Your Health Online | How To Inject Insulin

One of the ways to help regulate and control diabetes is through injection of insulin. Insulin is used to regulate the amount of blood sugar or glucose that is rotating in your blood stream.

It is the only enzyme capable of enabling blood sugar to be utilized for your body’s food and energy requirement. As with any other procedure, there is a proper way to inject insulin so it can be properly absorbed by your body.

1) Before each procedure, wash your hands thoroughly. You never know what is on the surface of the objects you have touched, so it’s better to protect yourself from any potential harm from infection by washing your hands thoroughly.

2) Before you inject your insulin, take first your blood sugar level with the use of your glaucometer. Record it so you may have a baseline on what your blood sugar level will be before you inject your medication. Depending on your doctor’s order, your blood sugar level may indicate the need for insulin injections, so it’s important to clarify this with your physician.

3) Prepare by putting out the insulin bottle or pen from the fridge. It is important for insulin to warm up in room temperature for 5 minutes so injecting it won’t cause you any pain or spasm. If you’re going to use a syringe prepare two needles: 1 for taking the medication from the bottle, and another to use for injecting the medication to yourself (or to a family member). The needle that you have used to aspirate medication from the bottle is already dulled by the process. Using it will only increase the pain and discomfort of injecting insulin.

4) Carefully agitate the contents of your insulin bottle. You may need to roll it between your palms to thoroughly mix the medication. Do not shake it vigorously, or you may form some air bubbles. But if you’re using an insulin pen, turn the pen up and down repeatedly to fully mix the solution. If you are using two types of insulin – one long-acting (turbid) and one short- or fast-acting (clear) – aspirate first the clear solution before the turbid one.


5) Retract the syringe before plunging it through the medication bottle. Instill in the air so that it creates a negative pressure. Invert the bottle and check to see if your needle is totally submerged in the solution. Aspirate your insulin and place the bottle on the table. Remove the needle and check if the dose is correct. If there are air bubbles, turn the syringe needle up, retract the plunger, and tap the syringe. This will cause the bubbles to collect near the needle so you can easily remove it by depressing the plunger.

6) Prepare the site by cleaning it in a circular motion inside-to-outside with a cotton ball wet with 70% alcohol and pinch a good amount of flesh in the area. For children and lean people, inject the needle at a 45 degree -angle to access the fatty tissue. For those who have lesser muscle mass, inject the needle with an angle of 90. Inject the insulin quickly so to lessen the pain and discomfort. Keep the needle in the site for 5 seconds upon injection.

For insulin pens, count 10 seconds starting from the moment of injection. Release your grip from the site and retract the needle or pen. Press on the area lightly with the use of a clean cotton ball, but do not rub. Rubbing agitates the injected solution as well as the site, and this can alter the absorption rate. The site may bleed ever so slightly at first. But if it bleeds each time you inject insulin, your technique may need a little improvement.

Injecting insulin may be hard at first, and may cause you some problems when it comes to medication compliance. But with practice, you will get used to injecting yourself (or someone) with insulin that every administration will be just easy and fast to perform.


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