Well I am using an insulin pen. I am covered in bruises. The worst one happening this evening when I injected on the side of my thigh. I got a really big drop of blood when I pulled out the needle… which I put pressure on (hate this - the blood smells like insulin, so no idea how much insulin I lost)… then I ignored it, but noticed an hour later a very sore spot and noticed a very big purple hard bruise. This happened with a new needle…
Oh, I change the needles once a week after about 7 shots… (I am now using a different insulin in the morning and night so have different pens for each)… and I make sure the needle never touches anything but my skin (if it does I’ll discard that needle immediately).
Do the bruises affect insulin absorption?
Any advice on how to stop / avoid the bruising / bleeding? Or is this perfectly normal.
You will get bruising if you hit a blood vessel. You should look very carefully before you inject so this doesn’t happen. I also change needles with every injection. The needles are very fine and they can bend easily, you can do more damage to your skin (and I’d imagine affect the dose) if you are injecting with a bent needle. I’d be reluctant to risk that.
I’ve also heard on this site that syringes can do less damage to skin than pen needles, some people switch to them for that very reason.
There are a number of discussions on this site about injections, I started at least one myself that I can remember…
It takes some tuning and practice. Insulin is to be injected into the layer of bodyfat just below the skin. If you inject into muscle, insulin will absorb very differently. It should be pretty painless and not routinely cause bruising in most. I don’t have a lot of bodyfat, so I choose a shallow needle (6 mm) and then I gently pinch around my abdomen to gather a properly layer for injection (although I inject Victoza, it is the same as insulin).
The fact that you are getting any blood indicates that you have nicked a blood vessel, either failing to inject deep enough, or going too far. I really think if make some adjustments to which needle you are using and your technique you can get rid of most of this bruising (although everybody bruises occaisonally).
So what side needle are you using and what is your injection technique?
I had terrible bruising with pens & tossed them in favor of syringes. I found pens to be painful sometimes also. No problem with bruising from syringes.
I looked like that when I used pens also. I tried them because I got them free. Once I used the cartridges up, I went to syringes because I hated pens.
I used to get bruises with about every second injection I did, I’ve moved out looks-like-someone-was-punching me in the tummy phase. ha ha ha I was finding that the bruising came with needles that weren’t sharp enough (which happens about 2 to every 100 in a box-I use Novofine .03 x 8mm) or if I hesitated putting the needle in (and then it didn’t go in far enough) or started pushing on the pen before it was in far enough. I agree it also has to do with hitting a blood vessel too. At night I give the injection right along the top area on my legs, along the side and top portion and only there.
