Safety insulin needles

A

Anxious 63

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 3c
Does anybody know if you buy the safety needles which they use in the hospitals, i use turapi with the care point needles and i have found it more and more difficult to use them the insulin does not all go in , toujeou is ok but turapi is a big problem
 
Why do you want the safety ones rather than a different brand of needle? Are you holding it in for 10 seconds?
 
I am not sure I know what safety needles are.

What is the problem with Carepoint needles and Trurapi? Do you always do an air shot first to ensure that insulin is flowing through the needle. Do you reuse needles and are they perhaps clogging between use? I had that problem with Levemir all the time with my previous needles but it never happens with the Carepoint ones. I can only assume it is something to do with the coating that they use on the needle to help it glide more smoothly through the skin that causes some sort of reaction with some insulins and causes it to glog up the needle. I can't remember what my previous needles were but no problem with Carepoint at all for me with Fiasp and Levemir.
 
The only safety needles I have ever seen, were on the prefilled single use/single dose syringes containing the anti coag medication my husband was issued with by the hospital when he recently had his AAA stented. No way could one remove the needles from the syringe, nor even remove the plunger. Told he needed to use them all, one a day. Good job they didn't need refrigeration - 6 boxes of 10! And only one, one litre sharps box prescribed. We squished some into my sharps bin and he then bought another from our usual pharmacy - cost him a whole 98p!
 
Anxious 63 said:
Does anybody know if you buy the safety needles which they use in the hospitals, i use turapi with the care point needles and i have found it more and more difficult to use them the insulin does not all go in , toujeou is ok but turapi is a big problem
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Can you explain a little more about what you’re finding difficult? Is it screwing the needles on, taking them off, depressing the pen button to inject, etc, or are you saying that the Trurapi isn’t going through the needles properly?
 
You can get safety needles on prescription. They’re used in schools etc a lot and by nurses in the care home. We were offered them on paeds service but still use the regular needles. You may need the hospital to add them to your repeat prescription but check with the GP first.
 
Inka said:
Can you explain a little more about what you’re finding difficult? Is it screwing the needles on, taking them off, depressing the pen button to inject, etc, or are you saying that the Trurapi isn’t going through the needles properly?
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Yes i have found the trurapi with the care point needle did always empty insulin into my body , there was no problem with tojeou and recently while in hospital they used the safety needles and there was no problem with either insulin
 
How strange @Anxious 63 I’d never heard of that before. If you can’t get the safety needles, you could try another brand of needle. I had BD Microfine for many years until I was swapped to a cheaper brand which aren’t so good. I also wonder whether it might be the insulin itself. You could try another insulin eg the branded Novorapid rather than the Trurapi, which is a biosimilar.
 
What I know. Is sometimes the cheaper needles loose grip on the screw cap? They are sharpened at both ends so one end goes through the rubber on the insulin cartridge. Sometimes the cheap ones don’t penetrate the rubber & push up. Insulin delivery can be “void.” Or limited.
 
Anxious 63 said:
Yes true Satan that's what happens to me,i don't like trurapi i keep asking for nova rapid i think you can take novarapid when your sugars are high and you dont feel well, tbh i am sick to death of the lot of it
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Do push to get Novorapid if you think it will suit you better @Anxious 63 However, I can’t see any reason why you can’t take Trurapi as a correction dose if your sugars are high. You could ask about this. You’d need to know your correction factor - ie how much to take.
 
Hi there inka i have read a lot of your posts you seem very knowledgeable about diabetes , yes they said with food 14- 16 units of trurapi , and without food if not feeling well take 5-7 units especially if sugars are high like 16 to 20 , but i swear sometimes the trurapi insulin with the care point needles does empty in my body ., i am sick of it all they now been saying recently i am type 3c but they will treat me like i am type 1, its very confusing i feel generally unwell i have inflamed like inflammation in my stomach and recently been back in hospital for re occurrence of pancreatitis and suspected kidney infection , i was in 2 and half weeks and it was a terrible experience they continued with some anti biotics then took me off them , i am too many meds i have stopped taking some of them , i am taking co codamol soluble for the pain and discomfort , obviously taking the toujeou and turapi , taking lorazepam and anti depressants , then they put me statins blood pressure meds , i mean its crazy stuff i dont know whether i am coming or going and this needle thing is making it worse than ever
 
Hello @Anxious 63,

I'm not really well up on necrotising pancreatitis to be able to suggest anything specific. I had a total pancreatectomy to treat my Pancreatic Cancer, thus instantly Type3c. I thought I'd read some while ago that you had already been diagnosed as T3c; but must have got that mistakenly.

Anyway, we have a number of T3cs who have had pancreatitis and subsequently found they became diabetic, diagnosed as T3c and now insulin dependent. As well as @Wendal, there is @cupcakequeen71, @eggyg, @soupdragon, @zippyjojo, @Chris88, @sean123, @djdave, and more recently @jenny33. Plus many others, who aren't particularly active on the forum. Some have had their diabetes progress and (like yourself) had a Health Care Professional "joined the dots" and connect their medical history of Diabetes and Pancreatitis - hence T3c; others have found themselves in Hospital, had some degree of partial Pancreatic surgery and left Hospital as a T3c.

The important thing for you, I think, is to press your GP for an urgent referral to a Pancreatic Specialist. Do you, perhaps, already have such a named Consultant you could get back to from earlier necrotising pancreatitis treatments? Either by direct contact or through your GP?

In case you haven't already seen this, DUK have generic info on Type 3c in the Welcome and Getting Started section of this Forum:

Josh DUK

Thread 'What is type 3c diabetes?'

