[Diabetes-talk] glucagon

[Eileen Scrivani]

Rachael, 

I am not sure if you could or could not do an injection if the need arose.  

I had a glucogen kit in the house, stored in the frig, and it expired last year. The plan was that if I ever needed it, my husband who is also totally blind, would use it on me. Since they are gotten by prescription and they don’t give out samples of them for trial/practice my husband never got to try it out.  So when my kit expired, we took it out and tried running through filling the syringe.  It was not easy for him.  As I recall there were 2 main problems.

First there was inserting the needle into the rubber stopper on the vial.  This was even with the old needle guides I have and used to use on my insulin vial.  They did not work and if I’m remembering correctly its because the vial was a slightly different size from the insulin vials I used them on.

Second, the plunger on the syringe was quite difficult to push down.  I seem to recall it taking a lot of force.  I’m not sure if this is because the kit got old, but it was not easy. 

I did get a fresh kit, but told my husband to just call 911 as fast as possible and give the kit to them if the need should ever arise.

Now because we could not work it out doesn’t mean you would not be able to.  Maybe you would have better luck or technique if you had to do it.  And, the way you mix is by injecting the solution that is pre-loaded in the syringe into the vial and then re-drawing it back up into the syringe.

Good luck.

Eileen

From: Rachel Krieg via Diabetes-talk 
Sent: Saturday, September 5, 2015 6:53 PM
To: Diabetes Talk for the Blind 
Cc: Rachel Krieg 
Subject: [Diabetes-talk] glucagon

Hi, all.

 

My husband Jeremy's endo wanted my family since they live in the area to be
able to learn to administer glucagon in the event he went low. However, they
refused. As someone who is totally blind, with no light perception, is it
possible for me to administer it to him? I know the type she wanted him to
use you had to mix it, and that could be difficult for someone who has no
vision whatsoever. Usually, if he drops and I can't get anything into him, I
wind up calling the paramedics which in this town wind up being the fire
department, unless they deem it necessary to transport him to the hospital
in which case they send an ambulance.

Rachel and Lady the lovable lab

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