59 years diabetic

[KayeMA]

Hi all .. my mum has been a type 1 for 59 years .. sometimes her injections simply don’t appear to work.
we believe this could be that the site she is injecting may not be working anymore or she needs to go onto longer needles again.
In her twenties she used her legs then her arms and then her stomach and has manages to rotate the injection site - now at 80 this is becoming more difficult .. she’s on 4 small injections a day
Anyone else know of this problem ?
thanks

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Hello Kaye and welcome to the forum. Many congratulations to your Mum 59 years is a great achievement.
It sound to me as if your mum has absorption problems and needs to talk to her Dr or diabetes nurse to check her injection sites and also explore different options for injecting.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @KayeMA

And big congratulations to your Mum on 59 fabulous years!

I can imagine that over the years it has become harder to reach around for some of the spots that used to be available. Needles ‘back in the day’ were much longer too (I remember 12.7mm ones when I started a mere 30-odd years ago).

Sue’s suggestion of getting your Mum’s sites checked is a really good one, and asking about trying different needles too perhaps. Humans generally have a fairly consistent depth to get to subcutaneous tissue regardless of their build, but it may be that a slightly different length helps?

Have you managed to find any ‘fresh’ spots that your Mum can reach and which seem to work more reliably?

As you say rotation of the sites, but so can be a “mental map” of spots which are less viable now - so they can be avoided.