Injections in calves...?

Status
Not open for further replies.
aymes

aymes

Senior Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I'm talking lower legs, not baby cows!

I have a diabetes diary app on my iPhone. One of the things I really like on it is that it keeps a record of injection sites, so encourages you to rotate sites etc. In the options there is right calf and left calf....does anyone inject here? It's not somewhere I've ever used, thinking about it I'm not sure I'd want to,but maybe that's just because I've never done it...?!
 
Ooo. SOunds painful.😱

I used to use my thighs a lot but my latest DSN has said that they should only be used for long acting basal due to the large muscles. They are more suited to the slow trickle of basal than the relatively rapid uptake of bolus.

I'd never heard this before but she was adament and seemed to know what she was talking about.

But I would never want to inject in calves.

Rob
 
I too would never consider injecting in my calves as they have very little fat layer available (if any!). Plus, as a runner aymes you really don't want to inject into sites that you're going to be exercising as the insulin will get absorbed very rapidly, so I avoid thighs too.
 
Ouch !!!!!! 30 years as a diabetic and never heard that one before
 
I don't inject, but if I did I don't fancy doing it into my calves. Depending on the time of day and how relaxed I am, if any one gives them a playful squeez it is eithere agony or very ticklish...
 
calf injections

In the 1980s (omg I'm old) a professor did a brill feature in BALANCE and said he often injected in his calf. I've been doing it ever since - great for injecting under tables with minimum fuss.

aymes said:
I'm talking lower legs, not baby cows!

I have a diabetes diary app on my iPhone. One of the things I really like on it is that it keeps a record of injection sites, so encourages you to rotate sites etc. In the options there is right calf and left calf....does anyone inject here? It's not somewhere I've ever used, thinking about it I'm not sure I'd want to,but maybe that's just because I've never done it...?!
Click to expand...
 
Interesting!

Might try this at home first before going out and doing it as am a bit unsure about this one!

Do like to rotate but I don't think I do enough!

Rossi
 
Oh the thought of injecting in my calves makes me feel squeamish
 
Rotating

before I left hospital it was drummed into me that I should rotate injections. Four sites were mentioned Thighs, Upper Arms, Stomach & Backside.
I started with alternating round thighs and arms as didn't fancy injecting in stomarch then having hurt one arm I plucked up the courage to use stomach and now its second nature. Will be switching from Levermir to Lantus this weekene and having read the documentation it says use the same site at the same time of day - not something I'd picked up on before. Not sure about using the calves as they can be cold in the morning and som etimes ache.
 
martindt1606 said:
before I left hospital it was drummed into me that I should rotate injections. Four sites were mentioned Thighs, Upper Arms, Stomach & Backside.
I started with alternating round thighs and arms as didn't fancy injecting in stomarch then having hurt one arm I plucked up the courage to use stomach and now its second nature. Will be switching from Levermir to Lantus this weekene and having read the documentation it says use the same site at the same time of day - not something I'd picked up on before. Not sure about using the calves as they can be cold in the morning and som etimes ache.
Click to expand...

There seems to be no definitive advice about injecting, especially when it comes to long-acting. Personally, I rotate my lantus sites and pay little attention to this business of always inect same place, never inject in same place as fat-acting, never inject in stomach as too quickly absorbed etc. etc. I've not had any problems although obviously some people can be more sensitive than others to this kind of thing, and I'm on a pretty small dose of lantus. Larger doses might have more relevance when it comes to injection sites.
 
treasure_ireland said:
Hi Aymes,

Do you use the dafne app too?

I also thought this was weird, but I didnt risk it!

Id like to try to rotate abit more, as stomach gets abit abused, but arms are too hard to do, need another hand!
Click to expand...

I use one called Diabetes Diary, but looking at it the dafne one looks almost identical so I suspect it probably uses the same systems somewhere...
 
I found one internet site quite quickly that suggested calves as a place to inject but the reason given is that it was a place with lot of fat under the skin. It certainly isn't with me and as a runner , I doubt it is with you.
I also found a paper on safe injection sites for children warning that
'both sexes are at risk of accidental intramuscular injections of insulin when using the calves as the site of injection.'

I'd avoid it myself
 
only done it once when I was really high in an attempt to hit the muscle and bring myself down quicker. Didnt notice that it worked like that though. Not something i would do again or reccommend
 
I would always inject in Thighs years ago and now in Stomach andmove it round . On Dafne in Sep. they told me not to use upper arm. But I think everyone has there own faverate site and its up to you.
 
I wouldn't dream of injecting into the calf as in reality very few people do have any fat around this area, also you got the increased asorbtion with mucsle movement..

I have only injected in my thigh while pregnant, and it was very problematic as I really don't have much fat layer here either, and never injected into the upper arms because I just couldn't do it no matter what tactic I used to accomplish it, friend husband who was a T1 even tried teaching me LOL...

As to buttom injections, don't know which is the worst, the fast I have no buttom since becoming a diabetic or that now due to 2 frozen shoulders I have no chance of even attempting to get a infusion set there😱
 
ihad a friend when i was working in the weetabix factory that he used to do it on his calf all the time and that was the first time that i realised what diabetes was (10/12years ago)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top