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Insulin needle...Hurts on injecting!

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R

rino68

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
At risk of diabetes
Hi,
My brother has just started using an insulin pen (Humulin M3 Kwikpen) given on discharge from hospital.However he has been given different needles to the ones the nurses used in the hospital.His current ones are BD Microfine + ,5mm/31G.He says the needle hurts when injecting.He had no issues in hospital but the needles were different.What can I do over the weekend to help him?
 
Welcome to the forum @rino68 . If your Gp practice is open Saturday try phoning them for a telephone appointment. for another brand to be prescribed

You can buy insulin pen needles at chemists though they are not cheap, their are many different brands and sizes. To be honest 4mm are really all that’s needed, the pharmacist should be able to advise .
You need to go to the pharmacies counter as they are not on display.


It may help if he tries a slightly different area , I found this helped me.
Here is a pic of the areas that can be used.the speed mentioned relates to how swiftly the insulin is supposed to get going.

C8AEB29A-719F-4A30-942E-1AFDB6B3A1C9.jpeg
 
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Welcome to the forum @rino68

Sorry to hear of the difficulties your brother is experiencing with doing his injections.
It may be that the nurses doing the injections for him felt very different whatever needles were used.
Doing injections at first is difficult, and there are a variety of options.

I started on 8mm needles and eventually reduced to 4mm which helped a great deal.
Some people find it helps to use an ice cube on the site before doing an injection.
There are many different makes of needles. I know I found the BD microfiche needles excellent and returned to them when I got switched to GlucoRX, which definitely hurt and caused bruises.
Do encourage him to contact his Practice if the problem persists.
 
Oddly enough - BD pen needles sting me like heck and neither I nor anyone else has ever been able to fathom out why, unless it's the type of lubricant they use that only thy know the chemical formula for. I've still got a good half box of Novofine needles (out of date by now!) so I'll just carry on using them until I go to use one and can't. (I only rarely need to have a pen injection as I use an insulin pump)
 
Hope your brother managed to get hold of some needles that suited him better @rino68

Welcome to the forum 🙂
 
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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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