The pen and the old system of syringes and needles

[Allan Lloyd]

I read with interest the article on the invention of the pen device? In the article it says that needles had to be sharpened by hand and then sterilized before use. I was diagnosed in 1961 ,well before any pen devices and all the needles I used were already sharp and had a "gold" coloured wire down the bore and all that was required was to boil them and then keep them under surgical spirits till blunt and then changed over to a new needle ,no sharping required

 

[leonS]

The best thing was to befriend an NHS worker who would steal disposable syringe-needle combinations from the wards.

Diagnosed 1972, given a couple of needles and told to sharpen them when they got blunt. Used the "stone" from a "Rolls" razor to do it.

GP asked if I had had trouble with infected injection sites. When I told him that I had not, he confidently predicted "You will". Just the sort of reassurance that I needed as a newly diagnosed diabetic.

In spite of having done my very best to make his prediction come true, I have not managed it yet.

Because drug addicts were given disposable syringes diabetics got them too.

I still prefer a syringe, and see no advantage in a pen.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Relative newcomer - only got started impersonating my pancreas in 1991. Started with syringes and mixed insulin, but they were the disposable 12mm ones. Migrated to reusable pens after about a year.

Since moving to a pump I now keep syringes as a back-up. Their shelf life is SO much longer than insulin cartridges/pens and they are so much less bulky to carry as an emergency backstop if my pump ever went wrong - not that any that I’ve had have ever left me in the lurch.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

I read with interest the article on the invention of the pen device? In the article it says that needles had to be sharpened by hand and then sterilized before use. I was diagnosed in 1961 ,well before any pen devices and all the needles I used were already sharp and had a "gold" coloured wire down the bore and all that was required was to boil them and then keep them under surgical spirits till blunt and then changed over to a new needle ,no sharping required

I think you will find it was industrial spirit that we kept our glass syringes and needles in 🙂

 

[mikeyB]

I certainly don’t want to back to syringes, it’s such a pain filling them and tapping air bubbles out and arsing about with surgical cleansing wipes to clean the top of the insulin bottles. I can remember my mum’s kit covering half the kitchen bubbling away. Or so it seemed to me as a six year old. That’s why I’ve never had a fear of needles. Or diabetes. Pens were an answer to a prayer, specially for my mum. Though she would say the blood testing kit was the bigger advance, because that didn’t involve test tubes of wee bubbling away and turning different colours.

Mind you, as kids we were never short of meths to fuel the Mamod steam engine.

 

[leonS]

The next step was to replace the spirit lamp and use the heat of neutralisation when caustic soda and citric acid are mixed with water. This evil mixture would fizz and bubble in a most alarming fashion, and become hot enough to burn. The actual test was for copper sulphate (blue) to oxidise to copper oxide (when there was sugar) which is bright yellow. By comparing the colour to a chart you could estimate the sugar in the urine.

Cauatic soda absorbs moisture from the air so had to be kept in an air tight container.

You had to go around like an itinerant chemist with test-tube, dangerous chemicals, and an eye droper. But the real disadvantage was that you were not testing blood sugar at all. Just a vague estimation of how you were doing. A BG test needed six hours and a fully equippted path lab.

 

[Northerner]

Am I right that when pens became available you had to buy your own needles for them because they weren't available on prescription? 😱

 

[mikeyB]

I’ve just ordered my needles because the NHS won’t prescribe them. That era has returned.

 

[Matt Cycle]

Am I right that when pens became available you had to buy your own needles for them because they weren't available on prescription? 😱

Yes this is correct. I was a given a Novopen (the original 1.5ml Actrapid cartridge model) in 1987. It was launched by Novo in 1985. Pen needles were not put on prescription until (I think) 1991 or 1992. The BDA ran a campaign to get them on prescription. I've no idea why they weren't on prescription for all that time. I presume as most people were switching over to pens in the early 90's they decided to prescribe them. Until then my DSN at clinic appointments would give me a few handfuls of them. I had to make them last. Occasionally I did have to buy them from the chemist. Like Mike (EDUAD) I missed out on glass syringes and started off on disposables at diagnosis in 1986 using Humulin I (yes, just Humulin I twice daily) but was still using disposable syringes for my then basal (Ultratard) until 2006.

 

[nonethewiser]

Since moving to a pump I now keep syringes as a back-up. Their shelf life is SO much longer than insulin cartridges/pens and they are so much less bulky to carry as an emergency backstop if my pump ever went wrong - not that any that I’ve had have ever left me in the lurch.

Not on high insulin doses and could do with a small syringe as a back up to pump, any suggestions?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Not on high insulin doses and could do with a small syringe as a back up to pump, any suggestions?

My favourites were a pack of BD 0.3ml ‘Demi’ which were little shorties, marked in 0.5u and only went up to 30u max dose 🙂

 

[leonS]

Not on high insulin doses and could do with a small syringe as a back up to pump, any suggestions?

Have a word with a pharmacist, they will know what is available, and easy to obtain. I looked on a syringe manufacturers web site some time ago and the number of syringe types available is mind boggling.

 

[HOBIE]

My father was a very strong man & the needles used to bend when he was injecting me. My mother could not do. Twice the glass syringe exploded with the pressure. Try & calm a upset 6yr old kid to get it done again

 

[C&E Guy]

In the 1960s, I had a pyrex syringe and a supply of needles with a metallic base/fitting. Was never told anything about sharpening them. We just had to boil them for sterilising before use. Each needle lasted a week or two (one injection per day then).

Only got switched to plastic in the 70s. Over the years, the syringes and needles got smaller and smaller.

 

[eggyg]

I tell you what, us “ newcomers” have got it easy. Kudos to all those who boiled their own pee and used syringes. No wonder you get medals!