Injections

When you're doing an injection how long or what number do you count up to to keep the needle under the skin for?

When I was diagnosed I was told that once you finish administering your shot you should do a ten second count before slowly removing the needle.

While I will sometimes do this, in practice I usually wait a little less time, especially when I've taken quite a large shot anyway and draw the needle out very quickly. However sometimes as I'm pulling it out I'll draw out about half way, pause for a second and then pull it out the rest of the way.

Another thing I'll do which I've found from my DAFNE group is quite uncommon is I will take some time to actually give myself the shot. Hopefully naming brands isn't frowned upon here (if it is sorry, it's my first post) but I use a Novopen 3 for my QA insulin which if you're very gentle with you can click off 1/6th of a unit at a time although in practice 1/3rd of a unit is generally about as fine as you can get things. So when giving myself a shot I will start by trying to click off about 1/6th of a unit per second. After I've got past about 10 units I'll speed it up a little my thinking being that this will have primed the surrounding tissue making it more ready to accept the insulin. This is just the thinking of one man though however I don't often get lumps inspite of the fact that I put 75% of my shots into the belly and due to a limited level of body fat usually in quite tight grouping.

As a result in total I can sometimes have the needle under the skin for 3 or 4 mins.

hmm maybe I should ban you for mentioning a brand only joking, the site is run by graduates and apart from the costs of having the site on a server which is paid for by the DAFNE Programme ( thank you !) we are totally independent and so hold no allegiance to any one or brand. So mention who you like.
As to the slow inhjection theory, I'm not sure I'm convinced by that one. However I don't think it will do any harm, I'm just not sure it provides a benefit. I just
count to ten and whip it out

I read the info with my insulin! which states that the needle should be left for a count of 5. I count it as 5 seconds. I give the insulin reasonably slowly but I don't leave the needle in for very long - anyway sometimes it stings if I do!!

I hold for a slow-ish count of 10, which is probably less than 10 seconds, and then withdraw..

My supplementary question is why hold in the first place? Is it to allow the pen to deliver all the insulin (presumeably there's some kind of "back-up" since it's not going into a vein)? Is it to allow the body to absorb it? Is it to stop it squirting out under pressure? As Marke says what benefit is provided as against simply pressing the plunger and whipping it out? So many questions...

Stew

I understood from my Dafne course that it took the body 6 seconds to absorb the insulin. A slow count ensures that a full six seconds passes before withdrawing the needle.

Before I learnt this technique at Dafne, I did experience the insulin squirting out - somewhat disturbing! So now I do a slow count of 10 to be doubly sure

slow absorption is one of the reasons I give a slow shot so as not to oversaturate the fat I'm injecting into. I have had squirt back in the past and typically its been accompanied with a big lump as the insulin hadn't been injected deep enough under the skin either from the angle I put the needle in or because I'd lost focus and the needle had part come out causing a shallower injection site.

If you pull the needle out early you typically will see a few drops of insulin come out the needle as it's easier to come out in air than it is while under your skin. So by keeping it in you give it the time it needs to complete the full delivery.

I can't say I'd recommend it but one person in my DAFNE group who liked to just get it all over with as quick as possible always put "one for luck" on the end of every shot. By pulling out right away it's generally that last unit you miss out on so as they saw it if they put an extra unit in and missed out on one unit then it all balanced up. Worked for them but not something I'm keen on myself.