In keeping with day two of the March Challenge (and trust me I can’t keep up this topic for very long, and by the way my bruise is still in my abdomen from my needles week) I decided to let the CDEs at Mayo Clinic have their say on the subject.

This one is I think directed at type 2s more than type 1s, but the basic points are just as good for anyone living with diabetes or living with someone living with diabetes.  I will point out, however, that not all of these suggestions will work for everyone—you need to be speaking to your friends and loved ones all the time—even AFTER you’ve figured out something that works—to ensure you are both comfortable with your jobs on this.

It’s worth it.  (If you need some help figuring out ways to make it work, I can help.)

Tips for diabetes caregivers

By Nancy Klobassa, R.N., and Peggy Moreland, R.N.

Friends or family members often ask us how they can help a loved one who has diabetes to make lifestyle changes. With a husband who has type 2 diabetes and two sons who have type 1 diabetes, I know that there’s a lot to learn about living well with diabetes on a personal level. Diabetes is a hard disease to handle alone.

Here are some ways that you can support your friend or loved one.

• Voice your support. Let the person with diabetes know that you love them and are willing to help.
• Learn about diabetes. Read books and reliable websites on diabetes. And go to doctor’s appointments and diabetes classes with your loved one.
• Talk about your feelings. Let your loved one know that his or her diabetes affects you, too.
• Let go. It’s not your responsibility to manage another person’s diabetes. Just because I’m a certified diabetes educator doesn’t give me nagging rights. My family members with diabetes feel more comfortable asking for help when I’m simply available to them.

I’ve also found that lifestyle changes that are good for a person who has diabetes are also beneficial to the rest of the family. For example:

• Exercise together. Exercise for you and your loved one with diabetes. Invite your loved one to go to the gym or for a walk with you.
• Choose healthy foods. Healthy meals benefit the whole family. If you have a relative with diabetes, you’re at risk. Making lifestyle changes now can postpone or prevent diabetes!
• Encourage. Applaud your loved one’s efforts and successes and encourage him or her during struggles.
• Be considerate. When having a party, offer healthy, tasty treats such as fresh fruit.
• Seek outside help. If your loved one is sad or depressed, ask your health care provider about ways to get help. Ask about a diabetes support group in your area. You can also ask to meet with a certified diabetes educator.

Being the primary caregiver for a person who has diabetes can take an emotional toll. A diabetes caregiver may be the one taking ownership of his or her loved one’s diabetes if the person with diabetes doesn’t or can’t. If you find it’s too much for you, talk with your healthcare provider or diabetes educator. Together, you can determine at what point you may need outside assistance, such as from a nurse. -Peggy

So I was all set to abandon my idea of blogging about needles for the week and not blog about needles today… and then I changed my site and saw the bruise that had formed under my site I’ve been wearing all week.  So maybe this would be why I thought about needles all week!  I knew it had issues when I put the catheter in and blood filled the catheter when I took out the introducer needle… but I went on anyway because other than that I thought it was a good site.  (It was!)

Inspiration for My Blogs on Needles

THE ANNOUNCEMENT

I’m going to be making some changes to my website this weekend to better explain what I do and what you can expect from me.  Keep checking here (blog.diabetesoutside.com), Facebook (www.facebook.com/diabetesoutside), and Twitter (@diabetesoutside) for updates!!

I wanted to spend the week blogging about needles and diabetes.  Now that it’s Thursday I’m feeling like I’ve run out of things to say.  I mean really: as a type one diabetic I need to inject insulin to stay healthy (and alive) and sometimes I don’t like that.

Yup; that about sums it up.

So now what? 

Now, I start in on what other people do.  (whee!)

Many parents and I think not a few adults understand fear of needles when it comes to life with diabetes.  I am fortunate to have gotten over any fear I had right away… I don’t enjoy shots, but I can’t say they have ever made me quake in my boots.

But what about those who ARE terrified of needles?

Of course those are the ones who need to explore other options for themselves beyond the traditional needle.

Lucky for all of us, scientists and engineers have been working on alternate injection methods for decades.  I remember gazing at the ads for the injectors that didn’t have needles but somehow sprayed insulin through the skin.  (It wasn’t until I was a little older and a little more aware of the laws of physics that I realized that might not cut down on the pain…but I’ve never tried it so I don’t know.)

