injecting in my arm?

[SilentAssassin1642]

Had a chat on the phone with my DSN the other day, and we were discussing the reasons behind my stupid highs. I've only ever injected in my tummy and legs (recently my bum for the basal lol) - and she suggests I may be having absorption issues which makes perfect sense.

She has suggested I try injecting in my arms.

BUT

I have twiggy arms

And I can't work out how I would do it...

I've never ever injected in my arms on my own - the last time I did it was when my evil paternal father did it for me and really hurt me. It kind of put me off...

Any ideas? Mainly on how the hell I can do this and how I can muster up the courage to do it?

 

[Northerner]

I've only ever done it a couple of times in my arms - I think it is a bit of a problem if you don't have much flesh to inject into. I was told the place to inject was the upper arm, an inch or two above the elbow and at the back of the arm. As I said, I only every tried this back in the early days as I seemed to be bruising a lot in the other places and wanted to try somewhere new. The thing is, it is impossible to pinch up the flesh and inject - you'd need three arms! It didn't hurt particularly, as I recall, just felt very awkward.

 

[Tezzz]

I saw Aymes inject into her arm at the London meet. Perhaps you could ask her, perhaps by PM so she sees it.

Hope that helps.

 

[margie]

This won't help - but my DSN said that although they used to suggest injecting in the arm it is no longer recommended.

I think Sam that you just need to be careful as its easier to hit muscle and get a sore arm.

 

[HelenM]

From the start, in hospital I used my arms for injecting. It was easy because I used a small (5mm) needle and it isn't necessary to pinch with these needles. The BD leaflet here confirms this is an OK technique.
http://www.bd.com/us/diabetes/pdf/5mm-insulin-guidelines.pdf

 

[shiv]

i inject into my arms all the time. basically you need to be able to 'squidge' your arm so you get a nice little bit of flesh to inject into - so push your arm against your knee, or wall, or chair back. as Northe said, you're aiming for the back of your arm, above your elbow but not high up enough so as to go into the muscle.

we can webcam one day and i'll show you if you want me to?

 

[Emmal31]

I have very slim arms too and put off injecting for a while after diagnosis in the arms but once I had done it once it was fine I found it a lot easier than anywhere else. You can only try it and see how it goes. What size needles do you use? My dsn gave me 5mm needles to try on my arms, maybe you could try them? x

 

[rossi_mac]

I try and do my arms whenever I have short sleeves on for my lunch, I don't always manage it as I'm not bleesed with big arms but I basicaly I squidge up my arm and try and dig it in, after three goes I can give up, I try as much as I can "crop rotate" as I like to do the old thunder thighs when donning the shorts. give it a go and good luck girl 🙂

 

[Adrienne]

My daughter when she was 6 with skinny arms could inject herself in her upper arm. We used the smallest needles, 5 mm I think, and so no pinching necessary and it was no problem. I didn't help hold the pen or anything. So it is possible but you just need to get the angle right. 🙂