The pens are a godsend for people with poor coordination, arthritis, vision problems, and other issues that make using the old vial/syringe combination unsafe or difficult to use. ‘Dial a dose’ and pen systems have been around a long time - at least ten years - but they’ve become more popular with the advent of the newer rapid-acting and very long acting insulins.
As a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) I advise the folks I talk to to inject at the table when their food arrives, and certainly NOT to use the bathroom or go elsewhere. The pens are made in such a way, and the needle is so short and fine, that you are not going to see it unless you’re right on top of it, honestly.
Many diabetics dose their rapid-acting insulin by assessing what arrives on their plate and figuring the number of carbs they’re going to eat to determine what dose they’re going to take. Getting up and leaving to inject at a time when everyone else is starting to dig in would be inconvenient at the least - a discreet injection at the table is probably less disruptive anyhow.
I don’t inject, but I have to poke myself and test my blood sugar occasionally. Most of the time I do it at home, but there are times I have to do it elsewhere. I honestly do not care a whit if it bothers anyone else. It isn’t about them and I’m not going to let them make it about them.
Wow… just wow. I’m really happy I didn’t find that thread in the first 6 months I was diagnosed.
As someone who is diabetic and extremely squeamish about needles, I can honestly say… anyone who thinks they can see most diabetics dosing insulin in a restaurant is just flat-out wrong. Of all 3 methods (syringes, pens, pump), the syringe is the most obvious to people sitting around you. That said, assuming there were other people at the table, I’m pretty sure you could be sitting across the table from me and I could pull out a vial and a syringe and dose in my belly without you even noticing what I was doing.
Insulin pen? Even easier. I might be able to do it without you noticing if you and I were the only people at the table.
I inject in public all the time and it’s never bothered me. To be fair, I do ask when I’m with people if they have any objections to the sight of needles because I have met a couple people who wouldn’t be able to eat after watching me give myself a shot.
I’ve been an insulin dependent diabetic for about 6-7 years. Even before I had to start injecting myself 4 times a day needles never bothered me. I’d had enough over my previous 35+ years to become long accustomed to them.
I’ll inject myself right at the table when the food arrives. I use basic syringes and vials of insulin but when eating out I usually have one pre-filled with approximately how much I’ll need, plus a bit more. This isn’t usually an issue because I rarely dine out.
If I’m sitting with someone I don’t know well, I’ll mention that they may want to look away if needles bother them before I “shoot up”.
I’d use a pen injector if my insurance covered it, but it’s no great hardship for me to use conventional syringes.
I haven’t seen it, but the OP reminds me of a time back in residency when we were interviewing a resident candidate and several of us took him to lunch at the faculty club. During the meal he pulled out his works to shoot up his insulin dose. Whether it was nervousness or bad technique, it turned into a somewhat bloody affair. No one said anything or gave him a dirty look, but I noticed most people didn’t order dessert.
I’ve had to inject in public only once in the last five years, and that was in an airport men’s room. I was tired and grumpy at the time, and not in the mood for that kind of crap if anyone said something about it.
I’m not diabetic, but I’ve experienced something similar when I had braces. The point of commercials is to make you insecure about something you have or don’t have, so you will buy the product - whether or not it’s realistic.
After college, I got braces. Around that time, “Invisalign” came out - they call it invisible braces, but it’s really more like a retainer. Anyway, the commercials really played up the fact that people who wear braces are too hideous to be seen out in public.
In one commercial, a woman waiting for a blind date (that she knows has braces) strikes up a conversation with a guy wearing Invisalign. When the actual date shows up, he is of course not as good looking, and the camera zooms in on his metal mouth. So she pretends to not be his blind date so she can go back to flirting with the other guy. In another commercial, a girl gets braces while her twin sister gets Invisalign. Of course, the family makes snarky remarks to the braces twin about how she no longer has her beautiful smile.
Obviously having a mouth full of metal is not as attractive a look as bare teeth, but I don’t think it hurt my social life, and I was never made to feel unattractive or embarrassed about it.
