Giving an insulin injection to an adult with diabetes
What does it mean to prepare and give an insulin injection?
Insulin for injection comes in small glass bottles (vials) and cartridges; both are sealed with a rubber lid. One bottle or cartridge contains many doses. To remove a dose of insulin from:
- A bottle: You will use an insulin syringe
. You will also use the syringe to inject the insulin.
- A cartridge: You will use a pen-shaped device called an insulin pen. The cartridge fits inside the pen and the dose of insulin is set with a dial on the outside of the pen. The pen (with the cartridge inside) is used to give the medication. Both disposable and reusable insulin pens are available. Each pen operates slightly differently.
Note: If you are using an insulin pen, talk with your doctor, pharmacist, or diabetes educator about how to use the pen properly. Giving insulin with these pens is not covered in this information.
To give an insulin injection, you insert the needle (attached to the syringe) into your skin. Push the plunger to inject the medicine into the fatty tissue just below the skin. Insulin usually is injected into the abdomen, upper arm, or thigh.
Your doctor may have you take two types of insulin at the same time. Because most types of insulin prescribed to be taken at the same time can be mixed together, you most likely will be able to give both doses in the same syringe. But you cannot mix the long-acting insulin glargine (Lantus) and detemir (Levemir) in the same syringe with other types of insulin.
Test Your Knowledge
To withdraw a single dose of insulin from a bottle, I need to use a syringe.
To give an injection of insulin, the needle of the syringe is inserted into the skin and the medication is pushed into the fatty tissue just under the skin.
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Why give insulin?
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| Author: | Douglas Dana Robin Parks, MS | Last Updated: August 15, 2007 |
| Medical Review: | Anne C. Poinier, MD - Internal Medicine Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Stephen Fort, MD, MRCP, FRCPC - Interventional Cardiology | |
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