’t thoughts and it doesn’t harm. However one of many important causes it doesn’t harm is that I take advantage of the appropriate needle, the appropriate injection approach, and I modify my needles continuously.
On this article, you’ll learn to select the needle or syringe dimension that’s best for you to attenuate ache, keep away from scar tissue buildup, and make sure that a full dose is acquired each time you inject.
What’s a pen needle?
Pen needles are needles that you just connect to a prefilled or sturdy pen in an effort to inject the remedy.
Frequent sorts of pen needles embody commonplace pen needles and security pen needles, with most individuals utilizing a normal pen needle.
You possibly can watch this 1-minute video to see precisely what a pen needle is:
A normal pen needle has an outer cowl and a detachable internal needle cowl. Each must be eliminated earlier than insulin flows.
Sadly, as a consequence of poor coaching, not everybody has been taught that you must take away each covers. In line with the FDA, this has led to folks ending up with severely elevated blood sugars and even hospitalizations. So bear in mind to take away each covers and visually make sure that insulin is flowing.
The security needle is slightly totally different. It has an outer cowl that’s eliminated earlier than injections, however the internal cowl isn’t eliminated. Whenever you push the security needle into your pores and skin, the internal cowl slides again to disclose the needle.
As a result of the internal cowl isn’t eliminated, it protects you in opposition to by accident poking your self with the needle.
The sort of needle is right if you happen to’re petrified of needles (as you’ll by no means see the precise needle) or if there’s a concern that you just’ll by accident poke your self with the needle.
Pen needle sizes
Insulin pen needles can be found in numerous sizes from 4 mm to 12.7 mm in size (5/32 inch to ½ inch).
Usually, the medical neighborhood leans in direction of the usage of shorter needles, however you in the end must resolve which needle dimension is best for you.
Being prescribed an extended needle could make that preliminary insulin injection considerably daunting and would possibly even influence your need to take your injections as prescribed.
If that’s the case, please attain out to your physician and request a unique needle, or if you happen to’re in a state that doesn’t require a prescription (extra on that later), buy a dimension that fits you on-line or at your native pharmacy.
How have you learnt what dimension insulin needle to make use of?
Insulin and GLP-1s must be injected subcutaneously (into the fats between your pores and skin and your muscle) so you need to select a needle that permits you to try this the simplest.
On common, human pores and skin is 1.9–2.4 mm thick no matter physique dimension, gender, ethnicity, and BMI. Which means a brief 4- or 5-mm needle ought to be efficient for all physique sorts.
The Worldwide Scientific Advisory Board states that there is no such thing as a medical purpose to suggest a needle size longer than 8 mm. The board recommends 4-, 5-, and 6-mm needles for all grownup sufferers no matter their BMI.
That doesn’t imply you may’t use an extended needle, however utilizing an extended needle can improve the possibilities of bruising, bleeding, and ache.
When utilizing an extended needle, you additionally threat injecting your insulin into the muscle (known as an intramuscular shot). If insulin is injected into the muscle as a substitute of the fatty tissue, absorption will be too fast which may result in low blood sugars.
Though shorter needles are typically really helpful, there are specific circumstances the place an extended needle could also be a greater possibility.
For instance, it’s possible you’ll profit from utilizing an extended needle When you have coordination challenges from situations equivalent to arthritis or Parkinson’s illness.
Needle thickness – What’s the deal?
Needle thickness is measured in gauge (G) moderately than millimeters or inches. Pen needles are available in 29 G to 32 G, and the upper the gauge, the thinner the needle.
The pen needle thickness is principally related if you happen to inject a considerable amount of insulin at a time, as you may want a needle with a decrease gauge that can permit extra insulin to movement via quicker.
When to pinch the pores and skin
There are alternative ways of efficiently doing a subcutaneous injection and the appropriate approach comes all the way down to what size of needle you select.
In case your needle is 4 mm or 5 mm, you are able to do the injection at a 90-degree angle. Which means you don’t must pinch the pores and skin, and you are able to do the injection one-handed if you happen to like. This may be sensible if you happen to’re injecting into the arm, decrease again, or glutes.
Kids from 2 to six years outdated or extraordinarily lean adults might have to make use of a pinch-up approach no matter needle size.
When you go for a needle longer than 5 mm, it would be best to do the injection with a pinched-up skinfold or a 45-degree angle to keep away from intramuscular injection of insulin.
What about leakage issues associated to shorter needles?
Some folks have raised the priority that brief needles will result in leakage (insulin not being totally injected) or that they aren’t appropriate for folks with bigger our bodies.
That concern has been debunked and analysis has proven that shorter needles work for many physique sorts, with no extra leakage.
However if you happen to really feel extra snug utilizing an extended needle, then you need to completely try this.
Methods to get your pen needles or syringes
You would possibly surprise if you should buy pen needles over-the-counter, and the brief reply is that it relies upon.
In america, prescription guidelines differ from state to state and in some states, you don’t want a prescription to purchase pen needles.
Nevertheless, if you happen to use your insurance coverage to pay in your needles, they may require a prescription. Attain out to your insurance coverage firm to study if you happen to want a prescription and if that’s the case, how a lot your co-pay is.
There are additionally choices to purchase pen needles on-line and not using a prescription, however which answer is most cost-effective for you’ll rely in your insurance coverage.
How to decide on the appropriate insulin syringe?
Utilizing a syringe in your insulin injections remains to be essentially the most extensively used manner of delivering insulin in america.
A syringe is a hole plastic tube with a plunger inside and a brief skinny needle hooked up. You need to use the syringe to attract the insulin out of a vial after which inject it.
You need to select the appropriate syringe for the kind of insulin that you just use, and the very first thing to test is that if the focus of your insulin matches the syringe.
It’s indicated on the syringe (in addition to on the packaging) what insulin focus the syringe is for. Insulin focus is measured in Models/mL and indicated as U-100, U-200, or U-500.
Be sure your syringe matches your insulin focus otherwise you would possibly find yourself injecting the incorrect quantity of insulin.
Secondly, you need to select the syringe dimension that’s acceptable for you. When you use massive quantities of insulin at a time, you’ll need to select a bigger syringe so that you just don’t have to chop your doses up into smaller quantities.
- 0.3 mL syringes are for doses beneath 30 models of insulin and are numbered at 1-unit intervals.
- 0.5 mL syringes are for doses of 30 to 50 models of insulin and are numbered at 1-unit intervals.
- 1.0 mL syringes are for doses of greater than 50 models of insulin and are numbered at 2-unit intervals.
Lastly, you need to take into account which dimension needle is suitable for you. Simply as with pen needles, shorter needle sizes are typically really helpful.
You will get syringes with needles so long as 12.7 mm (1/2”) lengthy however the shortest syringe needle size obtainable is 6 mm (15/64”) x 31G.
Good injection applys
Selecting the needle or syringe that works for you is vital, however injections can be extra snug with much less threat of ache or leakage if you happen to additionally bear in mind to:
- Change the needle each time.
- Select the appropriate injection web site and rotate your websites.
- Don’t jab the needle in
- Maintain it in for five to 10 seconds to scale back the danger of leakage.
When you select the appropriate needle dimension and comply with good injection practices, injecting insulin ought to hardly ever be painful. If you find yourself achieved together with your pen needle or syringe, please bear in mind to eliminate them safely.
