We had such a great catch up with everyone on Monday night at the BeingDiabetic dinner! It was one of those nights that if there weren’t kiddies that needed feeding and jobs that required sleep, we may well have ended up sitting in the restaurant till the wee small hours.
As you can well imagine (and as Nic mentioned in this post), whenever we meet, we all start catching up on what’s been happening with babies, jobs, husbands and wives and of course, diabetes. Some of these stories are absolutely hilarious, some shocking, some reminscing and some are best forgotten and with each new face comes a new story and some new laughs!
One of these such stories came from me this time – I thought it a good topic for a post and a couple of the guys agreed so here it is…
Back in the day (1991 to be precise) , we didn’t have pens to inject with and so wherever I went I had a couple of syringes on my person. I haven’t used them for years now obviously what with pens becoming so prevalent and being on a pump of late but after a couple of incidents of a battery running out in my pump (my fault) and an ensuing conversation with a friend, I decided that I would start carrying them again as a fail safe.
I could have chosen to carry a pen of course but I get my insulin in a 10ml vial because my pump has a 2ml cartridge so the 3ml pen vials aren’t the best fit – you get the idea. That being the case, I chose to carry syringes because I know that:
- If the pump goes bung for whatever reason then I can just take some insulin from the cartridge and make do till I can fix whatever the issue is
- It’s easy to carry around and they are cheap to buy and
- I don’t need to go and get a script for them
Everywhere I go I have my satchel and in that satchel is my tester, wallet and whatever else I need including, now, a syringe. I was at the movies the other day with said satchel and it was absolutely stuffed with snacks for the movie, a coke, wallet, tester, hypo food and my scarf. I was running late and so rushed up to those new self service machines at Sky City, entered my movie details and was promted for my credit card. My wallet was right at the bottom of my bag so I then had to take everything out and in doing so, to my horror, out dropped my lonely syringe onto the floor in front of what felt like 100 people i ncluding families and young kids! To add to that, it was one of those ones with the sterile caps so it doesn’t come in a little packet so looks like it was ‘used’.
Now, I’m not too phased about taking out a tester in front of people and when I was on MDI I’d happily inject in public (to a point) but when was the last time you saw a syringe drop from some young guys bag who’s looking flustered, lots of snack food in hand and NOT think it might be a little dodgy – I know I would if it were me.
Half expecting someone to call the police on me as a ‘user’, utterly mortified and very flustered I quickly leant down and recovered the syringe (trying to look relaxed) which I promptly stuffed back into my bag before collecting my ticket and going upstairs although not before the odd stare of surprise! No-one did say anything (or scream in panic) and I’m sure I was the person most worried but the question is begging – has this sort of thing ever happened to you?
What is the funniest, most shocking (or strangest) thing you’ve had happen while doing a test or injection? You guys must have some great stories…
- Aaron
Posted in General, Slice of Life, Technology & Equipment
Tagged as old technology, syringes
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10 comments have been made on this post
Ruthie wrote
Wait! Wait! Back up the truck a second, honey … I know there’s NovoRapid and Humalog but since when is there Novolog?!!!!!!
What the …?!
Aaron wrote
Oh yeah, I did notice that too. It’s a image from the internet so I’m not sure what the story is there!
Zoe wrote
In some parts of the world they call Novorapid Novolog.
I don’t have any stories like that, but I am (slightly) more relaxed about injecting in public since I started using a pen.
I didn’t know you could get these syringes without a prescription. I still have a huge box of these upstairs somewhere from when I was using them :p
Sarah wrote
When I was in fifth form I dropped a syringe in science class and didn’t notice. Later that day, the 6 girls sitting around our bench were called into the deputy principal’s office. The d.p. was wearing plastic gloves and picked up my syringe with a pair of tweezers. ‘Now which one of you girls can explain this?’, she asked. I had to say it was mine and I was diabetic. The D.P. looked embarrassed and took me to the principal’s office, where they had already called in the Palmy drug and alcohol counseling service. They seemed rather disappointed that I wasn’t a heroin addict. They did a lot of apologising to me.
Nic wrote
Sarah that’s absolutely classic!!
Aaron wrote
I once got asked to leave a restaurant for injecting at the table. I was on a student exchange in Tahiti at the time and it was a really classy restaurant.
The waiter came over and very discretely asked my host father for us to leave. Needless to say that didn’t go down to well and we didn’t end up paying full price for the meal which was hugely expensive!
Not as dramatic as your story Sarah – that takes 1st prize in my book!
Saffy wrote
Sarah – LMAO!!!
Roy wrote
One for the reunions book cover that one Sarah.
I have to go back some years. The band I was in had a half gig booking on the Wanganella and it was a hard slog to get there, especially in August. We were late in every way possible, but did our thing okay.
I had to have my second shot in the boat on the way back to Manapouri and apart from the other band, there was half a dozen workers as well. I never even thought about taking the syringe (glass) out of my pack and fitting the needle, drawing up the dope then swabbing the site. It was only by the the silence, I realized I was the everyday junkie of the music world of the times.
Corrina wrote
Man, I had a not so great experience where I was thrown out of a night club in Sydney in 2000 because I injected myself in the bathroom!! This was even though I showed the bouncers my pen and they had run the metal detecter over me. It was sooooo embarrassing!!!
Emma J wrote
Hey Sarah – I remember hearing about that from a nurse or diabetes educator or some such. And just to bring it down, I also remember being warned about a diabetic schoolboy, who was intimidated by gang members to supply them with needles ( this was just before the free exchange program started)