Although I should really have said on Monday: I’m really not a “jab and go” type one diabetic.  I take my time with each shot and go slowly!  I always have, and haven’t seen a need to go faster with my shots.  I’m amazed (AMAZED) by people who can go fast.  I always want to ask “what if you hit something?” but usually want to ask a millisecond before they inject and I am afraid of messing with their concentration at that point.  I worry.

Although the article discussing needle fear mentions people who are so afraid of needles that it can take them an hour to take a shot.  An hour?!  Yikes!!!  I can think of about 3,219 better ways to spend an hour.  No, more than 3,219 ways.  A lot more.

There is just so much there is to do in this world, and so much those of us living with diabetes specifically have to do every day I can’t imagine letting a fear of needles add any more time to my thoughts. 

I suggest that if you are struggling with needles and/or taking shots, make an appointment with your doctor to discuss other options for you.  This, I repeat, is YOUR LIFE and YOUR DISEASE so don’t let someone emotionally bully you into doing something you aren’t comfortable with.  If you need to speak with someone specifically about needle fear or anxiety, I’d say do it now rather than struggle longer than necessary. 

We know insulin is here to stay so let’s find ways to make it work FOR you instead of against you in your life or the life of your child.

I know we’ve all had moments we look at our syringe and think “do I really have to do this?!”  And shortly after asking the inevitable answer: yes: just do it.

We know that the shots don’t always hurt.  We know they don’t always bruise or bleed.  We know these things, but that doesn’t really change anything.  We know they won’t ever end, and that makes each one perhaps just a little bit gloomier. 

(To be fair, some days brushing my teeth feels just as gloomy.  I for some reason thought maintenance of my body was somehow going to happen without me working at it.)

Although I have been on a pump for sixteen years, I still need a needle to set up my catheter.  I still take shots when I’m high or when it is convenient to go without my pump for an hour or longer.  No matter how I slice it, insulin cannot be absorbed in my stomach so I need to get it subcutaneously.

I know that insulin injections have improved a thousand fold in the decades since they were first available as a treatment for type one diabetes.  I think of the reused needles and the boiled syringes and shudder at the thought of the laboratory at camp established to sterilize and sharpen the syringes in the 1930s through 1970s. 

I see the insulin pens and insulin ports and little teensy needles on syringes marked with half units and smaller dosages and know that I am very fortunate.  I marvel at what those who have gone before me and wonder what they would think of diabetes care now: I wonder if they would even recognize it!

I will say: I don’t appreciate hitting something when I stick the needle in.  I don’t appreciate the little divot that shows up in my thigh when I’m doing downward dog, made up of scar tissue caused by hundreds of shots in the same small area on my left thigh growing up.  I don’t appreciate the state of California making it illegal to throw away a syringe.  (Not that I have ever thrown a needle in a trash can; I use a clipper to cut off the needle or throw the entire syringe in a sharps.)  I really don’t appreciate hitting something and pulling out the syringe to a spurt of blood, although I do appreciate being able to show a very impressive dark bruise to my husband.

But, all in all, each of these complaints becomes so minor in the face of my other option. 

When I think of it that way, the needle gets a little shorter, a little sharper, and a little easier to manage.

I guess I should review the Diabetes Forecast magazine more closely—it sometimes has something kinda cool.

Reading the January 2011 Consumer Guide I saw this little gadget that is probably a great idea for some kids—it’s called the (cue sci-fi music) INSUFLON.  It’s like a little insulin port—you stick a catheter in every three days and deliver insulin through the port instead of giving injections.

Not as many shots/needles as syringes, not as accessible as a pump for little fingers.  It may just be a great fit for some kids.

(And, according to their website, a great option for some adults as well!)

Checking their web page, I of course saw something that raised a bit of a flag: they said that the INSUFLON was designed to help kids and their families come to terms with their diabetes.

I don’t know about you, but the injections were and are not what I need to come to terms with when it comes to living with type one!  Sure, it’s a critical and essential piece, but if that’s all you think you need to worry about, boy do you have a lot to learn.

(The I-Port injection port claims on its website it will mean better compliance with medications.  Um, I’m not so sure that the injections are the hard part of the diabetes equation here.  Am I the only one who thinks this?  They may be the plainest and simplest visible difficulty, but I assure you there is more going on than someone scared of needles.  Teensy kids excluded from this possibly unfair generalization.)

There are other “insulin ports” out there, but the INSUFLON goes in at a 20-45 degree angle, as opposed to the 90 degree angle required by the I-Port Injection Port.

Not to mention the INSUFLON has much better sound effects when you use its cool name. 

(I can’t even type it without hearing the cool sound effects!)