Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Super_sally on July 3, 2012 at 2:29am

Hi,

this has happened to me before. I think it means you probably hit a vein.

Just monitor a bit more closely than usual to see you don't go low.

I have thrown out the vial once it got noticeably contaminated with blood.

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Permalink Reply by Oakville27 on July 5, 2012 at 6:55pm

Thanks Sally!

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Permalink Reply by sine on July 3, 2012 at 4:53am

It just means you have gone through a small vein. It probably happens to me about one time out of 30. I just eject enough insulin to clear the blood from the needle.

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Permalink Reply by Oakville27 on July 5, 2012 at 6:55pm

Thanks Sine!

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Permalink Reply by Oakville27 on July 5, 2012 at 6:55pm

Thanks Gareth!

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Permalink Reply by Mikeonline2821 on July 5, 2012 at 6:34am

If you get blood in your insulin that can cause it to go bad. I would throw out that pen. I find that if I hold the plunger down when I removed the needle if there was blood it would not get into the insulin. Just click a unit and clear the needle just to be sure none of it gets into your insulin again next time. That is if you see blood coming out of the injection site you can assume there is a small amount of blood in the tip of the needle but not necessarily in the insulin. Just clear the needle to be sure. I assume you are talking about your leg injections and in the leg there are very small veins that you can hit every once in a while. This is not necessarily going to make the insulin work any different because you would have to inject into a main blood vessel to have it be a major problem and the needle lengths are so short that is not going to happen in your leg. I have gotten blood inside a pen once after only using it twice. Just to be sure I tossed the pen in the garbage because a contaminated pen could cause more problems then you would want to deal with I am sure.

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Permalink Reply by Oakville27 on July 5, 2012 at 6:56pm

Thanks Mike!

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Permalink Reply by Oakville27 on July 5, 2012 at 6:58pm

Thanks for all the great advice/info/replies - I am worried about it affecting the insulin in the pen, but it's my last pen of Levemir at the moment so I'm going to use it again tonight and then grab a new set tomorrow. I'll probably toss the pen just to be safe and make sure I keep the plunger pressed until I remove it from now on to keep blood from backing up into the needle again.

Thanks again everyone!

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