I am Christel from Diabetes Strong in this video I’ll be showing you how to use an
insulin pen. So using an insulin pen is actually fairly straightforward, however,
if you've never tried it before it can be fairly intimidating.
So in this video, I’ll be showing you what an insulin pen looks like,
with the different components, the two different types. I’m going to show
you how to use it, and as a little extra bonus,
I’m going to show you how to squeeze out those last drops of insulin,
even after your insulin pen has indicated that there are no more left.
So if you have been prescribed an insulin pen and you're not quite sure how to use it,
or you just need a refresher, this is a video for you. An insulin pen is a delivery
mechanism for insulin, so you will either have been prescribed, a pre-filled pen
that comes with insulin in it already, or a durable pen alongside insulin cartridges
Let's start by talking about the pre-filled pens. So this is Levemir,
so this is a long-acting insulin, or my background insulin, and it comes in a pack
of fives. To use a pre-filled pen you need just a pen and then you need needles.
So these are pen needles, these are just the sizes I use, you can get them in different
sizes. But they look like this, okay. So let me show you the different components of the
pen. So this is a pen, pull off the cap, see the clear liquid in here, that is insulin.
I just want to mention this is a Levemir pen but all the pre-filled pens pretty much look
like this. So the insulin is already in here no assembly needed.
This is the dial, here you can dial up how many units you want,
and so you can read in here it's 10 units.
Some pens have half units, this one only has one unit increments.
This is a plunger, so this is the dial, this is a plunger.
So the way that it works, is so you take off the cap,
you take out your needle, you pull off the paper here in the end, okay
now you can actually see, you can't really see that, then you simply screw this on
and you pull off the outer cap, the plastic cap here, you see there's a little inner cap,
a little green cap. So that's so I still can't poke myself, but once you take that off,
be careful okay because now you can actually poke yourself. And I don't if, you can
almost see insulin...you can't really see that, but insulin is actually flowing I see a tiny
insulin drop. Next thing is you want to clean the skin. Just clean it with an alcohol swab
for where you want to inject, then you dial up to the amount that you want, well
actually first you should do an air shot, so let me, I skipped a step.
So an air shot means that you dial it up to 2 units, flick it a few times, to make sure any
air bubbles rise to the top, and then you simply push the plunger
oop there's a little bit insulin, I have to clean that up after, insulin came flying out.
You want to do that first to make sure that insulin is actually flowing through the
needle and that the pen is working properly. You want to do that before every shot okay,
and now you're ready to do your injection. So again you dial it up to how many number
units you'll need, then you let's say, this is a short needle, so this is a 4-millimeter
needle, so you can do a 90-degree injection. So you want to do, that you simply inject it,
you can inject back of your arm.
I’m not going to inject it all, because I don't need all this right now, but you just inject it,
see it didn't hurt, and then you push the plunger all the way to the bottom and you
hold it for 5 to 10 seconds and then you've delivered a dose using a pre-felt insulin pen.
So once you're done, you want to screw off the needle.
Be careful that you don't poke yourself, so you can also put on the cap you can screw
it off, and this needle need to go in a sharps container. But for the pen
you simply now put on the lid, and you store it, you don't have to put in the fridge while
you use it, store it until the next time you use it. You can have it stored in your purse or
somewhere else for up to 28 days once you're done, so that means there's no more
insulin in here, you'll find that you can't push the plunger anymore because the pen
will be like “I’m done there's no more left” you simply toss this whole pen into the
trash and you pick out a new one from the fridge and you give injector from that.
And that is how you do an injection using a pre-filled pen.
This is a durable insulin pen, so that means it does not come pre-filled with insulin.
This particular pen is called Humapen Luxura, it's manufactured by Eli Lilly that
means that for this to work you need to go buy a Lilly insulin.
So I have that, that's the product I use Humalog, so this is rapid-acting insulin,
the one that you use for meal times and corrections.
You also need pens, so pen needles, so these are the ones I use, they're 4
millimeters long. You can use different lengths but let me show you the pen.
Since the pen comes without insulin when you buy it, you can't really do anything,
but let's take it apart and have a look. So you take off the cap
here you can see there's nothing in here. Right now it's just this plastic cap. I’ll
show you how to actually load it with insulin in a minute. Then there's the dial here, you
can dial up, see where I could get out of the lighting, so you can actually see it.
Here we go, you can dial it up to the different amount of insulin you need.
So this one has half-unit increments which is beneficial if you need smaller units.
So you dial it up and then once you have it up to the amount you need
you just press the plunger. Right now nothing's going to happen because
there's no insulin in there, but you simply hold it and you press it and that will deliver
insulin. But let's load it up with insulin and see what that looks like.
First you get out your insulin cartridge, so this one is already used, usually there's 5
in there, I only have two left. I’m going to open one so you can see what it looks like.
