My try of Afrezza

Call up Mannkind cares

https://afrezza.aspnprograms.com

They would know the least path of resistance with insurance

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Thanks for the insurance recs! I am working with the doctor on it. I never really realized all the things that they have to do for that. Sheesh!

Iā€™ll call Mannkind cares on Monday!

How does the IV injection of insulin differ from injecting into a capillary? in both cases, the insulin is going into blood: the vein or the capillary. Can someone explain and clarify the difference. Thanks.

Youā€™re normally injecting into subcutaneous fat (not directly into capillaries) and it absorbs slowly from there and diffuses into the blood stream whereas putting into a vein (or inhaling it) causes instant entry into bloodstream

Okay, so Iā€™ll ask a dumb question to whoever first mentioned this method. How on earth do you safely do an intravenous injection of insulin at home? It really sounds like IV drug use, which has all sorts of potential infection risks (not necessarily things like Hep C and HIV, but still, things from your skin transferred into your blood stream). Also, donā€™t people who use this method get scar tissue pretty rapidly?

Hi Tia_G. I am not advocating it for anyone else. I take precautions. I use alcohol wipes, both on my skin and on the insulin vial. I am using a very small gauge syringe, a 31 gauge, which is less damaging than those harpoons they use to draw blood or inject things in the hospital. I donā€™t reuse syringes. And I donā€™t use the same spot. There are so many places. The back of my hands have tons of accessible veins. Itā€™s not like in the movies where you always see drug users tieing up a tourniquet and using the vein on their forearm.

I try to take every safety measure I can for it.

Yes, by definition, it is intravenous drug use. But I am not doing it for recreation, or for fun. I am not playing. I am doing it to rapidly control blood sugar.

I donā€™t do it all the time. Just on occasions when I feel pressed for getting my BG corrected. I take a very aggressive stance on attacking the disease.

I do a correction bolus sometimes when I am at 110 if I know itā€™s on the way up. I am not at all passive with my diabetes!

So I would agree with people that say it is risky. But I am committed to not having the disease control what I do, and not ever letting my BG control my schedule.

So I just go after it on my own terms. Hopefully that is understandable. :hearts:

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I was probably not clear in my original question.

We have been instructed to normally inject into subcutaneous fat, such as abdomen.

Occasionally, I have hit, some kind of blood vessels, perhaps capillaries upon injection. How do I know that I hit a blood vessel? because of the bleeding. Itā€™s usually just a little droplet. Nevertheless, I think that it means I hit a blood vessel. Soā€¦my question is:

Is the insulin absorption faster than subcutaneous injection when the insulin is injected into any kind of blood vessel?

Yesā€¦

Yes, itā€™s faster in ANY vein or capillary. But there is a big difference in nicking a capillary and injecting INTO one.

Iā€™ve done over 75,000 injections in my lifetime, and never accidentally got it INTO a vein or capillary. I supposed it could happen by accident, but it would be extremely rare.

It may get absorbed faster when it is deposited close to a capillary you have nicked, but medically I canā€™t say if that is true. Someone else might have a better understanding of that.

If the insulin absorption is faster by injection into a blood vessel than by injection into fat, does anyone use insulin injection into small blood vessels as a method of correcting a high BG quickly? Some people have mentioned intramuscular, intra venous. I can see little blood vessels in my calves. Iā€™m wondering if that could work for correcting high BGā€™s quickly.

The follow up question is:
When I inject in my abdomen for my mealtime bolus, it is intended to be a subcutaneous injection. However, I hit a blood vessel and see a droplet of blood. Does this mean that this insulin will now absorb and act much more quickly than the ā€œnormalā€ abdomenal injection?

I think that when you hit capillaries on your way into injecting into your abdomen youā€™re almost certainly knicking them on the way in instead of directly injecting into themā€¦

I do not deliberately inject into veinsā€¦ wouldnā€™t be comfortable with thatā€¦ but yes I imagine any vein in your body that you can actually manage to inject directly into would have the same effectā€¦

I think our posts crossed each other in space.

If you want faster, IM is a safe but slightly more painful way to go than subcu. Try it in your calf muscle and jog for a mile or so. It is much faster than subcu IMHO.

Itā€™s pretty difficult to inject into a capillary. Capillaries are so thin-walled that the increase in pressure caused by injecting into one is usually enough to rupture the vessel wall.

But what if you nicked the capillary and deposited the insulin near it? Could that cause a faster absorption?

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Doubt it. When you nick a capillary, it causes a bleed. Which in turn causes the clotting cascade to begin.

Ok, thanks. Always wondered about that, but was never sure!

Me too, Iā€™ve always wondered if the blood vessel/capillary could cause a faster absorption.

Iā€™ve often observed evidence of a capillary nick after I pull out a wonky CGM sensor. Blood can foul a sensor and create erratic and inaccurate measurements.

On that topic, have you heard of any movement in the CGM world of working toward making a sensor that actually checks blood instead of interstitial fluid? Thatā€™s a dream of mine - instant, up-to-the-second, CGM capability.

No, I havenā€™t heard or read anything about sampling blood directly. That must present some difficult challenges.

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