I just ordered a needle clipper but I’m hesitant about using it because you can only clip one side of the needle, not the other side (the part of the needle that goes into the pen). Is this not a big deal? Is it okay for me to clip the injection side of the needle and then just toss the rest in the trash can? I’ve worked in health care and I study health care policy and it just bothers me to think that someone could prick themselves and end up having to go through costly tests and lots of anxiety to make sure they’re in the clear from a needle I threw in the trashcan.
Alternatively, I’ve thought of carrying some kind of small thick container with me to keep used pen needles in until I get home, like an empty medicine bottle. Does anyone have any ideas of what I could carry? Something that would be small and maybe even cute? I don’t want to add yet another thing to carry around and crowd my backpack/purse so it needs to be small but not so small that it only fits a couple of pen needles.
I feel bad for the sanitation worker folks as well. I don’t use straight needles anymore and all the pump needles I have now are “safe”. I used to re-cap my insulin syringes. Clipped needles could fit in used test strip containers and those are thick plastic. The only really safe disposal that I can think of is in an actual sharps container.
I also use a pen for MDI and I bought a little coin-purse sized wet bag. It’s got several layers to it and you’d have to press pretty hard to try and get all that fabric into the cap to get poked. I have my pen and meter cases in a makeup bag thrown into my purse and extra pen needles plus this little bag, as well as the 10 count of the Dex4 tabs fit in it. When I get home I dump my little bag into my sharps container. Would something like that work?
I usually carry around an empty pill bottle, for me it is an ibuprofen bottle, I marked out where the bottle said ibuprofen and wrote used needles. I keep this bottle in my purse and empty it out once I get home. It seems to work well for me.
We carry around any kind of small container to keep them in. The small glucose tab containers work, or the pill bottles as someone suggested. Each day when we return home, we empty them into the container that we keep at home.
I put my pen needles in a zip lock bag(after recapping) that I keep with my supplies. Works even for week long trips. Then I toss into the sharps when I get home.