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Friday, 20 October 2017

Ravens vs Dr. A. Peters Tips for Demystifying Injections in Diabetes. October 20, 2017

Blood sugar is 79 mg/dl.
       It is perfect sugar, and I do not feel 'low'. Why i have to feel low if sugar is perfect? Simple, I do have high blood sugar, sometimes above glucose meter limits, 599 mg/dl, so it is easy to tolerate high sugar then 'normal' sugar level. It takes time to tolerate perfect sugar as it is normal. I can feel 'low' with sugar 100 mg/dl.  This is tip which Anne Peters, MD would never give to her patients. She simple do not know anything behind to copy instructions every diabetic do have in every box of insulin or needles we do have. But she proud to educate diabetic.
        This is the problem with diabetes. Treatment is Insulin only. But insulin therapy is very complicated. We have to be good observers and very brave in attempt to control blood sugar level. We have to be brave to take that swings, and ride from up to down. With every ride sugar mast go down, high sugar lower and low sugar higher, so eventually dose of insulin and level of  sugar come in balance, in medium. Is this 'blood sugar control'? No. It is not. "Control' is only when there is no 'ups' and no 'downs' every day, day after day, regardless if it is flu season and diabetic dot cold, or it is migraine headache.
       Really, it is easy to educate diabetic that before insulin shot would be taken diabetic needs to put off cup from insulin pen. What really does she think about us? That we are idiots with brain swelled by fat? It is not true. No one of us will inset needle on pen with paper cover on the back. But MD has no one idea about it. She does know there is cup on the insulin pen, but  she has no one idea that there are two cups on the needle and there is paper cover on the needle. Also she does not know very important point. After shot spot must be covered by alcohol pad, or any paper towel and hold tight about two seconds. It does prevent spot from getting blue, black spot.
     Usually I count 'one-by-one, two - by -two, three-by-three, four - by - four .... ten-by-ten". This is time I take to let insulin to enter into body, and to hold small soft paper on the spot of injection.
      Then I wright in my log book:
  •  what is the insulin type,
  •  what is the dose of insulin, 
  • what is the time of injection.
 It is important. It is my log book, and I never discharge these books. I keep all of them. Now it is # 17. I do not use log books which are standards. It  is not good. They do have too small spot to wright, and really too much needless instructions. My log book is more convenient.
      I use page for every day, never put of two days on one page, so it is easy to navigate. If I need, I can use two pages. In this case I try to use two pages on one side of book, I do not know how to say it better. It is list, and every list has two pages. So, there would be two pages on two lists rather then one list. It is for reason to have all info right on the eyes.
      Also I use pens of different colors. It is easy for me to see what I need to see:
  • insulin Dose is in one color, 
  • ordinary info such as date in other color,
  • all another info such as headache, of swelling on legs, or other med I take or any condition I do have, it is all go in another color. 
So, my log book is pretty colorful.
      Log book is all the time on the same place. I do have box of old log books, and they are in storage just for time which probably never would come. The log book I use all the time on the same place, and it is right near computer on wall shelf. This is important. All my family do know about this book  so they can find it at any time any emergency.
      Also I use this book for short needed info such as orders on Walmart, Amazon, or when my man put car in shot and how much did he paid. This is info which has no connection with health or my condition, but it is so easy to find, and it is so easy to use that we all love this book. Short leave info such as orders would be lost if they were not on the some info. Computer can be out off order at any time. So where to find this info? In my book. Easy and convenient.
       I do have small box where I put needles which I used today. It is for my convenience. I can easy to forget to put in my log book that I took shot. I never discharge needle after shot right away. I put it in small box. Every morning I discharge all needles I used day before, but I do it only in the morning, never on eve. This is for my memory. In the morning I will discharge all used needles, and put a new used needle in this small box. Probably no one else need this tip. But those of us who has problem with memory and concentration, it is good to be used.
       Now I use small needles, 5 mm. Before it was 8 mm. Now there are 5 mm. A.Peters MD posted that needles are 4mm. I never used this type of needles, never did know they can be ordered. I am not sure I ever will  use them, why? Because of it is too small. I am not sure it will go into body deep to do the job. I even do think to return back to 8 mm needles. 5 mm needles less painful. I do think they are good for lean diabetics. For me, it is better to use 8 mm. Still today I use 5 mm, and it is good too.
      MD did not mention that we have to spring the needle before injection. It is two units. I stopped to do so when I was on very limited supply of insulin. Then right now I do have needed insulin supply, and I even do have some extra for emergency. Still, I do not spring needle. I would not suggest to use this tip. But I do use this way to inject insulin. I take a new needle every time. Needles are sterile. Every time when I spring insulin how can I do it? Medicine goes up and then fall down. It is dirty around my spot. It would be all around me in sprinted medicine. This is the reason I do not spring insulin. It is two units with every injection, and it is my apartment, not medical setting.
      Pain. When medicine go into body there  can be pain. This pain is short, very acute, and go away very fast. But it is still pain, and it is hard to tolerate. If pain happened, I do freeze, no move, slow to breath. Just freeze. Needle still inside of the body. No move till pain go away. Then injection can be finished in regular way. This is the reason to use a new needle every time. Needles have special cover to reduce pain. After being used these needle no longer have protection, so pain can be, and it is very sharp pain.
        Another reason to take a new needle every time is that needle can be banded when it was used, so medicine will not go into body. In this case I take off needle from the body, hold pen up to prevent medicine dropped out, put on a new needle, and finish the shot. It is important do not use dose monitoring because it is difficult to count how much medicine was used. So, shot must be finished without new count of dose. This is the reason to use a new needle every time.
      Probably there are many other tips can be posted. I just put on some of them, most important as I do think.       


via Ravenvoron

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