Instead of fum­bling around with syringes and bot­tles of insulin, you can fum­ble around with an insulin pen. Just kid­ding. An insulin pen — some­times called a pen syringe, injec­tion pen or sim­ply, pen — can be a more accu­rate and con­ve­nient deliv­ery sys­tem of insulin into your bloodstream.

Pens are quite pop­u­lar among dia­bet­ics, being used exten­sively in most coun­tries — except for the United States, where vials and syringes are still the pre­ferred tools for insulin injec­tion. An insulin pen looks remark­ably like a writ­ing pen, only larger. It con­sists of a car­tridge, a teensy-tiny nee­dle and a dial that mea­sures the insulin dose. The insulin car­tridge may need to be replaced from time to time, while the pen nee­dles are entirely disposable.

Types of Insulin Pens

You have a vari­ety of options from the sev­eral man­u­fac­tur­ers of insulin pens. Pre-filled pens are usu­ally rec­om­mended for type 2 dia­bet­ics. This type of pen has a pre-mixed insulin dosage. These pens are dis­pos­able and require replace­ment once the insulin car­tridge is empty. The draw­back is that this type does not read­ily accom­mo­date adjust­ments to exer­cise and diet.

The other main type of pen is the durable pen. It makes use of replace­able insulin car­tridges which are dis­carded only after their con­tents are fully used. Once a new car­tridge is in place, the pen is ready for use again.

A rel­a­tively new addi­tion is the insulin pen with a built-in mem­ory. This lets you eas­ily record the time and date as well as the dose. Nice.

How to Use

Insulin pens are very easy to use. As well as their accu­racy and obvi­ous porta­bil­ity, pens may be even eas­ier than using a bot­tle and syringe. Once you get this sim­ple rou­tine down, you’ll see how easy it is.

The first step is to select a good injec­tion site. There are sev­eral can­di­dates includ­ing the abdom­i­nal area, thighs, but­tocks, the area of the back just above your waist, your leg or upper arm. When choos­ing a site for injec­tion, try to stay at least an inch away from the pre­vi­ous site and two inches away from your navel or any scars. Also be care­ful not to use areas that are swollen, bruised or tender.

Some peo­ple first clean the injec­tion site with an alco­hol pad or a cot­ton ball dabbed with alco­hol. I don’t do this. The alco­hol tends to make the injec­tion sting. I haven’t devel­oped any infec­tions from this omis­sion, but this is up to you — with your doctor’s knowl­edge, of course.

Then remove the cover from the pen and check how much insulin is left. Make sure the insulin is not cloudy or oth­er­wise unus­able. Now insert a dis­pos­able nee­dle into its place (see the indi­vid­ual instruc­tions for your pen). Once the nee­dle  is prop­erly set, clear out any air bub­blets in the pen. Hold the pen up in the air and press the end of the pen until a drop of insulin comes out. You might need to repeat this a cou­ple of times until you see a drop of insulin at the tip of the needle.

Set the amount of insulin you want to use. Pinch and hold the site where you will inject the insulin. Insert the nee­dle all the way and con­tinue pinch­ing the skin while you deliver the dose. Once you’re done, put the insulin pen cover back in its place.

Nice and quick and easy.

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