Friday, September 4, 2009

Attention, Please

I can be easily distracted. I admit this freely, and I think I may have even demonstrated this once or twice (okay, maybe three times) in my writing on this blog (my love of parentheses feeding this habit).

One would think, though, that in certain situations, my distractions would be limited and my focus would be 100 percent—say, upon jabbing a needle into my stomach. One would be wrong.

I’m standing in my kitchen, shooting up for the pizza that just arrived. I dial my Novolog pen for a large dose and insert the needle into my gut. Flish-flash and something on the television in my living room catches my eye. I look up and in some sort of instinctual linear movement, I lift my hand slightly as well. I look back down a split second later to see the needle hovering just above my body, insulin dripping from the tip. I check my stomach and see a slightly raised circle of skin—insulin that has pooled just beneath the surface instead of being fully injected into the fat region.

I hate when this happens. It looks creepy and it feels creepy. The first time I did it, I panicked for hours, thinking I had created some horrific medical disaster that could only end in severe trauma. I learned that the insulin eventually sinks in; it just takes a little bit longer.

I don’t panic anymore, but I do think it’s a little dumb on my part, possibly a lot dumb. It takes, what, five seconds to shoot insulin from the pen into my body? And I can’t stay with the task on hand for the full five? I can only handle two, maybe three seconds at best?

The only explanation I can offer is that it’s become so routine to shoot, I don’t think about the physical act of doing it as much as I used to. This is a good thing, in that shots have never been fun for me (are they for anyone?), so the fact that I don’t have to screw up courage to jab myself is a plus. This is a bad thing, in that it’s a waste of insulin, and the insulin that does make it to its destination isn’t absorbed as well as it should be.

What’s a girl to do? Well, other than turn the television off before I dial? Focus. (Folk us. Wee folk. Folk lore. Lore. Lora. Hey, that’s me.)

As always, more to come…

5 comments:

Crystal said...

Eh, it happens.
Distracted easily? Who? Me?
Never.

Happy Friday, Happy Labor Day!

phonelady said...

I totally know the feeling how about when you shoot too much due to being stupid and not looking at it first ? I know stupid on my part yeah .

Unknown said...

Because injecting is so second-nature now, I sometimes forget whether I've actually done it or not. Even if I've just injected a few moments before.

Often I'll find my self searching for that tell-tale drop blood or sore spot on my stomach. Sigh.

meanderings said...

Haven't done that... yet.
Thanks for the warning.

Jonah said...

The infamous intradermal injection! Although I occasionally do jerk my hand and take the needle out without intending to, it's more common that I accidentally shoot into the skin even with the needle all the way in- perhaps I need a longer length needle (maybe you do too). Oddly enough, these are hard to do on purpose- the nurses doing the TB tests often accidentally make the shot subQ.