Think i gave my shot in a vein

[cheryl]

Tuesday night, I was a nice 95, ran downstairs to take my lantus, less then 30 minutes later my bg dropped, and dropped and kept the dropping for like roughly an hour, no and hr and a half.

I took my bolus at 5:50 pm...........and it was 11, when i took my lantus. It was almost like I took the wrong insulin, I ate over 200 carbs to get myself higher, it spike to 150, I thought marvelous, now I am gonna be high, no about 2 hrs after that I dropped back down to 44.

Now last night, I was completely paranoid, scared out of my mind to take my lantus. I waited and waited..........contemplating what the **** to do..........Thinking did I hit a vein, or is this bottle of Lantus screwed up, I only started using it a week ago......So shaking I went downstairs and took my lantus, I drew some air out as I had it in me to make sure there wasn't blood ( i just found out yesterday that you can do that or should do that). No blood in the needle and i just waited and waited, got a pannic attack, well, I guess I did hit a vein the other day, cause I was fine........

That was the strangest thing that has ever happened to me before. Now i got issues everytime I give myself a shot, Great now more to worry about why me?

[gettingby]

I think I've done that before Cheryl. I've had that happen a few times. You will be ok. Just take it slow for a couple of days. It gets easier after an episode like that. Hang in there !! :)

[belyro]

I've done that before too. The first time I did it I was on NPH. I put 16 units of NPH into a vein. Within 5 minutes I felt like a 300lb man was sitting on my chest, I had a fever, and I was seriously hypo. After eating a TON and getting my bloodsugar back on track, the fever went away.

I think I was about 14 years old. It was really scary. It happened one other time too, but wasn't as traumatic - I think it was with a bolus instead of a basal. Other times I've gotten blood back into the syringe so didn't push the insulin in.

Now that I use an insulin pen for both my Humalog and my Levemir, and I can't "draw back" like you can with a syringe, so I avoid injecting in my arms and legs for the most part as that's where these "incidents" occurred.

[johgn]

From what I know it sounds like the insulin went into a muscle and not a vein. If it went directly into the vein it would act immediately.

[cheryl]

From what I know it sounds like the insulin went into a muscle and not a vein. If it went directly into the vein it would act immediately.

You think so, maybe your right because someone told me the lantus would not be working anymore after it was in my veins, and i had good bg's all day yesterday, tilll of course last night cause I was freakin out and waited to take my shot.......Also it was tough going in the shot was, hmmmmmmmm.....maybe, how do you avoid a muscle, I just shoot my stomach usually, I have muscles in my stomach lol...........j/k I have had four kids so muscles seem funny on my belly. Wow this is all freaky,

Thanks to everyone who responded, I don't really know what happened but I know that was extremely scarey, especially since I didn't want to overreact, but my body was like Cheryl sugar now now now......

Cheryl

[johgn]

You think so, maybe your right because someone told me the lantus would not be working anymore after it was in my veins, and i had good bg's all day yesterday, tilll of course last night cause I was freakin out and waited to take my shot.......Also it was tough going in the shot was, hmmmmmmmm.....maybe, how do you avoid a muscle, I just shoot my stomach usually, I have muscles in my stomach lol...........j/k I have had four kids so muscles seem funny on my belly. Wow this is all freaky,


I've only shot into a muscle in my arm and leg, never in my stomach. Both times it happened from not pinching the fat correctly, I'd bet it's harder to do in the stomach.

[BriOnH]

What vein could you guys possibly be hitting? I can see a capillary getting hit in a sub que area.

[Funnygrl]

Sounds like muscle to me too.

[LancetChick]

From what I know it sounds like the insulin went into a muscle and not a vein. If it went directly into the vein it would act immediately.

I don't know about Humalog, but I've deliberately injected Regular (human) insulin intravenously to bring down highs more quickly, and it takes about 15-20 minutes for that to start working. I've always supposed it's because the insulin molecule groups have to be broken down into individual molecules, but I'm just guessing

[cheryl]

What vein could you guys possibly be hitting? I can see a capillary getting hit in a sub que area.

Ok, I don't know what the heck i hit honestly. All I know it was on my right side of my belly button..........so what is over there that I could of hit and it was only about 1 inch or so away from the belly button so i don't know.......all I know i hit something to do that to me........lol, just want to know how I can avoid whatever I did hit.......cause that was really scarey.

Cheryl

[belyro]

What vein could you guys possibly be hitting? I can see a capillary getting hit in a sub que area.

No idea, but it was my endo who said that's what I did. I just took his word for it.

[grace girl]

Not trying to oppose anyone, but I asked my endo last time I was there about if I could hit a vein. (I shoot in the stomach only, and I use the long needles) She told me it was impossible...a capillary maybe, but not a vein.
Now, I don't think all docs are 100% right, either, so if she was wrong, I for one would love to know.

[JasonJayhawk]

I've found that if I pull the needle out and see a red-tinge on the tip -- especially with basal insulin -- that I should be prepared to wake up and test at least once during the night.

It probably wasn't a vein -- but just hitting a capillary would probably do it! (I think I've read in a book (so it must be true?!) that people have a 1 in 10 chance of that happening randomly)

I'm glad you didn't sleep through any of it, Cheryl!

[daryop]

Does it men that I hit a vein when I see blood on the spot that I injected ?

[JasonJayhawk]

Does it men that I hit a vein when I see blood on the spot that I injected ?

Unlikely -- you're more likely hit a capillary with an insulin syringe.

[flash]

Were you exercising prior to the low, missed a meal after bolusing, possibly used wrong insulin for basal, humalog instead of lantus ? I would stay away from that injection area for awhile ..............

Flash

[cheryl]

Well I played tag with the kids for about an hour before i took my humalog for dinner, and I measured my dinner ate and I was low like once after dinner, I brought it back up and was holding steady between 80'2 and 90's when I went downstairs to take my Lantus. Oh lol..........there is no chance in **** I took my humalog, I did this once almost three years ago, i got a system(don't ask) to make sure I never ever do that again, plus my humalog was nice and safe upstairs on my computer desk, the lantus was nice and safe in the fridge. I thought about all my activity, but over 200 carbs is a bit much even for activity if you ask me in my opinion, if I needed that much for about an hr of tag, i shouldn't really have diabetes lol just kidding, but I am pretty active a lot of the times and never needed that much to get myself up, plus, I got a burning feeling when i took my lantus and if followed by what I thought was a pannic attack, so I couldn't fall asleep, that is when i knew something wasn't right because I got a burst of energy, and decided to check and thus came my horrible night..........oh well.......i hope that don't happen again:T

Cheryl