Storing Syringes

[pminty]

Hi All,

I was searching for this and couldn't seem to find the answer I was looking for, so if there is a post somewhere about this and I missed it I'm sorry about the redundancy. My question seems simple enough, but I wanted to be sure all the same.

After using a standard insulin syringe with needle, if you know that you're not going to be using it for an extended period of time (let's say a month), how should you clean it for storage? Should you use alcohol for the needle only? Fill the syringe with alcohol and use it to rinse it? Leave it full of alcohol?

As always, thanks for the help,

PMinty

 

[DoctorMolecule]

Hi All,

I was searching for this and couldn't seem to find the answer I was looking for, so if there is a post somewhere about this and I missed it I'm sorry about the redundancy. My question seems simple enough, but I wanted to be sure all the same.

After using a standard insulin syringe with needle, if you know that you're not going to be using it for an extended period of time (let's say a month), how should you clean it for storage? Should you use alcohol for the needle only? Fill the syringe with alcohol and use it to rinse it? Leave it full of alcohol?

As always, thanks for the help,

PMinty

First things first- don?t reuse needles. The needle gets blunted a lot faster than you think.
But if you absolutely have to reuse it, draw up rubbing alcohol and squirt it out a couple of times, then draw up clean water and squirt it out three or four times. Store in a cool dry place.
When you?re ready to reuse repeat the cleaning steps above. Make sure you draw up clean water and squirt it out many times to get rid of residual alcohol.

Again I want to really emphasize DONT REUSE NEEDLES!!!!

 

[falsifiedhypothesi]

If you use the needle so seldom why not just source a new one while you have some down time from it?

 

[Allure]

I don't recommend reusing insulin syringes. Not only does it become blunt very quickly (ouch! Especially with scar tissue)like but there's always a risk of contaminants, bacteria, etc that can linger that may cause some serious repercussions. But if you MUST, full strength household bleach. Draw it up, leave for 10 minutes (to ensure it kills everything potentially harmful to you) then rinse 3 or 4 times with warm water. Cap it tight.

BETTER HARM REDUCTION ADVICE: find out if there's a local needle exchange in your area. They give out your first pack for free, along with other harm reducing supplies. You bring 10 dirty ones back, they'll give you another 10, you bring 1000 back, they'll hand over 1000 more. Completely confidential, and no judgement. They simply care to reduce injury to oneself and others.