So see it comes in this foil and then the insulin cartridge is in here,
so you simply, just it's like a blister pack,
there you go and that is an insulin cartridge. This is what that looks
like, all the clear liquid in here is insulin.
Next step you want to get out your insulin pen and so you take off the cap,
and it's a little different between the pens but for the Humapen Luxura you simply
just screw off the top, I found that that's the same deal with all of them, then you take
your cartridge, see where I threw that, here you go, and then, you see me plug it in so
you see the little pointed end, this is where there's opening for the needle,
so that goes in like that, okay so now the insulin is in here,
then we just connect two pieces, just screw it together,
and now the insulin pen is loaded with insulin,
and you just leave this cartridge in here all the way until there are no more units left
and the pen, basically you can't push down the plunger anymore,
so you know there's no more insulin. You can also see it visually, it's a little red line
here once the plunger which is down here reaches the red line you're out of insulin.
Okay, so next step is there's still no needle on it, so we can't get insulin out, right, so you
want to take your pen needle, I’m going to take off the top, put down,
take off the top and then you simply screw it on.
There you go then you take the outer cap off, and then there's still the inner cap,
so we can't hurt ourselves. So now you want to do three steps. You want to clean,
clean your skin with an alcohol swab, you want to do an air shot, and then when you
do your injection. Okay so the way that you do an air shot is you take off the inner cap,
see now the needle in exposed, you dial it up until two, and then you simply press the
plunger and you'll see insulin come out. The reason why we do that
is to make sure the insulin is flowing, and that the pen is actually working properly.
I don't want to have insulin all over so I’m not going to do that. Usually, when I do it
for myself, I’ll do it like into a napkin or into the sink or something like that.
Okay so we cleaned the skin, we've done our air shot, some people do less than 2
units, but the 2 units are recommended. Then you simply look at the
dial and then you dial up to how much you need. So if you need 1 unit,
that's what you dial it up to, if you need more I mean for this particular pen you can
dial it all the way up to 30 units, see. The only thing with 30 units is then you have to
hold it a little further.
If you decide that you want less, you just dial it down but basically,
you dial up to wherever you want, you insert the needle, so this is a smaller needle, it's a
4-millimeter needle so we can do a 90-degree injection without a skin fold.
So I’m just going to do that here and then you simply
push the plunger all the way down, okay I just pushed the plunger,
so I delivered my dose and then you want to hold it in the skin for 5 to 10 seconds
until, one and two, the reason why we do that is to reduce the risk of insulin leakage.
Take it out and you have delivered your dose.
Next step is you want to take off the needle, so be careful that you
don't poke yourself on it. You can put the cap back on, screw it off,
this goes in a sharps container. Put the cap back on your pen,
and you store it you know in a drawer or purse until next time you need to use it,
And once you've used up all the insulin, in this insulin pen, you want to keep the
pen because it's durable, you just want to take the pen apart take out the cartridge
throw that cartridge in the trash, put in a new cartridge
and you can use the pen over and over.
And that's how you use an insulin pen,
whether or not it's a pre-filled pen or durable pen. But I also promised you a little trick
on how you can get those last drops out of your insulin pens.
To get out those last drops of insulin, you will need a syringe as well as your empty
pen. So what I do want you to be aware of is that on the syringe it'll say which type of
insulin goes with it. So this says U-100 insulin
you can always check your pen, your pen like here or your cartridge, will say
how much it is. It says U-100 insulin that way I know that those two are compatible.
The way that we do this is first you take off the cap of your insulin, then on the syringe
you have the protection this protects the plunger and the other protection cap that
protects the needle so there's always a little air in there, for this I
pull in a little bit more, then you want to push
that there's a little seal here see that you want to push the needle through that
there you go and then I simply push all the air in, flip it over, so push all the air in,
and then I need to hold it right, here we go, and then I pull out the insulin there we go.
Guys, I just got like, that's only 5 units but still, it's insulin. So I have 5 units here,
I flick it a few times because we want the air bubbles up,
I just want to push the plunge up just a tiny bit, there you go. Now I can see a drop of
insulin coming up top and I can then choose to inject how many ever units I need.
That is how you get those extra drops out of the empty pens.
You might have been prescribed different types of insulin
and they will come in different pre-filled pens or different cartridges
so just make sure that you look at the pen or the cartridge that you pick up make sure
it's actually the right insulin and that you can tell your different insulins apart.
For example, some might be filled with rapid-acting insulin or mealtime insulin,
such as your Humalog, your Novolog, your Apidra and some might be filled with
long-acting insulin or your background insulin such as your Lantus, your Levemir,
your Toujeo or you might get pre-mixed insulin. Your doctor should be
telling you which insulins you need to take at what time or if you only need
to take one type. A good thing to also ask your doctor is, well if the dose isn't quite
right for you, how do you change it on your own, so that you can adapt your insulin
management to your daily needs.
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