The art of self-injecting insulin

The art of injection taking is something I pride myself in as I would now consider myself quite the experienced self-injector. I don’t really brag to many about this form of art but thought there was no better place than my blog to share this special skill and provide a few of tips and tricks of mine. I understand that this not a party trick nor is it talent show material but nevertheless it requires a wee bit of prowess.

It is important to note that there are a number of sites where you can choose to administer insulin such as the back of your arm, your stomach, your thighs or your buttocks.

A special note about choosing to inject in your arm: you should use a doorframe to push the loose flesh from the back of your arm forwards position to you can easily see and reach the perfect spot for your needle. I am personally not an advocate of the technique because I do not often find myself in the company of a good and quiet door frame here in College.

Another pro tip of mine is that if you are living in New Zealand or somewhere where it is currently Winter, I would personally recommend the stomach as your main injection site it is easy to access when you are out and about and have most definitely got long trousers on to keep yourself from the cold. Just peel your shirt up.  If you happen to reside in Malaysia or somewhere warmer however, that is shorts and t-shirt weather, don’t sweat it and inject wherever your heart desires or wherever you are feeling like.

Additionally, I thought I ought to mention the importance of injecting in difference places throughout the day. This prevents injections from being painful or making the process more difficult than it should be. This also makes the scenario of you bruising yourself and telling others you “won a hard core fight” and “you should see the other guy” a lot less likely.

Here are my steps to mastering the art of self-injecting insulin:

The fat pincher

Step one involves pinching a chunk of skin and some fat from your body that you can hold comfortably with your no injecting hand.

The gentle embrace

Step two is wrap your hand around your insulin pen, gently embracing it in the clasp of in your fingers. Once you’ve given you insulin pen a warm hug with your fingers proceed to the next step

The “not a balloon pop”

Step three is to penetrate the skin rapidly in one fluid movement. This is as if you were trying to pop a balloon with a needle only there should be no popping sound nor should there be any element of violence involved.

The final push

Step four move your thumb to the plunger and give it a push so that the plunger moves all the way down to inject the fluid.

The job well done

Step five is to then promptly remove needle from skin. A job well done.

Reward

Step six is to eat a giant cake.  This step is imaginary.

Blood glucose upon publishing: 11.5 mmol/L