Giving Yourself An Insulin Injection

You may be upset when you are diagnosed by gestational diabetes, but there are ways to treat and manage the disease. It is probably more realistic that you are more upset or nervous about giving yourself a daily injection (yes a needle) of insulin.

Getting a needle is no big deal for most people, but giving one to yourself for the first time can be intimidating. The best advice is to just get it over with. After you have done it once it gets much easier. There are different places on your body that you give use to give yourself a needle (called injection sites). A fleshy part of your body is the best place such as the back of your arm, back of your leg, in your buttocks or the upper part of your abdomen.

It is recommended to rotate your injection sites, if you prefer to give yourself a needle in the back of your arm it is okay to use that area every time. But you should not use the exact same spot on the back of your arm.

You will be taught the proper method of drawing insulin into the syringe by your doctor or endocrinologist. It is important to take special care and attention to the amount of insulin that you are injecting. Too little and your blood sugar will be too high and too much you can suffer from hypoglycemia (a very low blood sugar).

It is important to store your insulin in the refrigerator but once you prepare your syringe it is okay to have it out for some time before using it. You may even prefer this because when the insulin is cold it may sting more as you inject it.

If it turns out that you really cannot give yourself a needle you will have to get your partner to do it for you.