I know! Crazy stuff. Especially the parts where people insist that it’s not really all that big of a deal to wait 10 or 15 minutes against their doctor’s advice. It’s really hard to keep in mind that the thread is 7 years old and I don’t have to get in there and set them all straight.
I’ve posted in “insulin injections in public” threads before, but I’m not going to recap because my opinions have changed over time.
I used to be more conciliatory towards people who didn’t want to see me inject when I needed to. I’m older now, and angrier, too. My attitude now is it’s too goddamn bad if it upsets you. I’m the one with a fairly unpleasant chronic disease which makes me feel sick every single god damn day of my life. I’ll take my shot when and where I please, and maybe the busybodies out there can read their bible instead, or something, instead of watching me.
I don’t make a production of it and I still go to the restrooms if I have to give it on a leg and I’m not wearing something which gives me easy leg access. But I’m not going to hide in shame when a quick shot in my side is needed.
Will people comment? Yes - one of my earliest recollections was a woman who clucked and almost ran away, exclaiming word to the effect of “oh my GOD they let a drug addict in here!” :rolleyes:
I’ve heard stories of police hassling people with insulin syringes in pretty unreasonable circumstances before, have any of you ever personally had that sort of thing happen?
Yeah, here’s my feeling about this (as someone who injected insulin, sometimes publicly, during all three of my pregnancies):
It sucks to have a severe needle phobia, and it sucks even more to have that phobia triggered in a public place.
You know what sucks even more? Having a lifelong condition that requires daily injections.
So, while obviously I think the respectful thing is to be as discreet as possible when doing injections within reasonable bounds, I’m not too worried about potential needle-phobes lurking in the nearby area. If such a person recoiled, well, that’s their business, I won’t fault them too much for it. But I’m not going and injecting in a public toilet because such a person might potentially be nearby, either.
But really, I think most people in that thread just don’t get it. Carb-counting and dosing insulin to cover the carbs is considered the best therapy for most insulin-dependent diabetics. The type of insulin you use for that kind of injection starts working about 15 minutes after you dose it, and doesn’t stop working for 3-4 hours. There’s a peak in there at about the 1.5 hour mark. In the best world, that timing corresponds with the time/peaks your gut takes to process carbs. It works pretty well, but not perfectly.
In practical matters, what that means is that you don’t take chances dosing before your food comes, because if the insulin starts working before the food comes, you risk going low. And you also have to be pretty good at carb-counting. You can’t reliably do that with most food until it’s in front of you - sometimes the kitchen is heavy handed with the mashed potatoes today, or they didn’t put as much breading on, or the rolls that you didn’t think you would eat come out smelling so delicious that you decide to have one. So your food comes, you look at it, you decide how many carbs it’s going to be.
Then, while your food is hot and ready in front of you, you excuse yourself, climb over the person sitting next to you in the booth, and run off the the bathroom to dose? Excuse me? Hell no. Forget the sanitation reasons, the practical reasons (ie, there’s not always counter space in a bathroom to spread your stuff out on), and any other reason. When you have to go through this ritual every fookin’ single time you eat, no, I’m not going to go running to the bathroom because some nosy person might want to look at my lap while I prepare and inject my dose. Sorry.
<whew> and sorry for the rant. That other thread got to me. Nobody in THIS thread is getting into it, so it’s totally unneeded. But I had to get it out.
I was uncomfortable with the idea of injecting in a restaurant, so the very first time it came up for me, I decided I would inject outside in the car, before we went in.
Yeah, I nearly passed out while we were waiting for the appetizers to arrive. It was really not cool. So that was the last time I tried to get cute and pre-dose my fast-acting insulin that far in advance.
Many non-diabetics, including some who feel they are “informed,” just. Don’t. Get it. Your experience is one I’ve had a few times. And sometimes it’s simply because for one reason or another (you hit a scar tissue pocket/lipolith, your metabolism is different that day, whatever) even when you do everything right things go wrong. Which is why you err on the side of caution, as you do, and take it at the table.
