Needle size

[Dot Stokes]

I was told in December by my GP that the 12.7mm needles that I use for my humulog injections were no longer available so I would have to use the 6mm ones that I use for my Lantus injections. I started using these one week ago. WOW! The change in my control has been remarkable and I told my diabetic nurse yesterday at a new clinic I am attending. She said that it was quite strange that I had been using 12.7mm needles since 2003! and that it was not necessary to use such long ones and as the 6mm needles obviously do not penetrate so deeply into the tissues and muscle layer they give better control. I wished I had known this many years earlier. She confirmed that she had know this fact for a long time. I feel very upset about this as no-one has ever discussed with me in recent years the length of the needles I am using, so I have been carrying on regardless struggling with my control to give me an average of 8.00 Hba1c. I am hoping now that this will improve drastically as all my readings now are coming up 4,5,6,7,and up to highest 9.
I would be interested to know if anyone else has had this problem with long term use of the wrong needle or is there anyone out there who is not asked regularly "What needle size are you using?" I would point out that there are some people who legimately should be using 12,77mm needles. But obviously not me!!!!!
I am female aged 68 and have been Type 1 for 37 years. Fortunately I do not have any long term health complications and do walk an average of 3 miles every day. Weight 75.00 kgs.

 

[Sprogladite]

I was recently told that I shouldn't be using anything bigger than 4mm to inject with. I was surprised as I'd been on 8mm needles for years without issues. I'm still finding the 4mm ones a little weird but have to admit my injection sites are feeling less traumatised 🙂

 

[Robin]

Hello, Dot, and welcome to the forum. I think there is a problem with all sorts of things that we are initially prescribed, when new products become available, or the thinking changes. Newly diagnosed people are put on the new stuff, but nobody ever thinks to make the long-term diagnosed aware of them.
I was diagnosed ten years ago, and started on 8mm needles, which was the standard thinking at the time. Because I joined this forum, and tried to keep up with new trends, I realised that I might be better off with shorter ones, and asked to swap. I'm now on 4mm ones, and bruise a lot less than I used to. But without doing the research myself, I'd never have known it was a possibility.

 

[Sprogladite]

I think there is a problem with all sorts of things that we are initially prescribed, when new products become available, or the thinking changes. Newly diagnosed people are put on the new stuff, but nobody ever thinks to make the long-term diagnosed aware of them.

I couldn't agree with this more!! I'd still be in the dark ages without the forum

 

[Northerner]

There does seem to be an assumption that if you've been diagnosed a long time you should 'know everything' - but, of course, things do change! I've encountered people who have been diagnosed decades and didn't know about pumps or were never told about different insulin regimes and are still on 2 mixed a day 😱 I met a guy once who had been diagnosed 15 years and thought you only needed to count the sugar in things, not the whole carb value 😱 Things like this ought at the very least be assessed and discussed at the annual review! 🙄

 

[trophywench]

Plus Dot - it's very much in our own hands to discover 'stuff like this'.

Are you a member of Diabetes UK (what you and I originally knew as the British Diabetic Association) - they obviously publicised this in Balance years and years ago - and their website has been more and more full of info and downloadable booklets and info sheets as the years go on.

It's not only the carb counting and dose adjustment we need to do ourselves. If they told us all the things we'd have to do on Day One when we were diagnosed we'd NEVER be able to cope cos it's a full time job - to just fit in with having a normal life - so perhaps just as well they don't, eh!

I'll just ask - have you actually done a modern 'carb counting' course? - I'd had T1 over 30 years, so in my 50s when I did mine - and finished up wondering how the hell I'd stayed alive the previous decades! Though yes - I knew a fair bit obviously - I also learned shedloads. A really useful week - and lots of social interaction with the other participants and HCPs.

 

[Hepato-pancreato]

Never thought of this. By the way mine are 5mm nerefine changed from something dearer.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Completely agree - sometimes there is an assumption that long-term T1s know all there is to know and are up to speed with everything.

These questions often don’t get asked! One of the challenges I suppose of receiving reviews in hospital clinic, while prescribing happens at GP (who most likely knows fat less about T1). Annual surgery prescription review *should* have picked this up years ago, but I think everyone assumed it was someone else’s decision.