Kris:
A restroom is literally the dirtest place in the entire restaurant to even consider injection. Avoid them like the plague, before you acquire some nasty ickness in the germ infested dirty room
In the car, or at the payphone is a better choice… I would think!
Stuart
I tried injecting through my jeans, but it was difficult to get the needle through. Eventually I pulled it out and realised that a blue thread had attached itself to the tip of the needle - no wonder I couldn’t get it through my skin!
I have never injected through clothing. I have always lifted my shirt I just try and be more discrete but the last few times out at a restaurant while I was doing that my wife has noticed others testing at the table. Good bad or indifferent our numbers are growing. She always says honey look they are testing over there… go over and compare #'s.
I have to agree that it doesn’t seem too sanitary to shoot through your clothing. I am thinking of the guy who was fishing. Who knows what kind of fishy business may have been on his clothes and that needle picked up whatever was on his pants and went into his body.But then, perhaps the cloth cleaned the needle off one last time? Just a thought.
I have on occasion injected through clothing with never a problem. Only when I can’t lift my shirt and get at it without strangers seeing. I’ve done it into my thigh through jeans and through shirts into my stomach. I can generally get to a spot without going through clothing though.
I Never inject through my clothing. It doesn’t seem clean.
This is what I do too. I inject right as the food arrives for my meals and want to be discreet. I have fat above my belt line and I inject my meal novolog (50 units) through my clothes and then wait a couple of seconds and remove quickly. I’m more likely to get bleeders from my Lantus that I use an autoject with (makes it sting less and gets it slightly deeper in the fat. The worst one I take is the Copaxone for my MS it is like a bee sting and requires benedryl and ice (it is also just subQ). So I’m injecting 5 times per/day (can you feel the cheer).
The only injection infection I have ever gotten was from a perfectly clean open skin injection of Copaxone. I think the injector was dirty or the ice pack had bacteria on it???
The symptoms were a purple bruise that had a red streak in it that got larger not smaller, then the area got a fever (not me). I went straight in to the doc and they put me on Keflex – This just happened 8-12 weeks ago.
Same with me except I have two large veins that run on the outside of my gut like a guy body builder would – no one knows why. I can see them in the mirror now and avoid them like the plague. My doc said for me not to use my thighs. I’m a big fat apple with no leg fat. I guess the bottom line is to make your doctor customize instructions for you, because when she pinched what she thought was a fat thigh she was shocked.
Never injected thru clothes.
I just lift my shirt and inject wherever I am.
Sure I get funny and even horrid looks, but I ignore them unless they ask.
Once they hear ‘insulin’ they go back to what they are doing.
I am just waiting for a restaurant to tell me I can’t medicate…
Note: Even the police here don’t usually see pens. I had to show a couple of them mine so they knew what the pens looked like.
I have been lucky. I have never bled from an insulin shot. Maybe it’s because i follow the correct procedure each and every time?
I do not think it is a good idea - though I wish it was! The only time I would inject through clothes is during a severe emergency such as using an Epipen during an anaphylactic shock, but I feel with the insulin which most of inject more than a couple of times a day it is dangerous as it can introduce cloth fibres into and under the skin by dragging tiny fibres into the injection site.
If ever, I inject through dark Jeans. Never had any problems with it, and usually all the insulin goes where it is supposed to go. I avoid injecting through Shirts (except maybe in winter through a tank top I’m wearing under), I don’t want any strange, difficult to get rid of stains on them…
Though, I only do it, if I can’t get any privacy or am in a very big hurry and can’t afford detours, which is a rare case.
Just one thing: make sure you change the needle EVERY time you’ve injected through clothing.
Going through one or more layers of fabric twice (injecting + pulling out) damages the needle more than a regular insulin shot, without fabric between the pen and the skin, already does. Also, there is a risk for infections, if the same needle is used more than once that way.
I have done it many many times without a problem.
You might want to try a different size/length of needle or avoid ‘bleeder areas’ .
PS you can unzip your fly and inject in the lower abdomen too. Quick and easy.
Women can just lift up a skirt or dress and inject easily. Their thighs have enough fat for them to use those areas suitably.
Now THAT’S punny! Excellent POINT about short needles. Did you really mean that to come out as a pun?
Chaplain ET
I would have thought that injecting through clothes could introduce infection and accidentally pushing clothing fibres into the skin. Also the needles are so short (4mm) that I would think that it would not go in far enough. I was told that I can and should inject epinephrine (for anaphylactic shock) through clothes and that the risks were minimal compared to those of not being able to breathe! But would never inject insulin through clothes. I either inject at home or in restaurants under the table into my tummy.
Zolar, are you a man? I am a woman and have no fat on my thighs! I do from time to time, when I have zips do it the way you say, usually under the table in a restaurant or under a desk. No problems. Nobody sees. If they do, that is their problem, not mine and I am perverse enough to say something that will leave 'em gasping!
Wow. That’s some fine sensation sensing. Really? I’m impressed. And envious. I was not aware one could do this. What is it precisely you discern? I would love to be able to foretell if an injection is going to be a bleeder. But I’ve never been able to sense that. TIA.
Obviously, per many of the responses here, lots of people do inject through their clothes. Regularly. I had no idea it was so common. I’ve injected through my clothes only occasionally on an as necessary for the circumstance basis. I just can’t imagine that it is all that sterile. And the uncertainty of blood spots. Bummer. On the other hand I usually don’t use alcohol swabs for my finger pricks. Seems way too much trouble with lots of moop. So I guess I’m picking & choosing based more on convenience than sterile factors. I’n curious how many others don’t use the swabs?
I used to inject through clothes until I got an infection in my thigh
I say it is risky