You may have heard of the more common types of diabetes like type 1, type 2 and gestational. But there are actually many other types of diabetes that aren't as well known.​

Type 3c diabetes develops because of damage to the pancreas, which can happen for a few different reasons. And although it’s different to other types, you can get a wrong diagnosis of type 2 because type 3c isn’t as well known.

Find out more:

What is type 3c diabetes?

You may have heard of the more common types of diabetes like type 1, type 2 and gestational. But there are actually many other types of diabetes that aren't as well known. Type 3c diabetes develops because of the damage to the pancreas, which can happen for a few different reasons. And although...
www.diabetes.org.uk www.diabetes.org.uk
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Those of us who are formally diagnosed T3c are a tiny proportion of the overall diabetic community and arrive here from quite different start points and have different experiences. But our common denominator is that we invariably need a different treatment path for T3c in relation to T2; and the diagnosis of T3c should lead to us getting access to better support including the use of Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM) if appropriate - something not frequently available to T2s. I hope this helps you find a path through your current problems and I'm sure some of those who are T3c will pick up on the tagging I've put in here (not everyone is necessarily reading this forum regularly).
 
Thanks there Proud and Inca yes i was originally type 2 then in winter 2021 was in hospital in Crumpsall Manchester when covid was happening i chest pain so got ambulance was admitted and treated with anti biotics then 6 days later they said you have pneumonia also we have found an acute attack of pancreatitis, so was treated with morphine anti biotics etc i was in there 3 months ,i also caught c-diff which is a very bad bowel infection was on powerful anti biotics because i vomiting diarrhoea etc ,i lost 3 stone all told , since then i am now under Manchester Royal infirmary both diabetes and pancreatitis , i can use the help lines for DSN and the gastro nurses ,i am now on creon 7 every time eat , i have 3 re admissions in last 2 years, I'm now type 3c but treated like a type1 with toujeou and turapi , the whole thing is nightmare .i was misdiagnosed for a long time and im i a right mess , my mental illlness as gone trough the roof
 
Thanks for clarifying @Anxious 63. You might find it helpful to amend your type from T2 to T3c; this subtle change tells us quite a lot. Ideally you should be displayed as "T3c (as if T1)" - but that option is not available to you!

Your Toujeo and Turapi are what is generically described as Multiple Daily Injections (MDI) and MDI is a fairly normal process for managing T1 or some T3cs. I was discharged after my surgery as a T1, which potentially opened the doors to my receiving full support for my Diabetes.

I understand your comment about being in a right mess, with so much going on. I wish I could offer further support, rather than just words here. But do be strong, with help from your GP and perhaps more importantly your Hospital Team, there should be a decent way forward.
 
Anxious 63 said:
Yes true Satan that's what happens to me,i don't like trurapi i keep asking for nova rapid i think you can take novarapid when your sugars are high and you dont feel well, tbh i am sick to death of the lot of it
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So, @Anxious 63, coming back to the title of your post here: Safety Insulin Needles.

I deduce (from your this reply to @Satan’s little helper)
that you've had problems with normally prescribed needles not always allowing free flow of insulin. I had a problem with a particular make of needle being given to me by my Dispensing Pharmacist (Tesco) because my prescription was generic and my usual needles weren't available, so he'd switched brands. I asked the Tesco Pharmacist to not, in future, give me that particular brand. He advised me to get my prescription changed from the generic description too a specific brand. So I phoned and got to speak to the GP's "in-house" Pharmacist; it seems that some Surgeries have a Dispensing Pharmacy and some don't - but I'm pretty sure that every Surgery has an in-house Pharmacist as a requirement from the NHS. This in house Pharmacist may actually be in another building, even in another town and a sub-contractor [so sometimes not very "in house"] but they fully represent the Surgery and work as if they are totally part of the Surgery. I explained rhe problem and the in house Pharmacist accepted my problem needed resolving and altered the prescription details to make my needles a specific brand.

Now I first established with the Dispensing Pharmacist what would and wouldn't meet my need and armed with that knowledge I was able to tell the in house Pharmacist that detail (and confirm to her that the detail had come from the Dispenser). So I did a lot of the legwork!

If your needle problem is as described they aren't fully piercing the cartridge inside the pen, then I'd ask the Dispenser to give you the exact details of the best needle for your pens. If the heart of this problem is that you really need to get Trurapi changed for NovoRapid then almost certainly your in house Pharmacist will NOT be allowed to make that change without a Dr authorising. However, both at my previous Surgery and my new one (we moved 30 miles away) your in house Pharmacist may well take your problem direct to a GP and get both needles and insulin changed for the 3 reasons:
​
You've had failures with the Trurapi and current needles.​
You want to try NovoRapid anyway.​
You are T3c "as if T1". This "as if T1" can be a great "door opener", I've found.​
​
Or ask your DSN to intervene and ask/direct your Surgery to get NovoRapid added to your prescriptions plus appropriate re-usable half-unit pens with the disposable insulin cartridges. You'll need 2 reusable pens so that you have a complete reserve in case of your normal pen failing or getting broken (this is very normal). The reusable pens are terrific, got a nice feel to them and a memory cap on their end (for those moments of did I or didn't I actually take that planned injection). The half unit Dispensing is very appropriate for your relatively small amounts of insulin. I use the NovoPen Echo Plus and got 2 red for my NovoRapid; and 2 blue for my Tresiba - I don't think there is an equivalent pen for Toujeo.

Good luck
 
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