Dose looks good; no air

Dose good; no air

Second Revision, Sunday, 18 January 2009; 07:34

I take several steps at the dose-checking stage

To make sure I have the right dose, I go through several steps at this stage.

A magnifying glass is helpful when checking for air bubbles or barrel-marks (measuring the dose).

Checking for air bubbles

I rotate the syringe in light from my desk lamp, looking for air bubbles. If I see any, I flick the syringe lightly with a finger, and then eject some of the insulin, hoping the air gets ejected first! - and making sure I still have sufficient insulin for the current required dose. Sometimes, I've had difficulty getting an air bubble out, and had to draw more insulin into the syringe.

I keep the vial of insulin handy till I see I have the right dose, without air bubbles.

Once, experimentally, since a friend of mine had said injecting air under the skin is harmless, I allowed an air bubble to remain in the syringe. When I injected Kumbi with that, he yelped loudly, telling me in no uncertain terms, "DON'T DO THAT!"

Okay, Kumbi! Never again!

Put the insulin vial back in the fridge

Also, this is also the stage where I make sure I put the insulin back in the refrigerator.

Even so, I have occasionally forgotten to re-frigerate the vial of insulin! It can be easy to forget, if some unexpected event distracts me as I was about to put the insulin away.

Fortunately, it doesn't hurt the insulin if it's left out a few hours, as long as the vial isn't exposed to direct heat or sunlight. Caninsulin and Vetsulin are more sensitive to such exposure than is the Novolin NPH insulin I use, but I like to refrigerate anyway.

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