"This needle doesn't look right"

Last night was pretty much like any other night. I fixed dinner, dished up the pet's food, drew up Nadia's insulin, yada yada yada. Then it came time for my nightly PIO injection. I got out all of the goods: PIO vial, alcohol swabs, gauze pad, band-aids, and of course the syringe and the draw-up needle. And just like I've done a billion other times, I drew up the PIO and swapped needles for administration and I called Kevin over. I leaned over the kitchen counter as he sterilized the injection site, dried it off and was seconds from stabbing me when he paused and said "This needle doesn't look right."

Holy crap, he was right. I had put an enormous 18g needle on the syringe by accident instead of the smaller 22g. I must have grabbed the wrong one while zoning out on autopilot. It's hard to see the actual needle because it's covered in a cloudy, semi-opaque cap but I got careless and didn't check the label or the color base. Youch! I cringe just thinking about how bad that would have hurt! I came *this* close to getting stabbed with an inhumanly large needle!

I took some photos for comparison but I don't even think this picture does the reality justice.

18g is on left, 22g is on right. BIG difference!

Kevin even joked that he thought the small needle could even fit inside of the big needle. And guess what? He was right! It's that much of a difference in size.

After I was done playing around with the needles, I sat on a heating pad and thanked my lucky stars he caught it. Has anyone ever accidentally got an intramuscular injection with the draw-up needle? I can see how easily this could happen!