Diabetes : With a syringe (BD Medical - Diabetes Care)

  
 

With a syringe
With a pen
How to inject

   
For NPH and pre-mixed insulin, gently roll the bottle of insulin between your hands several times in order to mix the insulin completely.
   
Remove the white and orange caps from your syringe. Then, pull back the plunger to measure a quantity of air equal to the units of insulin you’re going to inject.
   
Insert the needle through the rubber cap of your insulin bottle and inject the air. It will make it easier to take your insulin out later.
   

Without removing the syringe, turn the bottle upside down and pull back the plunger gently until you have measured a little bit more than your dose of insulin.
   
If there are any bubbles in your syringe, remove them by tapping the syringe with your finger to make the air bubbles go to the top of the syringe. Then gently line up the plunger to the amount of insulin: air bubbles will then be pushed back into the bottle.
   
Remove the needle from the bottle and make sure that you have measured your insulin dose correctly.

Hold the syringe near to the top as if you were going to write with it. Now, you are ready to inject your insulin!

You may have to mix 2 insulins in your syringe. It is not difficult but it is important to draw up regular insulin or rapid acting analogue before intermediate acting insulin (NPH).

Ask your diabetes specialist nurse to explain the process in more details.