Insulin Treatment

June 30, 2008 by Leila

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Here’s a glimpse of the course of action that will follow once you are recommended by a physician to get started on insulin treatment.

The needles used to inject insulin are very fine and sharp however, most injections are said to be virtually painless. Understandably, the word ‘injections’ usually make patients apprehensive. Not to forget the underlying meaning that it is going to take a whole life time to get rid of the injections once you get started. At least for majority of cases, that is how the case looks like. For this reason, hospitals and clinics usually administer lessons in injection technique for beginners.

Insulin is usually administered by a pen injection device but can be drawn up from a vial into special plastic insulin syringes marked in units (100 U in 1 ml), as well. The common places in the body to be injected are abdomen, thighs or upper arm where the needle is usually inserted in to its full length. There are five common types of needles available to be used with pen injection devices. Adults usually use a 30 gauge 8 mm needle while children use a 31 gauge 6 mm needle. When it comes to the pen devices, they come in two types of reusable and disposable.

It is an important requirement to change the injection site regularly to prevent areas of lipohypertrophy. You may have heard that insulin absorption defers from person to person. This notion in fact is correct. The rate of insulin absorption usually depends on local subcutaneous blood flow and is accelerated by exercise, local massage or a warm environment. Absorption from the abdomen is more rapid than from the arm and it is slowest when the injection is taken on the thigh.

So as it is clear by now, everybody needs careful training for a life with insulin and the easiest and the most comfortable way to achieve this is to get some training. If you have a friend who is a trained nurse, you may find some consolation and seek advice from him/her. Either way, it is very important that you learn the techniques properly and feel comfortable about it because insulin will only take you a long way if you take insulin properly and take it a long way.

Posted in Insulin