True/False: INSULIN INJECTIONS DON’T HURT.

November 3rd, 2010 by Amy Gonsalves Leave a reply »

Ut oh.  Gotta climb up on my bitterness high horse again and blog about this silly online survey.

It isn’t that I don’t have better things to do than take online quizzes.  I have plenty of other things to do.  It’s just that these quizzes sound like such a quick way to pat myself on the back I cannot resist them.

So here I am, taking this quiz: “what do you know about diabetes?” 

Gee, seems like a slam-dunk 100% for me!  Let me at it!!

But nope.

Nope.  Five questions and I only answered four of them “correctly”. 

There must be a problem with this quiz because there most certainly isn’t a problem with my diabetes knowledge.  I am sure.

Full disclosure: the quiz was true/false so right there that makes it amazingly difficult for me because I’ve been trained in legal persuasion, where we very seldom have anything entirely true or entirely false.  Strike one against the quiz. (See? I can’t even say we never have something entirely true or false.)

And yes, I am aware I am mixing my metaphors.  Sorry.

So anyway, before I stray too far from my original rant, here is the question:

True/False: INSULIN INJECTIONS DON’T HURT.

I know that when someone says “Oh/eew!  Doesn’t that hurt?!” I make the same face I’ve made for 23 years and say something like “not really” or “it keeps me alive so I don’t mind so much” (I don’t think I’ve been brave enough to say that one in real life) or “sometimes, but not very often.”

But I can’t say that insulin injections DON’T hurt, just like I can’t say that insulin injections DO hurt.  They kind of just “are.” 

So I, being the honest and plain speaking person I try to be, answer “FALSE” because one cannot say that a subjective feeling like “hurt” applies or does not apply in every situation across the board.

BUZZER SOUNDS.  WRONG ANSWER.

The answer shows up, and get this:

                Sorry, that’s incorrect.  The companies have worked hard to make the needles so tiny that they really do not hurt.  “The injections are virtually painless.  I know, because I have used an insulin syringe to inject myself with saline, just to find out,” says Elizabeth Kern, director of the diabetes program at National Jewish Health in Denver.

I had to laugh.  Someone takes a shot of saline one time just for kicks and now knows and can assert that across the board for everyone “insulin injections don’t hurt”?!!?!

Here is one of the things that turns me away from the healthcare industry when it comes to diabetes and why I think many of us want to have doctors and nurses and educators with diabetes themselves.

Since, let’s be honest: sometimes, every now and then, you hit something when you give yourself an injection and it hurts.  It doesn’t happen often, and it is no big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it really does hurt.  You get a bruise, it’s all gross and painful for a few days, and you try and get sympathy from friends and family.  Because, after all, IT HURT.

So don’t baby the situation and tell me that injections don’t hurt.  Ever.  Since you’ve done it once.  Compared to my 2-6 times a day for 10 years before I went on a pump, so that makes it… lemme see… at least fifteen thousand shots?!  Yeah, you’d be the one who knew if they hurt after your one shot.

Dang it, I want my 100% score on that silly quiz.  (Am I a type A or am I a type A person?!)

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